What's the proper balance between having Wake County school board meetings run efficiently and allowing individual members to get their concerns aired in public?

The school board's policy committee is forwarding along proposed changes to how meetings are run, including how information items can be requested and the minimum notice for bringing information to board members.

But school board member Debra Goldman is concerned that the changes could make it harder for board members to get information items added. She's also concerned that the changes in policy also don't provide a way for minority members to get action items added.

It's going to take another month before Wake County school board members begin exerting a say on controversial proposed grading changes such as dropping the use of extra credit and limiting the penalty for work handed in late.

The school board's policy committee was set to begin discussion Tuesday about what grading issues to move from R&P and into board policy. This would allow the board to cut back or potentially block staff from implementing some proposed changes.

The committee ran out of time and agreed to discuss the grading policy and R&P on Aug. 28. But there were again some sharp discussion between board members and staff about the grading changes.

Wake County school board agendas, transparency, board advisory councils and the grading policy are all among the agenda topics at today's policy committee meeting.

The committee will discuss this change to policy 1322 that would regulate how board members can add items such as resolutions and information items to regular meeting agendas. They'll also discuss this change to policy to 1321 saying that adequate data needs to be presented before any board action is requested.

The changes are the outgrowth of concerns from AdvancED about how the prior board majority was making decisions without data or public notice. The old board had approved the changes in November but second reading was never done by the new board.

Future plans for a ninth-grade center to control overcrowding at Panther Creek High School are back on hold again.

The Wake County school board voted last week to direct staff not to spend any additional money on design work to place modular units for Panther Creek's ninth-grade center on the M-16 campus. The vote was made possible because of the absence of two Democratic board members, giving Republicans a temporary majority.

Whether the Democratic majority will let that stand at next week's meeting remains to be seen. At least some GOP board members want to return to the original plan of leasing an office building on Pleasant Grove Church Road in Morrisvillle.

John Tedesco defended today his decision to run for state schools superintendent and potentially leave his Wake County school board seat early.

In today's edition of the Called2Action radio show, conservative talk show host Steve Noble and guest Steve Henion asked whether it's appropriate for elected officials to run for higher office and leave their terms early. Since Tedesco was one of the examples highlighted, he called in to explain his decision to run for superintendent.

Tedesco said he felt he could do more to serve children as superintendent than he could on the school board, especially now that he's in the minority. Tedesco said he'd work to find a school board replacement to run next year if he become superintendent or to run for reelection if he loses this year.

Nearly two years later, Wake County school board member John Tedesco is still facing fallout over having called fellow board member Debra Goldman a "prom queen" during a heated public exchange.

Richard Alexander's campaign has brought up the "prom queen" remark in its bid to defeat Tedesco in Tuesday's Republican Party runoff for state schools superintendent. The remark is an issue considering that Goldman is the GOP nominee for state auditor.

In addition to calling her a "prom queen," right after the Oct. 5, 2010 board vote in which Goldman killed the plan to divide Wake into assignment zones, Tedesco publicly told her that their their friendship was over. But Tedesco, who publicly apologized to Goldman, says they've patched things up and are friends again.

It looks like one consequence of Wake County's controlled-choice student assignment plan is that it's impacting the racial balance at schools

As noted in today's article, an analysis of projected kindergarten enrollment data for this fall indicates kindergarten classes at 23 schools will see their percentages of white students increase by at least 10 percentage points over the 2011-12 school year. Meanwhile, the proportion of black students at schools with predominantly minority kindergarten classes will rise as well, but not as sharply.

"There were no diversity guidelines,” said education consultant Michael Alves. “Pretty much what you are looking at is the result of parental preference.”

UPDATE

For those who are having trouble viewing the Excel files, I'm adding PDF links. Click here for the 2012-13 projected white kindergarten enrollments. Click here for the 2012-13 projected black kindergarten enrollments.

Funding for Wake County magnet schools is a volatile topic.

Supporters of the magnet program say the $12 million spent annually, which doesn't include transportation costs, is only 1 percent of the district's budget. Critics say that money could be used to help the non-magnet schools.

The issue flared up during the school board's magnet review session earlier this month.

The Wake Education Partnership is, to put it mildly, not happy with the Wake County school board's decision to change direction on the student assignment plan.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Steve Parrott, president of the WEP, said they were "extremely disappointed in the decision-making process used by the school board and frustrated by the absence of a collaborative approach." The WEP was heavily involved in the new choice plan, working directly with Michael Alves.

As for the board meeting Tuesday, Parrott writes that "late-night, partisan debate is not how a world-class organization would conduct its strategic work and is not representative of the skills and behaviors demanded from our students for college and career success."

UPDATE

I've reposted the WEP document as a PDF file.

Shortly before 1 a.m., the Wake County school board passed a modified student assignment directive that still calls for a move to a base school plan.

Democrats compromised by dropping wording in the original first paragraph that says it would convert from a choice-driven plan to an address-drive plan in 2013-14. The directive now says "begin developing a revised Wake County student assignment plan for the 2013-14 school year" without mentioning the base schools.

But the directive still includes wording in the last paragraph telling staff to propose "a multi-year address based student assignment plan." It also still calls for setting academic achievement targets and socioeconomic factors.

The vote was 5-4 along party lines with Democrats voting yes and Republicans voting no. Board member Debra Goldman said it could have been unanimous if they had used "may consider" instead of "shall include" in several areas.

Click here for the original version. Click here for the modified one.

UPDATE

Click here for the version of the story that was posted online after the vote.