Should the Wake County school system move now to offset a $2.1 million cut in school instructional supplies or hold off to see if the money is needed to deal with other budget cuts?

As a quick refresher, the budget proposal adopted May 1 by the school board calls for cutting instructional supplies by $13.96 per student. That covers things like paper and pencils. With some board members balking at approving the budget, staff said they'd look for ways to mitigate the cuts.

The proposal presented by staff at Tuesday's board work session is to give schools an additional $2.1 million for supplies in this fiscal year. The cut for the 2012-13 fiscal year would still occur but this infusion of money would offset it.

There's still some bad blood between Republican school board members Deborah Prickett and Chris Malone over this month's school budget vote.

As noted in today's Eastern Wake News article by Paul A. Specht, Prickett took exception with the praise that Malone has gotten in Knightdale for having broken with Republicans to pass a budget request asking county commissioners for $8.8 million more.

On Thursday, Prickett emailed the people who spoke up for Malone in last week's Eastern Wake News article to say that she felt like those in Knightdale “didn’t understand the full story” and wanted to explain her vote. Among the people she copied the note to was Paul Coble, chairman of the board of commissioners.

What responsibility does the Wake County school system have in providing transportation to preassigned rising sixth- and ninth-graders who don't have bus service this fall?

As noted in today's article, the school board voted to direct staff to, when possible, modify existing bus routes to accommodate students or to offer them a spot at a school on their proximity list that would give them transportation.

But that motion stops short of guaranteeing bus service to their feeder school. And that motion only extends to students who are receiving bus service this year and would lose it this fall, not transfer students who now don't get bus service.

The Wake County school board approved new contracts tonight for school resource officers after staff said that they would seek to review this memorandum of understanding with law enforcement.

Russ Smith, Wake's senior director of security, said it was time to review the MOU because some of the police chiefs and Superintendent Tony Tata weren't here when it was previously adopted. Among the items Smith said would be reviewed are use of force and when SROs can file court petitions.

After his assurances, the deals with the Raleigh and Cary to provide officers for the 2012-13 school year were adopted.

During the discussion, board member Deborah Prickett said she was opposed to North Carolina being one of only two states that tried 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Other board members agreed with her.

The decision to allow all students in Wake County middle schools and high schools be eligible to participate in interscholastic sports led to some heated rhetoric from the school board.

Under this revised policy adopted two weeks ago, a student at a middle school or high school that doesn't have an interscholastic sports program will now be able to try out at another school designated by the district. The change affects two magnet middle schools, the early colleges, the alternative schools, Hilburn Drive Academy and the two new single-sex leadership academies.

The debate got so heated that school board member Deborah Prickett accused board member Jim Martin of opposing the policy because he personally disliked her, which he denied.  The rhetoric caused board member Christine Kushner and board chairman Kevin Hill to urge their colleagues to show more decorum.

It looks like there's support for at least partially returning to letter grades on report cards in Wake County elementary schools

The school board's student achievement committee voted today in favor of a section of this draft grading R&P calling for letter grades to be used on report cards in third-, fourth- and fifth-grades. The committee also told staff to use a 10-point grading scale for those grades with an A being 90 to 100, a B being to 80 and 89 and so on.

That's different from the seven-point grading scale used in middle school and high school. The committee discussed moving to a 10-point scale in middle school. They have to leave the seven-point scale in place for high school because that's mandated under state law.

Work will resume today on setting the ground work for a 2013 Wake County school construction bond issue.

The school board's facilities committee will continue discussion today on the draft capital planning issues that would frame the next construction program. The committee will also receive information on the process for determining needs for new schools.

One of the questions facing the school board and ultimately the county commissioners is whether to go for a referendum in spring or fall 2013.

A spring bond issue would have low voter turnout since nothing else is on the ballot but it would speed up when schools could be built. A fall bond issue would attract a larger turnout but could push the opening of new schools back by a year because of when the money would be available.

UPDATE

Today's meeting was cancelled becuase of a lack of a quorum.

School board members Susan Evans and Jim Martin attended the meeting. Evans said that Chris Malone, the committee chairman, called in sick. She said they waited until 4:30 p.m., 30 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start, to see if board member Deborah Prickett would arrive.

Should the Wake County school system guarantee bus service to all students who choose to stay on their current feeder pattern?

It's an issue in the new student assignment that the school board has been wrestling with for the past several months. The discussion got personal at times last week with board member Jim Martin, the most outspoken proponent of providing the bus service, taking shots from board members Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett.

For now, staff is continuing to review what bus service can be provided.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board member Deborah Pricket has dissed colleague Chris Malone in his run for the state House 35 seat.

Duane Cutlip announced today that Prickett was backing him, not Malone, for the Republican nomination for the state House seat. Cutlip called Prickett "a stalwart advocate for children and parents in Wake County."

"We are exceedingly proud to have her endorsement and good faith that Duane will make a great representative for us!" Cutlip added.

The Wake County school board came very close on Tuesday to not having adopted a budget request for the 2012-13 school year.

As noted in today's article, the 6-3 vote in favor the budget proposal was very much in doubt until the roll call vote. Every vote was needed because it took a two-thirds majority to waive a policy that limits Wake from using more than half its fund balance to balance the budget.

Signs of the budget being in trouble came early in the discussion when Democratic board members Kevin Hill and Jim Martin said they couldn't vote yes. They didn't feel that the requested $8.8 million increase from the Wake County Commissioners was enough in light of cuts in recent years.