School board chairman Ron Margiotta is promoting how "a bi-partisan group of Wake County leaders are speaking out in support of (his) leadership of the Wake County Public School System."

In a press release today, Margiotta says the statements show that he "is being recognized and commended for his commitment to Wake County schools as well as his continued focus on raising achievement for each student." Some of the names are who'd you expect, such as Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly, Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears, Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams, Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and County Commissioners, Joe Bryan, Paul Coble and Tony Gurley.

But would you expect a statement from Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen? Killen spoke at the Friends of Diversity press conference just before the 2009 school board elections. He's also a member of the same law firm as Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker.

“Chairman Margiotta has taken an active interest in Knightdale schools, and I appreciate all of the time and effort he has devoted to understanding and improving the schools in our area," Killen says in the press release.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison says she's not endorsing school board chairman Ron Margiotta in his re-election bid even though she appeared at his campaign kickoff event.

Morrison said she attended Margiotta's July 18 event as a sign of respect to the board's longest serving member. She said he respected how he persevered as a member of the board's minority for several years.

But Morrison said she's not planning on endorsing Margiotta, his District 8 opponent Susan Evans or any other candidate in this fall's races. She said she might change her mind if there are run-off contests.

All of the final pre-election campaign finance reports are in now and they show that the four Republican candidates for Wake County commissioner have raised more than their Democratic opponents.

Republicans got $48,000 from Art Pope and his family and $31,000 from political action committees for realtors and homebuilders. They also got thousands of dollars from individuals involved in both fields.

Democrats got $13,000 from Jim Goodmon and his wife. Democrats didn't get anywhere close to the Republicans in terms of PAC money. But they did a lot  of individual smaller donations from people who've opposed the school board's elimination of the diversity policy.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker is trying to enlist other Wake County mayors as part of his ongoing efforts to put the student assignment process under the microscope.

As noted in today's online article by Sadia Latifi and Ray Martin, Meeker has been contacting other mayors to form a committee to review whether the new plan that's being developed "“complies with state statutory and constitutional standards." This special committee would consist of mayors and "high level" residents of each town who have educational or legal experience.

“Our goal is to get an objective group, to get good advice and see if it’s a good plan or bad plan that needs some changes,” said Meeker, a sharp critic of the new board majority and husband of school board minority member Anne McLaurin.

A political battle is looming over the Wake County school board wanting to buy the land off Rolesville and Quarry roads for the new Rolesville High School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk and Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker are leading the effort to get the commissioners to reject the land purchase. They want the school board to go back to the Forest Ridge High site.

Norwalk is calling the abandonment of Forest Ridge for the Rolesville site a case of rewarding people who support the new majority's ideology. (He's talking about Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and school board member Chris Malone and not the owner of the site being purchased, St. Lawrence Homes.)

It was a busy night for the Wake County school board once the protester were arrested.

I'll go into more detail in another post about the 5-4 votes to allow the board to hire a non-educator to be superintendent and to hire Heidrick & Sruggles to be the search firm.

This post will focus on the board's decision to drop membership from the N.C. School Boards Association and to buy land for a new high school in Rolesville to replace the Forest Ridge site.

CORRECTION

The new high school site is not one of the ones proposed by Frank Eagles. It's across the street from one of the sites he proposed.

The site in Rolesville for a new high school hasn't been acquired yet, but it looks like a name is already in place.

The Wake County school board's facilities committee unanimously recommended today that the new school planned in town be called Rolesville High School. The recommendation comes a week after the board voted to scrap the Forest Ridge High site in favor of looking at a pair of alternatives suggested by Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles.

Staff has been told to look at a property on Louisbury Road near U.S. 401 and another on Rolesvile Road near Quarry Road.

Forest Ridge High is now dead as a Wake County school site.

The school board voted 5-4 tonight to abandon Forest Ridge and direct staff to pursue two alternatives in Rolesville proposed by Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles. The new majority wasn't deterred by warnings from staff it could cost an additional $15.4 million to switch sites.

There's a healthy dose of skepticism among members of the Wake County school board majority to the idea that abandoning Forest Ridge High would cost $15.5 million.

As noted in today's article, administrators said switching sites now would push the opening back form 2012 to 2014. This two-year delay would lead to $10 million in classroom trailer costs, $4 million in inflated construction costs and $1.5 million in redesign work.

Unlike the old board, new board members are taking the staff info with more reservations.

At the first meeting today of the new Wake County school board facilities committee, members voted to recommend abandoning the Forest Ridge High School site in favor of looking at two alternatives in Rolesville.

But the committee recommendation, which could be voted on by the full board next week, came after staff warned that it could cost $15.5 million more to abandon Forest Ridge. You can expect to hear that number a lot before the board votes on the recommendation.

The biggest chunk, $10 million, is estimated to come from acquiring additional classroom trailers to deal with overcrowding caused by delaying the school. It's estimated that scrapping Forest Ridge for a new site would push the opening of the school back two years to 2014.