The Wake County school system will need a new person to help the school board decide on the future of the magnet school program.

David Ansbacher, senior director of magnet school programs, will be leaving to become a principal in Singapore. Since March, he has been a member of the student assignment task force.

Ansbacher's successor will have a myriad of issues to deal with, including recommending which three schools get magnet programs for the 2012-13 school year.

Should the Wake County school system steer parents of low-performing students into high performing schools if the blue plan is adopted?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata said they're still debating whether to make one of the two achievement choices that will be offered to families in low-performing areas the default choice. This would likely increase how many students are sent to those schools.

But there could be resistance to making the achievement choice the default. For instance, school board chairman Ron Margiotta said doing so would smack too much like the old diversity policy.

How far should Wake County go in the new long-term student assignment plan to balance academic achievement across schools?

As noted in today's article, the blue plan and green plan recommended by the student assignment task force don't go as far as the red plan and burgundy plan in terms of student achievement. Issues such as cost, proximity and stability knocked the red and burgundy plans out of the equation.

"We looked for the most feasible and acceptable models that are consistent with board policy 6200 and provided the best opportunities for achievement, stability and proximity,” said Superintendent Tony Tata.

James Overman, the senior director in charge of elementary school programs, has been tapped to lead the new task force charged with developing a student assignment plan for the Wake County school system.

Overman, a former Wake County Principal of the Year, was principal of East Garner and Creech Road elementary schools before moving to central office last year. He'll lead a team that includes five other administrators from Central Services.

The other task force members are Brad McMillen, a senior director in Evaluation and Research; David Ansbacher, senior director of Magnet Programs; Tamani Anderson Powell, a director in Magnet Programs; Susan Pullium, a director in Growth and Planning and Susan Andrews a senior administrator in Staff Development.

Will the Wake County school system have a better chance of contesting this year's rejected federal magnet grant application than it did six years ago?

As noted in today's article, school leaders are alleging reviewer error in asking the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider the application. Even if Wake doesn't get the $10.3 million, school officials want the feds to acknowledge that the reviewer acted inappropriately.

At least this year's application was reviewed. In 2004, it didn't get that far when a $7.5 million grant application was rejected without review because of an error in how it was put together.

Did the Wake County school system get a bum reviewer who cost the school district the $10.3 million in federal magnet school money?

The review of Wake's magnet application showed that two of the three reviewers gave the school district perfect scores on how it would promote desegregation. But a third reviewer repeatedly complained that Wake’s application didn’t adequately deal with gender issues, giving a much lower score than the other two reviewers.

The scores were used to announce last week which of the 97 applicants would receive up to $100 million this year in federal magnet school funding. No North Carolina school districts were among the 36 winners of a grant designed to pro mote desegregation of schools.

UPDATE

Click here for the online article.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta's proposal to look at converting magnet schools to a multi-track year-round calendar ran into some bumps on Tuesday.

During the student assignment committee meeting, committee chairman John Tedesco asked whether it might be less challenging to implement the year-round model with some of the magnet themes. For instance, he asked if it would be easier to implement year-round with the International Baccalaureate program than with the Gifted and Talented program.

David Ansbacher, senior director of magnet programs, answered that "it depends."

Magnet programs, academic achievement and regional assignment zones are among the items on today's Wake County school board student assignment committee agenda.

David Ansbacher, senior director for magnet programs, will present info on the magnet program. As noted earlier in the week, the magnet program will be impacted by how the board handles the return of more than 5,000 Southeast Raleigh kids back to the area.

David Holdzkom, assistant superintendent for evaluation and research, will present information comparing the academic performance of individual zones in the four sample maps.

Magnet school funding got a lot of attention at Tuesday's Wake County school board work session.

During the meeting, interim Superintendent Donna Hargens told the board that Wake got a one-year extension from the U.S. Education Department to finish using $1.3 million in unspent magnet school grant money. Wake is working through $8.5 million in grant money awarded in 2007.

Also Tuesday, the board reviewed how much money is spent on magnet schools.  For the 2009-10 school year, $17.3 million was appropriated.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

There's an interesting mix of Wake County school administrators who are hearing this year's student transfer appeals.

You've got people such as former principals David Ansbacher, Virginia Cardenas and Darryl Fisher and Assistant Superintendent David Holdzkom. You've also got people who've never worked in a school such as Marilyn Moody, senior director for child nutrition; Betty Parker, director of real estate services; and Greg Thomas, director of communications.

The mix is deliberate. Each two-member panel consists of one person with school experience and one person with no school experience.