Who makes the most money in the Wake County school system?

That's one of the questions that the Charlotte Observe looked at as part of a Sunday article on six-figures salaries in Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Wake had 99 employees making at least $100,000 with 60 of them being principals.

This compares to 103 Wake employees with six-figure salaries in 2010, 112 in 2009 and 99 in 2008.

Some Wake County school employees are expected to lose their cell phones as part of a cost-cutting measure.

During last week's school board work session, Chief Business Officer David Neter said staff is reviewing which employees need to keep their district-issued devices and which ones will be switched to cheaper ones. Currently, some get a traditional cell phone while others might get a Blackberry or a Direct Connect device.

Handouts presented last week show that Wake is paying for nearly 2,500 cell devices. (As was explained last week, don't interpret the Blackberry page to mean those people are getting both a Blackberry and a cell.)

If the Wake County school board does remove Del Burns earlier than June 30, someone needs to step in soon as interim superintendent.

As noted in Saturday's article, there's no obvious choice like a deputy superintendent to step in because Burns eliminated that position in 2006 when he converted it to the new slot of chief business officer.

While it's not a guarantee, three potential internal choices for interim superintendent could be Chief Area Superintendent Danny Barnes, Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens and Chief Business Officer David Neter. Of the trio, only Neter is a non-educator.

Danny  Barnes has been on the margins of America's pop republic for decades, both on his own and with his wonderfully odd group Bad Livers (whose 2000 album "Blood & Mood" might be the most marvelously twisted piece of work that Sugar Hill Records released during the years the label was based in Durham). Along the way, Barnes has learned a thing or two about how to balance the dual concerns of making a living as well as art -- and you can read his very practical take on it here.

The class-size waivers are now in the hands of the state Board of Education.

As noted in today's article, the school board voted Tuesday to request waivers for 329 K-3 classes at 66 elementary schools. School administrators are blaming the need for the waivers on the state budget problems.

"We’re not at a position we want to be in," Supt. Del Burns told board members. "We wish classes weren’t at this size. We’re still dealing with the impact of the economy.”

Enloe High School's bell schedule will change again and it could impact other schools in the process.

While the details are still being finalized, Enloe is expected to add another 10 minutes to the school day for the 2009-10 school year. This comes on top of the 10 minutes that the school board had agreed to add to Enloe's day as part of the districtwide bell schedule changes for this fall.

The new Enloe change creates additional transportation challenges.

Academically gifted students are going to take a hit in the new budget.

As noted in today's article, administrators listed some of the cuts that will be made that will have an impact on the district's brightest kids. Fewer kids will be able to go to academic competitions and schools will have less AG services than normal.

Staff repeatedly said they're only doing this because of the economic conditions.

Wake is back with more requests for state class-size waivers.

The school board voted on Tuesday to request waivers for 103 K-3 classrooms in 33 elementary schools. Whether the State Board of Education's reception is warmer this school year remains to be seen.

Last year, the state Board initially approved waivers for 114 classrooms. But later requests were rejected, forcing Wake to hire additional teachers to bring the class sizes down.

The school board filled a newly created area superintendent's spot on Tuesday.

Andre Smith will become the first area superintendent for Northeastern Wake. He's been principal of Wake Forest-Rolesville High School since 1997.

The board created the slot after it promoted Danny Barnes to lead area superintendent in May.