The Wake County school board will deal today with another consequence of abandoning the Forest Ridge High School site in favor of Rolesville High School.

During the work session, school administrators will propose that Wake Forest-Rolesville High School be renamed Wake Forest High School because Rolesville High is opening in August. There's a price tag for the change.

According to this handout, it would cost $20,000 to change the name of the sign in front of Wake Forest-Rolesville and to change the sign in the main gym. But the big price tag is the estimated $100,000 in new uniforms for the high school to reflect the name change.

UPDATE

School board members indicated they'd support renaming Wake Forest-Rolesville High and Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle at the April 9 meeting. The discussion was mixed on West Apex HIgh with several board members said they'd like Friendship High. But at staff's urging, they'll see what the Apex Town Council does tonight.

Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles took some jabs at Wake County school board member Chris Malone in endorsing Lori Millberg for the state House 35 seat.

In this Monday press release from Millberg announcing endorsements of current and former area mayors, Eagles says that "unlike her opponent, Chris Malone, Lori has served our community with integrity and honesty."

Millberg, Malone's predecessor on the school board, is the Democratic nominee for the House 35 seat. Malone is the Republican nominee for the seat.

Future plans for a ninth-grade center to control overcrowding at Panther Creek High School are back on hold again.

The Wake County school board voted last week to direct staff not to spend any additional money on design work to place modular units for Panther Creek's ninth-grade center on the M-16 campus. The vote was made possible because of the absence of two Democratic board members, giving Republicans a temporary majority.

Whether the Democratic majority will let that stand at next week's meeting remains to be seen. At least some GOP board members want to return to the original plan of leasing an office building on Pleasant Grove Church Road in Morrisvillle.

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."