March 2 could be a memorable day for former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

In the morning, Margiotta will be in court as a potential witness in the case against the Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP, who was arrested on charges of disrupting school board meetings in 2010. In the evening, Margiotta will receive the Civitas Institute's inaugural Courage in Leadership Award.

"We need to respect politicians who do the right thing in the face of criticism and hostility," said Francis DeLuca, president of Civitas, about the conservative group's award to Margiotta.

Facing South, the online magazine for the liberal Institute for Southern Studies, is linking the anonymous flier attacking the five Democratic-backed Wake County school board candidates to religious activists who advocate that Christian parents pull their children from public schools.

Facing South makes the connection in this online article Thursday night by pointing out how the header for the flier matches the name and images used for the upcoming film "IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America." 

"We had no knowledge of the existence of this flier prior to the news report and have absolutely no idea who created it," responded Colin Gunn, the film's co-director, when contacted by the N&O today. "We did not give anyone permission to use our graphics and there has been no requests from any person to use our graphics.

Again, just to be clear, this flyer has nothing to do with our film, and nothing to do with anyone associated with our project."

There's been some fallout from a December 2009 poll on the Wake County school system that was conducted on behalf of the conservative Civitas Institute.

Facing South, the online magazine of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies, is reporting today that the Georgia pollster hired by Civitas has been fined $10,000 by the state. The pollster got in trouble for not identifying itself during the robocalls.

The problem for the firm, Rosetta Stone Communications, is that one of the people it called was Sue Sturgis, an editor for the magazine. She filed a complaint with the N.C. Department of Justice that led to the fine.

The poll, conducted shortly after the new board majority had taken office, had found opposition to mandatory year-round schools and the diversity policy.