Former Wake County Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope isn't pinning most of the blame for the 2011 loss of the GOP majority on the Wake County school board on Democrats.

Instead, as noted in today's article in the Wilmington Star-News, "Pope says the Republicans lost the majority mainly because of intraparty discord among members of the board." Pope, now running for state Republican Party chairman, says he's hoping this kind of discord won't repeat itself at the statewide level.

The article doesn't go into detail on what the discord might be. But things you could point to include the fighting between Debra Goldman and her fellow Republican school board members.

In what's become a perennial issue on school bond issues, Wake County commissioners have questions about why school renovation projects cost so much money.

During last week's joint meeting, Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, asked why this school district needs list. includes an $82.4 million renovation for Fuquay-Varina High School. He also asked why they're proposing more renovations for Cary High School at $37.6 million and at Enloe High School for $30.9 million.

Bryan noted that the proposed cost for Fuquay-Varina's renovation is more than the cost for building Rolesville High and the new West Apex High.

UPDATE

I've corrected the link in the post to view the presentation from school staff on the district's facility needs.

The Wake County school board voted 6-2 this afternoon to appoint Bill Fletcher to fill the District 9 vacancy, replacing Debra Goldman.

Fletcher got the votes of all six Democratic members. Board chairman Keith Sutton said he was impressed by Fletcher's 12 years of experience on the board and his support for avoiding high concentrations of poverty in schools.

None of the two Republican board members backed Fletcher. Deborah Prickett voted for Jim Pomernaz, a Democrat, and John Tedesco voted for Lois Nixon, who is unaffiliated.

Tedesco said the Democratic majority picked a "token Republican." Tedesco said Nixon, who has opposed the board on several issues, was more of a moderate who would move Wake forward while Fletcher would move Wake backwards.

It's time today for the Wake County school board to go back to having nine members.

The school board will interview six applicants for the District 9 seat formerly held by Debra Goldman, A seventh applicant, William Ingerslew, has withdrawn his application, according to school board chairman Keith Sutton.

The remaining field consists of Nancy Caggia, Bill Fletcher, Linda Gunter, Anna Johnson, Lois Nixon and Jim Pomeranz.

The level of distrust between members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and Superintendent Tony Tata during his final month on the job was high.

As noted in today's article, the release this week of more than 3,400 pages of emails from Aug. 1 through Sept. 25 showed repeated board allegations that staff was trying to undermine them. Democratic board members also tried to distance themselves from the bus problems and the complaints about the release of the draft student assignment plan.

“I hate to seem suspicious, but at this time I am left with little other than to conclude that some on staff are trying to undermine the Board by creating mass confusion in the community,” school board member Jim Martin wrote in a Sept. 22 reply to Ellen Nightingale on the draft plan. “This is unacceptable.”

It doesn't look like the Wake County school system will be officially releasing today the names of the applicants who filed for the District 9 school board vacancy before the 5 p.m. deadline.

As far as I know, at least four people have indicated they would file. You've got Nancy Caggia, Bill Fletcher, Linda Gunter and Lois Nixon. If there's anyone else, we'll have to see.

The school board search process is supposed to be by law a fully open process.

During her goodbye appearance Tuesday, Debra Goldman urged her former colleagues to pick a replacement for her who had similar views on issues. That's probably not going to happen, at least when it comes to assignment issues.

Nancy Caggia, a long-time school system volunteer, says she filed today for the District 9 vacancy on the Wake County school board.

In an interview with Andrew Kenney of the Cary News, Caggia and her supporters pointed to her years of experience in education. She also has endorsements from a bipartisan trio of Cary Town Council members — Gale Adcock, Don Frantz and Jennifer Robinson, according to Frantz.

“I’ve had 14 years of volunteering, from the trenches to the state level,” said Caggia, 53.

I'm still waiting on the Wake County school system to officially announce who made the application deadline, but Linda Gunter says she filed today for the District 9 school board seat.

In this press release, Gunter says that she "has devoted her entire career to the advancement of North Carolina’s public school children." Gunter is a Democratic Party activist and a lobbyist for the N.C. Association of Educators who was a former state Senator and a Cary HIgh School teacher for 30 years.

“Education is my life and I have given everything I have to it as a teacher, a parent of two Wake County Public School graduates, a legislator, and in my professional life,” said Gunter in the press release. “I know what it is like to be a parent, and now grandparent, who wants the best education for my children. I also know what it is like to be a career teacher and to shoulder that awesome responsibility.”

Former candidate Lois Nixon says she wants to fill the District 9 vacancy on the Wake County school board.

Nixon, who lost to Debra Goldman for the seat in 2009, told Andrew Kenney of the Cary News that she’s focused on finding compromise in the school board’s meeting room.

“I would like to turn down the heat a bit, if I can help to do that,” Nixon said.

Here are some letters that got overrun by other issues.