School board member Keith Sutton wasn't happy last week at the apparent lack of diversity among the latest winners of the district's Employee Excellence awards.

Once a month, the school district honors employees, who've been nominated by their colleagues, at a school board meeting. Last week, 13 employees were recognized.

It was the first such ceremony for Sutton, who joined the board in August. After the ceremony ended and the employees left the room, Sutton said the winners did not appear to be a very diverse group.

While some of you guys want the new school board majority to get rid of Supt. Del Burns, it wouldn't be cheap or easy.

As noted in today's article, buying out Burns' contract would mean paying him 18 months of salary, or $409,500. The alternative is firing him with cause, which is essentially a trial that would be expensive as well.

School board member Ron Margiotta said he hopes Burns will stay on to implement the changes that will be made. He said he personally likes Burns.

Cathy Truitt fired bullets at the new school board members, the Wake County Republican Party and the Wake Schools Community Alliance as she announced her decision to concede the District 2 race.

Truitt warned that the new board majority will move toward resegregated schools by cutting magnet programs and sending students to "pure neighborhood schools." She said the public needs to speak out now to get the board to back off from making the quick changes she said they're planning.

"I don't think people want the school system to be blown up," Truitt said at her press conference. "If people get involved now, they can have an impact."

While there's been some talk about Ron Margiotta becoming the new school board chairman, it probably won't happen quite that soon.

Kevin Hill said he's planning to stay on as chairman until at least June when his term expires. He said he feels he can work with the new board members.

But what could happen is Margiotta being elected vice chairman in December when Horace Tart, who lost his reelection bid, leaves the board. The new vice chairman would sit in on board agenda meetings with Supt. Del Burns and in leadership meetings with the county commissioners.

School board candidate Cathy Truitt is revising her account of being asked if she'd support firing Supt. Del Burns.

Truitt had said on WPTF on Sept. 24 that school board member Ron Margiotta had asked her in a vetting interview if she'd support a motion to fire Burns. Truitt said Wednesday that she was asked that question but she's not sure if Margiotta was the questioner.

Truitt said that at several candidate vetting interviews she was asked the same question. The question was whether she would support firing Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney.

Voters heading into Tuesday's Wake County school board elections are getting wildly differing messages on the academic quality of the school system.

As noted in today's article, supporters of the diversity policy tout Wake's overall academic success while critics focus on the performance of the low-income students. A new SAS report that examines Wake's achievement gap could bolster the arguments of the critics of the diversity policy.

Here's the background:

School board candidate Cathy Truitt is standing by her assertion that board member Ron Margiotta asked her if she would support a motion to fire Wake Supt. Del Burns.

Truitt orginally made the statements during a Thursday school board candidate forum on WPTF, prompting Margiotta to call her remarks "an outright lie." But Truitt told N&O reporter Ray Martin that she has a witness.

Did school board member Ron Margiotta ask candidates if they'd support firing Supt. Del Burns?

That's an assertion made by Cathy Truitt during this afternoon's forum on WPTF for District 2 school board candidates. She said that Margiotta asked if she'd support a motion to fire the superintendent during a candidate vetting interview.

Contacted later, Margiotta called "it an outright lie" by Truitt.

In the age of H1N1 flu concerns, should high schools suspend policies that allow seniors with good attendance to skip some exams?

As noted in today's article by Anne Blythe, high schools typically reward seniors who have good attendance by allowing them to skip some final exams. For instance in some courses, a student with an "A" average in a class and less than three absences can skip that particular final exam.

But the attendance incentive can conflict with messages telling students not to come to school if they're feeling sick. 

Coincidentally, Supt. Del Burns has stressed the importance of good attendance in this and this recent Superintendent's Journal entries.

School leaders are still more than a little sensitive about accusations they're not using stimulus dollars more aggressively to save jobs.

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators repeatedly defended on Tuesday how Wake is using the stimulus dollars. School officials now say they're using stimulus dollars to save or create 558 positions although they weren't able to immediately break down how many were from each category.

"We’re using [stimulus dollars] exactly the way we were told to use them," said school board member Lori Millberg.