Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker says he's organizing people for a potential lawsuit against the Wake County school board for eliminating the socioeconomic diversity.

Meeker told members of the East Raleigh Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday that he’s trying to enlist people to sue if they feel the school board’s new student assignment plan violates state constitutional law. The board hopes to approve the new community zone plan by the end of next year.

The state NAACP has also threatened to sue the school board on similar grounds.

UPDATE

Click here for the online article. Go to the article for a link to watch Meeker's talk at the CAC meeting. I'm having technical problems posting the video link on the blog.

In another pair of 5-4 votes, the Wake County school board majority got the firm it wanted tonight for the superintendent search and gave initial approval to dropping requirements that the new schools chief be an educator.

The board hired Heidrick & Struggles to do the search at $82,500 plus expenses. It was the most expensive of the four firms that were interviewed by the board's superintendent search committee.

Hazard Young, Attea & Associates, who had been suggested by the minority members as an alternative to Heidrick & Struggles, offered to do it for $35,000. They also wanted $4,500 for consultant expenses.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR HANDOUTS FROM TUESDAY'S MEETING

The Wake County school system could become the only school district in the state to not be a member of the N.C. School Boards Association.

At today's committee of the whole meeting, the school board will discuss whether to keep Wake's membership in the NCSBA, the National School Boards Association, NSBA's Council of Urban Boards of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

At issue for members of the new board majority are the membership costs for the groups, particularly for the NCSBA. School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said Wake pays more than $40,000 a year combined to be a member of the NCSBA and NSBA.

UPDATE

Clarified to indicate the $40,000 figure would reflect the combined cost of being a member of NCSBA and NSBA. It's $26,415 to join NCSBA and $14,000 to join NSBA.

Staff had planned to renew the memberships because the money is already in the proposed budget. But the board now plans to add to today's agenda a vote on  remaining members of those groups. Whether the vote will be to stay or go remains to be seen.

It looks like Ron Margiotta will remain the chairman of the Wake County school board meeting after today's vote.

But will Margiotta run unopposed or face opposition from a member of the minority faction?

Margiotta would appear to be safe because he's got the backing of the other four majority members. Vice chairwoman Debra Goldman, who some minority members hoped might defect, said Monday the board needs to retain its current leadership.

UPDATE

Throughout Margiotta's speech, the crowd would say no or boo anything that praised the majority.

Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman is publicly sharing her displeasure at staff for not getting the information she's asked about on the budget.

In a post on her blog today, Goldman said she hasn't gotten the answers she's asked for since January about the budget. Much of her post focuses on the district's 3,600 cell phones and Blackberries but she also complains about "many instances" of staff asking the board to approve things at the last minute.

"Where are the details to the spending that I have requested ad nauseam since early this year?" Goldman writes.

It looks like Tharrington Smith will still be the Wake County school board's lawyer after Tuesday and, barring a coup, Ron Margiotta will remain the board chairman.

Tuesday marks the annual meeting held in June when the school board traditionally picks a chair, vice chair and board attorney for the upcoming year. The new majority decided not wait so they deposed Kevin Hill on Dec. 1 and replaced him with Margiotta.

Margiotta said he plans to stay on as chairman to continue the work begun by the new majority. Margiotta will stay on as chairman for the next year as long as the five-member majority sticks together.

Members of Wake County's school board majority wants to leave their options  open in case they make any student assignment changes for the 2011-12 school year.

Laura Evans, senior director of Growth & Planning, had asked for a change in board policy to move up the deadline for annual adoption of the student assignment plan from May 1 to March 1. Evans said this year's April 6  adoption had made things "very difficult" for her office.

But Debra Goldman, chairwoman of the board's policy committee, said at Wednesday's meeting she won't recommend moving up the date. She said she didn't want to limit the student assignment committee from being able to make changes for the 2011-12 school year.

The Wake County school board would make a statement if it chose a non-educator to become superintendent.

As noted in today's article, policy revisions recommended by the school board's policy committee would take advantage of changes adopted by the General Assembly in 2001 to allow non-educators to become superintendents. But few school districts in the state have taken advantage of the change.

Guilford County Superintendent Maurice Green was about the only non-educator to come to mind for people. Green was Charlotte-Mecklenburg's in-house lawyer and later deputy superintendent before becoming superintendent.

The Wake County school board is paving the way for it to be able to abandon the requirements it conduct an internal search first for superintendent and that the new hire have education experience.

The board's policy committee recommended today eliminating wording in policy that says they need to conduct an internal search before going with a national search. They also recommended dropping the requirement that the new superintendent have had three years experience in school work over the past 10 years to be hired.

Debra Goldman, chairwoman of the policy committee, said the changes shouldn't be interpreted as meaning they're not considering internal applicants or that they want a non-educator. She said the changes would give Wake the broadest possible field of candidates.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Wake County school board's superintendent search committee has backed hiring Chicago-based Heidrick & Struggles to help conduct the search for a new search.

Heidrick & Struggles was backed Monday night over three cheaper firms. Heidrick is offering to do the search for $82,500 plus expenses while the N.C. School Boards Association was the cheapest at $15,000 plus expenses.

Debra Goldman, chairwoman of the board's superintendent search committee, said they were impressed by Heidrick & Struggles' expertise. Heidrick has been involved in superintendent searches such as Houston and Philadelphia.