Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, is mobilizing people to participate in the magnet school survey and to urge the Wake County school board to scrap the new student assignment plan.

In a Sunday blog post, Allison Backhouse posts a copy of a Saturday email that she obtained in which Brannon writes that they "NEED a lot of push as the next school board meeting (JUNE 5) to MAKE A NEW PLAN for 2013." Brannon suggests writing "a lot of" letters to the editor "asking for a directive that stops using the CHOICE proximity model and starts using a RESIDENCEY based assignment plan."

Brannon lists the names of other Great Schools leaders, Patty Williams, Amy Womble and Lynn Edmonds, whom she says can help edit the letters and try to get them published.

UPDATE

Backhouse had obtained the email after it was forwarded Sunday to the Coalition of  Concerned Citizens for African American Children. Here is the email that CCCAAC President Calla Wright sent today, Monday, saying they'll stop forwarding messages:

From: Calla Wright <ccaac_aacca@yahoo.com>
Subject: [CoalitionofConcernedCitizensforAfricanAmericanChildren] Sharing Email Stopped because of the confidential message
Date: May 21, 2012 5:23:34 PM EDT
To: coalitionofconcernedcitizensforafricanamericanchildren@yahoogroups.com
Cc: parentsfordiversity@yahoogroups.com, ybrannon@gmail.com

We have decided to limit the number of emails forwarded to this group because of the confidentail messages that are shared with others who support segregated/neighborhood schools.  It is necessary for us to reduce the number of emails sent and we have decided to only share public information.
Please share this message that all confidential emails will stop.

Is the key to meeting downtown Raleigh's school capacity needs to look to its past?

As noted in today's article, the Wake County school system is in preliminary talks about reacquiring and reopening the Thompson School and Crosby-Garfield School. Both schools, located in Southeast Raleigh near downtown, were declared surplus and turned over to the county a long time ago.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata said the new student assignment plan showed that they need to increase school capacity in and near downtown Raleigh.

Will the Wake County school board require changes in the way school resource officers operate in order for them to continue to patrol the district's high schools and middle schools?

The school board will vote today on these contracts with Raleigh and Cary to provide school resource officers for the 2012-13 school year. The vote comes amid lobbying efforts by several advocacy organizations to get the school system to cut back on the role of SROs, from what they're armed with to what interaction they can have with students on discipline issues.

In an email Monday to school board members, Jason Langberg of Advocates for Children Services wrote that approving the contracts "without more careful consideration of the >issue of SROs in WCPSS would be irresponsible, undemocratic, and arguably, a violation of multiple Board policies."

UPDATE/CORRECTION

Click here to view the email sent to board members on Monday. Corrected post to say letter from N.C. Juvenile Defender.

The school board voted 5-4 to table the Cary SRO contract. it went along party lines with the Democrats voting yes and the Republicans voting against tabling.

The board also voted to table the Raleigh SRO contract.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata will attempt to turn the focus today  to the school district's STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) program.

Tata is holding his weekly press briefing this morning at Southeast Raleigh High School, where it's expected that most of the questions from the media will be about the new student assignment plan and Peace University backing out of the leadership academies. But Tata is holding the event at Southeast Raleigh to highlight Saturday's first ever countywide STEM expo.

After the press conference, school administrators are encouraging reporters to remain at the school "for interviews and video/photo opportunities of STEM programs at work in the classroom."

Has the new Wake County student assignment plan discouraged businesses from coming to the area?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane caused a stir when she raised the issue during the joint meeting of the Wake County Mayors Association and the school board. McFarlane said she is starting to hear that some businesses have second thoughts about coming here.

Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and a backer of the new choice plan, said he was not aware of any company that has chosen not to relocate to Raleigh because of the school system. Schmitt said that McFarlane was, understandably, reacting to anxiety expressed by constituents in pockets of town where schools are in high demand and overcrowded.

Wake County school board members Deborah Prickett and Debra Goldman sounded off today about student assignment and the behavior of the public.

During her board member comments, Prickett said she felt she had to respond to today's "irresponsible" press release from "the small fringe group" Great Schools in Wake Coalition. She argued that GSIW's "Let's Find a Better Way" campaign failed to acknowledge that a catalyst for the new student assignment plan was how parents were fed up with the "archaic node assignment system."

"We’ve gone from a controlling do as I say system to families having a choice," Prickett said.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

With two days to go before the end of round 2, we've got two new development today in the Wake County student assignment story.

Wake announced that Jeffreys Grove Elementary will get a Spanish immersion program. Lincoln Heights Elementary, Weatherstone Elementary, East Cary Middle, and North Garner Middle will get STEM programs and Forestville Road Elementary will join the Global Schools Collaborative Network.

Also today, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition announced the start of its "Let's Find A Better Way" campaign. GSIW is calling for the development of a new student assignment plan which would essentially take the old node-based plan and address some of the more common complaints.

Here's the dolphin email exchange between Wake County school board member Susan Evans and the leadership of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition that was referenced in a recent Triangle Politics column.

For the backstory, Allison Backhouse forwarded to board members and staff a March 7 email that was sent to Evans, fellow school board member Christine Kushner and several GSIW leaders. One sentence included how an 8-year-old wrote that "a dolphin breaths through an a--hole on the top of its head."

Evans replied back via her personal email account that "I think TT may be a dolphin :)," referring to Superintendent Tony Tata.

Has the Wake County school system been transparent as Superintendent Tony Tata has repeatedly told the public?

As noted in today's article, critics of the plan accused Tata and school administrators of being deceptive in how they've pitched the plan to the public. Two areas they raised in particular are their charges that Wake didn't list the true seat availability in round one and that they haven't been open about the assignment algorithm.

"Liar, liar pants on fire,” said Amy Lee, a member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, during the public comment section of the school board meeting. “Mr. Tata, are your pants on fire? From the public’s perspective, your pants are on raging fire."

The spin from both supporters and critics of Wake County's new student assignment plan is well in progress.

As noted in today's article, critics like the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and some parents dispute Superintendent Tony Tata's assertions that the first round of the selection process was a success.

But Michael Alves, who is being paid by Wake to consult on the plan's implementation, and Wake Education Partnership Vice President Tim Simmons say the results are encouraging.