The Wake County school board's finance committee will still meet Wednesday even though the policy officially restoring it hasn't been passed yet.

The committee meeting had been added to this week's schedule in anticipation of the board giving final adoption today to a policy to restore the standing committees. The board couldn't agree on adoption tonight during a tortured and at times confusing discussion.

Based on the need for the finance committee to meet, the board agreed to give a special waiver for finance to meet tomorrow. The committee will meet to discuss the latest budget news.

I meant to blog about this much sooner. but it's worth noting that two Wake County school board members have taken advantage of the change in policy to revamp their board advisory councils.

Board members Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett have removed some BAC members before the expiration of their terms in order to replace them with new people. In May, the board changed the policy that had previously meant that BAC members served until the end of their terms, which could run up to three years.

Under the new policy, all BAC members require reinstatement once new board members are sworn into office.

Next year's Wake County student reassignment plan is a work in progress with everything approved by the old school board under review with new suggestions coming in all the time.

During Tuesday's work session, Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, laid out to the board an explanation of the assignments being considered and the direction they're leaning toward. It will help to have your copy of the handout present.

The ensuing discussion showed how the thinking has changed to reflect the new student assignment policy. Multiple times, Evans talked about bringing students home, having them attend their neighborhood schools and moving the least number possible for stability.

Is Wake County school board member Kevin Hill's proposed consensus-building approach to student assignment "gobbledygook" or an important step to coming up with a new plan?

As noted in today's article, board members couldn't agree Tuesday on whether to follow Hill's approach so they're going to address it again at next Tuesday's work session. There's still a wide split on the matter with board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman not coming down on either side of the proposal to indicate what might be the outcome.

During the talk, GOP school board members called Hill's proposal a stall tactic. After the work session, board member Chris Malone called it "gobbledygook."

After some bickering, the Wake County school board agreed today to defer any action on board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to student assignment.

The board will discuss the proposal in more detail at next Tuesday's work session. If it's anything like today, you can expect more cases of board members talking over another and trading barbs.

Hill argued that the the board needs to hold an extensive set of discussions with the community, determine financial costs and define the terms they’ll use before beginning work on a new plan.

The forum Thursday at Lacy Elementary School's PTA meeting produced more than a few highlights.

You had, as previously noted, school board members Ron Margiotta and Deborah Prickett objecting to the use of student achievement in the Alves plan. You had a somewhat modified version of the presentation on the Alves plan from what was given last week to the Garner Chamber of Commerce.

You had Dana Cope questioning Tim Simmons about the Alves plan and objecting to board member Carolyn Morrison's vote this year against returning the Lacy nodes from Stough Elementary.

Wake County school board members Ron Margiotta and Deborah Prickett both said tonight they oppose the use of student achievement as a factor in Michael Alves' controlled-choice student assignment plan.

Both board members were unexpected guests at tonight's Lacy Elementary School PTA forum on student assignment in which Wake Education Partnership Vice President Tim Simmons gave details on the plan that Alves is developing.

Margiotta, the board chairman, said he's willing to look at the Alves plan and that he likes how it's using proximity, stability and choice as guiding principles. But he equated the plan's use of student achievement as a "quota," similar to the use of socioeconomic diversity that the board dropped from the student assignment policy this year.

While it looks like the Wake County school board has narrowed down the list of candidates for superintendent, today's election results could impact the process.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta said they're still taking more applications for superintendent. One potential source for new candidates, he said, could be people looking for new jobs across the country after today's election results.

Still, board members are saying they're thrilled by the candidates they looked at Monday.

It looks like we can forget about calling them the Wake County school board majority for now.

As noted in today's article, four of the five members of the old Republican majority say the recent actions by board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman mean the coalition is dead when it comes to student assignment. They say that it will take next year's elections to bring about a new majority to implement community-based schools.

“Right now those who believe in forced busing and socioeconomic engineering have found a new ally,” said board member John Tedesco.

Wake County school board members will be out and about at different community events this evening.

The most media attention will likely be placed on the forum that board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman will hold at Cary Town Hall at 6:30 p.m. to hear residents talk about student assignment. Board member Deborah Prickett, who got into a heated exchange with Goldman last week, said she'll also attend.

There's word that board chairman Ron Margiotta may also be in the audience to hear Goldman tonight.