Wake County school board member Chris Malone is touting what he's done for Eastern Wake in his bid to win the state House 35 seat.

One of the school board accomplishments that Malone points to on his campaign website is the nixing of the Forest Ridge High School site in Raleigh in favor of Rolesville High. While hotly debated at the time, Rolesville High is set to open in August 2013.

"Mr. Malone was elected in 2009 to the Wake County School Board, where he has been working to bring Community Schools and sorely needed programs and equitable treatment to Eastern Wake County," says Malone's website. "Amongst his efforts that were brought to pass were the Student Assignment program, the moving of a high school from Raleigh to Rolesville, and the opening of two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) schools."

Should the Wake County school board hold off on adopting the new student assignment plan on Tuesday?

As noted in today's article, the recent election results could mean a new Democratic majority would take office Dec. 6 whose members have raised concerns about the details of the current plan. If Republicans still maintain control, four new members would take office in less than two months.

School board vice chairman John Tedesco said he, board chairman Ron Margiotta and Superintendent Tony Tata agreed Wednesday to leave the vote on the plan on the Oct. 18 agenda. Tedesco said they need to follow Tata's timetable to have it ready for implementation in the 2012-13 school year.

The new Wake County school board members are saying their victories on Tuesday represent public frustration over the actions of the last two years by the board majority.

As noted in today's article, Jim Martin said that the five Democratic candidates offered tangible ideas for improving the school system while Republicans were throwing out soundbites and playing politics.

"The voters didn't want anymore partisanship," Martin said. "I've always said you can trust the educated voters."

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition may not officially be endorsing any Wake County school board candidates, but it's arguably come out with a last-minute attempt to try to sway voters.

In a press release today, GSIW contends that the school board majority has wasted taxpayers $113.5 million since December 2009. How much of the items on this GSIW list would be considered waste could be debated.

“For almost two years, the Board majority has exhibited a lack of fiscal responsibility to taxpayers with ill-conceived, hastily made decisions,” said GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon in the press release. "“When items are brought up for discussion by Board minority members who have repeatedly asked for supporting data, their reasonable requests are dismissed and multi-million dollar decisions are made without proper research, discussion of options, or the appropriate cost analysis.”

The Wake County school board will act today on, depending on your point of view, a major folly of the old board majority or the new board majority.

The school board is scheduled to vote today on declaring the abandoned Forest Ridge High School site as being surplus property. This would allow the school system to sell the property to recoup some of its costs.

The new board majority had directed that the site be sold after voting February 2010 to abandon Forest Ridge. But the issue got some impetus last month when staff left in its future building plans a proposal to still build an elementary school on the site.

UPDATE

The board voted 6-2 to declare the land surplus with Carolyn Morrison and Keith Sutton voting no.

Should a new high school on Green Level Church Road in Cary or on Humie Olive Road in Apex be built first?

As noted in today's article, that's an issue facing Wake County school board members deciding how to use nearly $100 milion in unspent bond money. The board could make the final call on Tuesday, which would also impact whether the district immediately starts work on a new elementary school in Wake Forest, a new elementary school in Wendell or a new middle school in northwest Raleigh.

As you guys may recall, staff had proposed in June two options for using bond savings and other cuts to fund some interim construction projects until the next bond issue goes forward.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta issued a call for help in this fall's elections during last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

Most of Margiotta's speech focused on the actions initiated by the board since December 2009. But Margiotta closed his speech by pointing to the stakes for this fall's school board elections when he will be running for re-election while also hoping to pick up at least one of the Democratic seats.

"I think it's important that we recognize that the campaign from those that will be out there again will be an attempt to return to the old practices of moving kids around for the sake of socioeconomic diversity," Margiotta said. "And we can not go back to those programs. It's important that we elect candidates that are committed and will stay with their commitments and remain committed and follow through with the programs we've been able to initiate."

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, is trying to defuse allegations that the accreditation agency has prejudged the Wake County school system and is trying to get the school board to restore the diversity policy.

In an interview Friday on "The Rick and Donna Martinez Show" on WPTF, Elgart said it's a "misnomer" that their review is all about the student assignment policy. He said he's not telling Wake how to assign students.

"I have made this clear to the school system: You have a right to assign students to attend schools in the manner in which you see is in the best interests of the community," Elgart said. "And we accredit more than 25,000 schools across this country and school systems have a myriad of ways in which they  assign students to schools and the dominant one we all know is neighborhood schools."

How well do you think the new and somewhat fractured majority on the Wake County school board performed this past school year?

As noted in today's article, this past year saw a lot of fire and brimstone on the issue of student assignment and school diversity. While the former majority members say they wish they could have done more, they're pleased overall with what they did accomplish on student assignment and other issues.

“We’ve been doing some good things," said school board member Chris Malone. "We’re moving forward. We’re trying to get student assignment worked out."

You can officially use the name of "Rolesville HIgh School" for Wake County's new high school opening on Rolesville and Quarry roads.

Staff had originally only planned to present the naming as an information item today but board members said there was no reason to wait. The board chose Rolesville High School over two other alternatives — Buffalo Creek High and Quarry Road High.

CORRECTION

No decision has been made yet whether Wake Forest-Rolesville High School will need to be renamed.