In what's becoming more of a regular occurrence, the four new Wake County school board members will be the guests of honor at tonight's Wake County Taxpayers Association meeting.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Barbecue Lodge, 4600 Capital Boulevard in Raleigh. In an e-mail message to members, WCTA President Russell Capps said the new board members "will be sharing their assessments and thoughts on what's happening with the new Board."

Is the third time a charm for ending mandatory year-round assignments?

By a 5-4 vote, the Wake County school board has amended today's agenda to include a resolution calling for the end of MYR in 2010-11. The board backed away from similar resolutions at the last two meetings.

Here's the wording of the resolution introduced by Deborah Prickett:

The new Wake County school board majority has fast-tracked plans for the parental survey which should now make it possible to use the data to make calendar changes for the 2010-11 school year.

During today's work session, the board agreed to modify the parental survey. They'll now do an online only survey of parents of all K-12 students.

While the dates are still being finalized for the survey, it will be conducted this month. Most parents will get the survey sent home with their children. Parents of Track 4 students who are out now will get them in the mail.

UPDATED POST TO INCLUDE DETAILS ON DEADLINE FOR SURVEY AND NOTIFICATION TO PARENTS

Wake County school board candidates Deborah Prickett and Horace Tart are the first ones to file their year-end campaign finance reports.

Tart's final report shows he spent $12,306.98 during his unsuccessful bid for a second term on the board. Toward the end of the campaign, he got $150 from school board member Anne McLaurin and $150 from former Raleigh Mayor Smedes York.

The report shows Tart paid $700 to the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association's political action committee to be his poll workers on Election Day.

What's the possibility that the new Wake County school board majority would still unconvert some schools for 2010-11?

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, some parents haven't given up hope that the board will switch both Leesville Road elementary and middle schools to a traditional calendar next year.

"We still feel we'd be a great guinea pig for mandatory year-round reversal next year," said Lisa Boneham, founder of Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents, in the artlcle.

Time did not seem to be on the new Wake County school board majority's side when it came to ending mandatory year-round schools in 2010-11.

As noted in today's article, the timetable set by staff to get back the parental surveys came too close for the board's comfort. Plus, staff raised concerns at this late date being able to guarantee where every student would go to for a traditional-calendar school if they didn't want to go to a year-round school.

As a result, the new board members withdrew the motion to begin ending mandatory year-round schools in 2010 and to halt plans to open new schools on mandatory year-round pending completion of the parental survey.

The scope of the Wake County school calendar survey is being scaled back.

Instead of surveying parents of all 140,000 students as agreed to on Dec. 1, only parents of current elementary and middle school students will be contacted. School board members pointed out that only elementary and middle schools would be impacted if calendar changes are made.

The costs could have been $40,000 higher to also survey parents if high school students.

The end to mandatory year-round schools is moving forward, albeit slower than originally expected by the new Wake County school board majority.

The new board introduced a resolution Tuesday that initially called for the end of all mandatory year-round assignments effective for the 2010-11 school year. What was ultimately adopted is a resolution calling for data collection on year-round schools and a survey of parents that could lead to calendar conversions.

Here's the original resolution. Follow along for the changes.

The new school board members have now taken their seats.

All four new members made brief speeches after being sworn in. Deborah Prickett singled out the Wake County Republican Party and the Wake Schools Community Alliance for their support during the campaign.

“This was a non-partisan race but as you know this became fairly political,” Prickett said. “I want to thank (Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope) and the Wake County Republican Party for stepping up to the plate. It shows they’re totally for families and children in this county.”

You might want to show up early for today's school board meeting.

Some 200 people are expected to watch in person the four new board members get sworn in. Plus, you've got a lot of people who may show up at the public comment section.

All this will occur while most of the people in the Administration building are still at work. Parking spots will be at a premium.