Barring any last-minute changes next week, it looks like the new year-round calendar option for Lynn Road Elementary base families will be Wakefield Elementary.

But the discussion on the issue during Tuesday's Wake County school board student assignment work session raises issues about the role year-round calendar options should play in the district. Should Wake continue to not offer year-round options that are considered more attractive than the base school?

The discussion also raised the prospect that the school system may at some point convert Wakefield Elementary back to a traditional calendar.

The Wake County school board gave preliminary approval today to some changes to the 2013-14 student assignment plan.

Board members said they're listening to parents as they dropped some proposed node changes and changes in calendar options. The Durant Trails and Bedford residents who had been lobbying for changes should be happy.

The changes are:

SEE UPDATE AND CORRECTION AT END OF POST

Student assignment, early release days and the election of a new chair are among the things that the Wake County school board will deal with today.

During the work session, the board will discuss potential changes to the 2013-14 assignment plan. You could hear discussion on, among other things, letting the Durant Trails families keep Durant Road elementary and middle schools as their year-round options.

Also during the work session, the board will discuss whether to hold the six early release days per student in the 2013-14 school year on Fridays or to move them to Wednesdays.

After the work session, the board will hold its organizational meeting to elect a chair and vice chair. It's expected that Keith Sutton will be elected chairman.

It may not officially be called a "reassignment" by the Wake County school system, but you'd have a hard time telling that to the parents who attended Wednesday's public hearing on the assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, the largest contingent of speakers at the hearing were from the Durant Trails community. They were complaining about proposed changes in their year-round school options.

The majority of the speakers Wednesday were complaining about things that aren't counted in the 1,479 student assignment number in the plan. In addition to changes in calendar options, you've got changes in the feeders from what was in the choice plan.

How hard will it be for Wake County's new choice-based student assignment plan to fill new schools, especially ones opening in modular campuses?

As noted in this Dec. 23 North Raleigh News article by Chelsea Kellner, Wake school officials don't anticipate it being a problem. But others aren't as certain.

For instance, will parents choose the new Abbots Creek Elementary opening this summer at the modular campus next to East Millbrook Middle School? How likely are they to choose Abbots Creek considering that funding for the permanent location, adjacent to the North Wake Landfill, is from a bond issue that hasn't been scheduled yet?

Poverty levels are up across the Wake County school system this year with additional schools having more than half of the students receiving federally subsidized lunches.

In this week's issue of In Context, the e-newsletter of the Wake Education Partnership, the WEP reports that the districtwide F&R percentage this school year is 32.4 percent. That's up from 31.2 percent the prior year.

The WEP, using these figures from the school system, also notes that 31 of Wake's 163 schools now have more than half of the students receiving subsidized lunches. That compares to 25 schools the prior year.

Tuesday's discussion about Fox Road Elementary highlights the challenges and limits that the current assignment policy faces in Wake.

For those who don't want to read the whole post, I'll run off some of the main points from Tuesday's facilities committee meeting. Staff is reviewing the draw areas for magnet and year-round schools, which could affect where current and future application students will go.

For diversity reasons, some magnet schools were deliberately left with empty seats this school year. For diversity reasons, an effort to encourage more low-income students to apply for year-round schools may have backfired, at least at Fox Road Elementary.

Wake has announced its finalists for principal and assistant principal of the year.

The Principal of the Year finalists are Mary Page of Bugg Elementary, Annice Williams of Barwell Elementary, Teresa Winstead of Durant Road Elementary, John Wall of North Garner Middle and Edward McFarland of Fuquay-Varina High.

The Assistant Principal of the Year finalists are Melissa Blackmon of Willow Springs Elementary, Lisa Brown of Leesville Road Elementary, Edna Fay Jones of Forest Pines Elementary, Christopher Coby of Wendell Middle and Robert Matheson of Apex High.