There's no question this election cycle about conservative businessman Art Pope's direct financial involvement in the Wake County school board elections.

Campaign finance reports filed last week by school board candidate Donna Williams showed she had raised $22,456.33. That includes $4,000 from Pope, $4,000 from his wife and $4,000 from conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

Pope's role in the 2009 school board elections has been hotly debated. Pope has repeatedly pointed to how he only gave money to the Wake County Republican Party in 2009 and not to any individual school board candidates.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is promoting a new campaign website that includes statements from supporters.

In a press release today, Margiotta's campaign said the new www.isupportron.com site was created "in reaction to the strong support he has received from citizens throughout Wake County." You can send an email to ronmargiotta@gmail.com if you want to submit your own statement in support.

The website includes written and video statements from a variety of people, including several elected officials. For instance, state Sen. Neal Hunt says he supports Margiotta in his District 8 run because "we need education, not diversity."

A new video from a liberal group is accusing the conservative Koch brothers of having bought the Wake County school board elections in 2009 in an attempt to resegregate the school system.

The 11-minute video, released today by Brave New Films founded by Robert Greenwald, is part of a series of films attacking the Koch brothers. For this film, a variety of local supporters of the old diversity policy go on to blame the Koch brothers for the 2009 election results and ignore the notion that there was any large grassroots support for the changes.

"In 2009, the Koch brothers tried the destroy the Wake County Public School system," says a blurb flashed on the screen.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR RESPONSE FROM DALLAS WOODHOUSE AND FOR A LINK FOR AN INTERVIEW ROBERT GREENWALD GAVE TO MSNBC ON MONDAY ABOUT THE FILM

Should a student's grade be based on how well he does on exams or should it also reflect factors such as work habits and classroom behavior?

As noted in today's article, Wake County school board members had some fundament disagreements over whether to adopt the revised grading policy that would put a focus on mastery of material as opposed to "behavior."

School board vice chairman John Tedesco was the most outspoken in favor of the changes during Tuesday's discussion while board chairman Ron Margiotta was the most vocal dissenter.

A partial return to letter grades in elementary school and a discussion of revising how grades are issued in middle school and high school will form part of today's Wake County school board discussion.

As noted in today's article, staff will present to the board a number of changes they want to make in a draft R&P on grading policies. It would go along with revisions they want the board to make to the grading policy.

The secondary school changes would mirror efforts begun in 2001 at elementary schools to separate out what could be considered classroom behavior from the academic grades. But the changes may be going too far for some parents and board members.

Wake County school board members Chris Malone and Deborah Prickett will be the guest speakers at tonight's monthly meeting of the Wake County Taxpayers Association.

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Barbecue Lodge, 4600 Capital Blvd. in Raleigh. But you're asked to come at 5:30 p.m. if you want time to order your food and get seated.

The agenda is also supposed to include a speaker who will provide an update on happenings at the state legislature.

Members of the school board majority have been frequently invited to speak at WCTA meetings.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo has raised $12,749.55 in her bid to oust incumbent Kevin Hill from his District 3 seat.

In her latest report filed today, Losurdo's biggest donor is Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley, who gave her $4,000. Other notable donors include Wake County Commissioners Chairman Paul Coble, state Rep. Marilyn Avila, school board member Deborah Prickett and state Sen. Neal Hunt's campaign committee.

Click here, here and here to view the various sections of Losurdo's new report.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison says she's not endorsing school board chairman Ron Margiotta in his re-election bid even though she appeared at his campaign kickoff event.

Morrison said she attended Margiotta's July 18 event as a sign of respect to the board's longest serving member. She said he respected how he persevered as a member of the board's minority for several years.

But Morrison said she's not planning on endorsing Margiotta, his District 8 opponent Susan Evans or any other candidate in this fall's races. She said she might change her mind if there are run-off contests.

The latest round of campaign finance reports show that Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and school board hopeful Jim Martin are off to a good financial start.

According to a report filed July 15, Margiotta reported having raised $8,985 in his bid to win re-election in District 8. His biggest donor at $4,000 was Dr. James Fulghum III, a member of the John Locke Foundation board of directors and a frequent contributor to Republican causes.

Margiotta's next largest donors were retired CPA Harry Eberly at $1,745 and lobbyist/former state GOP House member Connie Wilson at $500.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR INFO ON JIM MARTIN'S DONORS

For some practical reasons, Wake County isn't close to implementing a districtwide pay-for-performance model for teachers.

Wake Superintendent Tony Tata laid out the limitations for districtwide teacher merit pay at last month's school board retreat. Tata said the problem is that EVAAS, which is being used to evaluate teachers statewide, only covers 19 percent of Wake's teachers.

"It's really an insufficient tool for us to evaluate the performance of our teachers," Tata said of EVAAS. "That doesn't mean it can't be made to be a sufficient tool, but if we are looking at,,,moving to some kind of pay for performance model, perhaps in the future, we either need to enhance EVAAS so that it captures all our teachers or we need another method to do this."