Speaking of Wake County school board advisory councils, don't be surprised if you see some turnover, especially in District 8.

Hank Dickson submitted his resignation letter last week as District 8 BAC co-chair and representative for Holly Springs High. In the letter to new school board member Susan Evans, Dickson alludes to Evans' involvement with protesters who disrupted school board meetings.

"My appreciation of proper conduct and decorum during open meetings makes my continued service on your BAC very difficult," Dickson, a former Holly Springs Town Councilman, writes in the letter. "I regret that I must submit my resignation for both positions."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

More to come later, but the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board exerted its muscle today by electing Keith Sutton as vice chairman.

The vote ends John Tedesco's tenure as vice chair six months earlier than it was supposed to finish. But the 2009 decision by Republicans to replace Kevin Hill early as board chair set the precedent for today.

During the vice chair's vote, Sutton got five votes. Debra Goldman got three votes. Deborah Prickett got one vote. I'll check the ballots later.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

More to come later but the Wake County school board tabled the adoption of the math placement policy and approved the cap on Walnut Creek Elementary School.

Republican board member Deborah Prickett joined the four Democrats in voting the table the vote on the math policy on a 5-3 vote. Staff said they were uncertain how the new core curriculum standards would impact the math policy.

The vote on the cap was unanimous. New students who move into Walnut Creek's base will be sent to Creech Road Elementary until the school's enrollment drops below 862 students. It's now at 929 students.

UPDATE

During the discussion, Ruth Steidinger, senior director for middle school programs, said the R&P for the math policy would have to be revised because of the new core curriculum standards. One question was whether EVAAS would even still be used under the common core.

Democratic board member Keith Sutton said it would be irresponsible to adopt the policy when the R&P will have to be revised. After the meeting, Prickett said she voted to table the policy because of the concerns about how it would be impacted by the common core.

Assuming the questions are answered, it will be up to the new Democratic majority to decide whether to proceed with the policy. It's worth noting that the crowd, which included the new members and their supporters, applauded when the motion to table the policy passed.

Cash Michaels is speculating on Debra Goldman becoming the new Wake County school board vice chairwoman and lists three actions that he says the new Democratic majority must do.

In this week's issue of The Carolinian, Michaels writes that the new majority must revise the student assignment plan "to ensure that no more high poverty schools are created, and that low performing students have access to high performing schools." He also says the new majority will "also have to prioritize the removal of several acts by the current GOP board."

"First, they must cancel any contract the board has with the conservative Civitas Institute, the right-wing think tank funded by conservative activist Art Pope that was hired to train new Wake School Board members," Michaels writes. "Their services are clearly not needed now."

Was Tuesday's adoption of a new Wake County student assignment plan the culmination of years of study and discussion or a rushed decision?

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators defended the vote as being necessary to avoid delaying implementation of the plan. But critics, particularly during the public comment section, urged the board to hold off adoption until the newly elected members have their say on the plan.

"The voters spoke," said Robert Hyman. "You lost the election. In effect, the chair of this board has been fired. You owe it to the new board to discuss it with them before you completely lose your moral authority and your legitimacy.”

By a 6-2 vote, the Wake County school board has approved tonight the new student assignment plan.

“While the plan isn’t perfect, it’s a major step in the right direction,” said school board chairman Ron Margiotta. “There will no longer be assignments based on socioeconomics and race. Parents’ cries for stability have been answered.”

Republican board members Debra Goldman, Chris Malone, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco and Democrats Anne McLaurin, Carolyn Morrison voted for the plan. Democratic board members Kevin Hill and Keith Sutton voted no.  Sutton had unsuccessfully suggested delaying the vote by 30 days.

Hill cited the lack of seats specifically set aside at high-performing schools for students applying from low-performing areas for his vote.

“I can’t negotiate on the issue of student achievement,” Hill said.

UPDATE

Click here to view the student assignment resolution approved tonight.

Click here to read the remarks from Superintendent Tony Tata.

Click here to view the adopted feeder patterns.

It's the self-described "principled principal" running against three challengers who all think they can do a better job of representing District 3 on the Wake County school board.

As noted in today's article, school board member Kevin Hill is emphasizing his education background in his re-election bid. With the departure of Carolyn Morrison in December, Hill says he would potentially be the only board member left with experience as a teacher and principal.

"As a Board of Education, it's important to have some perspectives from an educator with both my experience as a teacher and principal," Hill said.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is blasting the decision to convert Hilburn Elementary to a K-8 campus and the creation of two single-sex leadership school as "foreshadowing future chaos for Wake County residents."

In a press release today, GSIW says it's "deeply concerned over recent decisions by the Wake County Board of Education to use expensive and poorly analyzed reconfigurations of several school buildings as a means of repairing problems of its own making." It also says the decisions "highlight the Board’s willingness to rush important decisions without obtaining adequate input from the community or studying the facts."

The group blames the Hilburn decision on school board member Deborah Prickett's efforts to convert Leesville Road Middle back to a traditional calendar. GSIW questions the costs of the conversion, placing kindergartners and eighth-graders in the same building and whether enough families will choose the school.

The first of the 35-day pre-election campaign finance reports is now in and  it looks like Wake County school board candidate Cynthia Matson is still far behind Jim Martin financially in District 5.

The new report from Matson shows that she had raised $6,027.10 as of Aug. 30 with $3,112.20 on hand. Martin's 35-day report isn't in yet but he had already raised $11,245.21 as of June 30 with $10,967.56 at hand.

It's likely that Martin's new report will show an even wider funding disparity between him and Matson.

Wake County school board member Deborah Prickett could, in essence, become the state's school board member of the year.

The Wake school board is scheduled to vote today on naming Prickett as the district's nominee for the N.C. School Boards Association's Raleigh Dingman award. if Prickett won the statewide award, she'd serve as an ex-officio member of the State Board of Education. She'd represent NCSBA and the 115 local school boards.

Wake is citing Prickett’s "close connection with the State Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction" in the nomination. She is a DPI education consultant working in the federal program monitoring section.

The only reason Prickett would be eligible is that Wake rejoined the NCSBA this year after a one-year hiatus. There would be some irony in a Wake school board member representing the NCSBA.

UPDATE

Hill said he normally wouldn't oppose nominating Pricket. But he said he didn't think it was appropriate to nominate anyone this year considering how they had only recently rejoined the NCSBA.