As expected, the Wake County school board approved the revised student assignment policy tonight.

There wasn't much discussion tonight, in contrast to the first reading, before the 7-2 vote in favor of the revision. Board members Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco were the lone dissenters.

Prickett and Tedesco raised concerns about the inclusion in policy of the goals of minimizing concentrations of low-income and low-performing students at schools.

"I still think the idea of busing students for test scores is a problem,” Tedesco said. “The devil is in the details.”

Is the Wake County school system's new Office of Equity and Diversity needed to address equity issues in the district?

During the budget discussion Tuesday, school board member Tom Benton argued that the new office is needed to bring focus on the "many, many equity issues" in the district. But school board member Deborah Prickett questioned the need for the office, saying it was a "last-minute sort of addition."

The board spent a lot of time at the April 23 budget work session talking about creating the Office of Equity and Diversity. The board directed staff to figure out a way to add it to the budget.

The revised student assignment policy drew some widely differing reaction Tuesday between the Wake County school board majority and minority board member Deborah Prickett.

As noted in today's article, policy supporters praised the revised policy with its balancing of student achievement, stability, proximity and operational efficiency as something "that anybody in this country would be proud of."

But Prickett charged it was a policy aimed at low-income and low-performing students that would move them out of their neighborhoods and wouldn't really help them succeed academically.

Here's a quick recap of today's Wake County school board meeting.

The board voted 7-1 to approve on first reading the revised student assignment policy. Board member Deborah Prickett was the lone dissenter. John Tedesco was absent tonight.

The board also voted, apparently unanimously, to approve a budget request asking for an $8.3 million increase from the county. Prickett questioned creating the Office of Equity and Diversity.

The board also gave initial thumbs up approval to a revised $940 million list of school bond projects. Staff was able to come up with money to fund more renovations, particularly in Garner, by making some cuts, using projected proceeds from sale of school properties and using $43 million in school bonds being issued by the county.

As expected, the Wake County school board voted 7-2 tonight to pass a resolution supporting keeping the current election districts.

The vote comes a day after the state Senate passed Senate Bill 325. Democrats in the state House will likely point to the school board's resolution as they try to block the bill's final passage.

During the debate, board member Deborah Prickett referenced this 2011 Wake Ed blog post in which Susan Evans and Jim Martin both criticized the current election lines before they were elected to the board.

You've got a role reversal taking place about the 2011 redistricting map that were adopted by the Wake County school board.

The school board is expected to pass on April 23 a resolution endorsing the current election boundaries. It's one way of how the board is opposing Senate Bill 325, which would change when and how Wake school board members are elected.

What you're likely going to see, based on last week's board discussion, is that the resolution will be supported by board members who either voted against the 2011 map or who criticized it at the time. You'll probably see board members who voted for the map in 2011 not backing this new resolution.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill is no longer a registered Democrat.

Hill is officially listed on State Board of Elections records as unaffiliated. According to the Wake County Board of Elections, Hill submitted the change in November and it went into effect in January.

Hill said Tuesday he made the change because he felt he needed to model the remarks he has made about the school board being non-partisan.

Is Senate Bill 325 essentially a second try for Republicans to hold a majority on the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, the stated main purpose of the new legislation is to give individual Wake County voters the ability to elect a second school board member. But the bill also lets state Republican lawmakers rewrite the boundaries for Wake's school board districts.

This comes after the redistricting plan approved by the former Republican school board majority in 2011 didn't turn out as some thought that it would in ensuring GOP control of the state's largest school district.

Is S325 the final version of what will be passed legislatively for changes in Wake County school board elections?

As noted in today's article, the bill would only let voters pick two of nine board seats instead of the five out of nine requested by Wake County Commissioners. Voters would pick the one for their district and in the half-county district they'd now also be located in.

But the bill, which was filed Wednesday on the last day for local bills in the Senate, could be revised before things are done.

UPDATE

Census records show that the bill would put John Tedesco in the same district as Tom Benton and Kevin Hill. This means District 1 would include parts of Garner, Zebulon and the watershed area in Northeast Wake

The Wake County school board voted 6-2 this afternoon to appoint Bill Fletcher to fill the District 9 vacancy, replacing Debra Goldman.

Fletcher got the votes of all six Democratic members. Board chairman Keith Sutton said he was impressed by Fletcher's 12 years of experience on the board and his support for avoiding high concentrations of poverty in schools.

None of the two Republican board members backed Fletcher. Deborah Prickett voted for Jim Pomernaz, a Democrat, and John Tedesco voted for Lois Nixon, who is unaffiliated.

Tedesco said the Democratic majority picked a "token Republican." Tedesco said Nixon, who has opposed the board on several issues, was more of a moderate who would move Wake forward while Fletcher would move Wake backwards.