Amy Lee, one of the most outspoken members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, was appointed to a Wake County school board advisory council on Tuesday.

Lee, a North Raleigh magnet school parent, was appointed to school board vice chairman Keith Sutton's District 4 BAC. She's listed as the representative from Hunter Elementary School and also is a parent at Ligon Middle School.

Lee has provided some of the most memorable GSIW comments at school board meetings and other venues over the past few years. Here are some of them:

The Wake County student assignment fight is becoming part of the last-minute fight in the battle over state schools superintendent

As noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, Wake County school board member John Tedesco sent out this controversial email Monday to supporters that includes some claims that incumbent June Atkinson says are false. The most contentious is Tedesco's charge, which Atkinson denies, that she's "using your public funds to pay groups like Rev. Barber's NAACP to work for her campaign."

But this post will focus more on the student assignment fight, including referencing back to the Oct. 15 candidate forum sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County.

Two separate online petitions have been created urging that Debra Goldman and Chris Malone be removed or resign from the Wake County school board because of the allegations they had a romantic relationship.

This petition says that both should be removed because their actions "call their character and capability of acting in the best interest of the students of Wake County." The General Assembly would need to pass a law to allow for any school board members in Wake to be recalled.

This other petition accuses the duo of violating the school board code of ethics, including the section saying board members should "take no private action that will compromise the Board or administration." The petition asks them to voluntarily resign.

Political consultant Perry Woods is demanding that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman retract statements she made to Cary police in 2010 suggesting that he broke into her car during a 2009 appearance at the studios of WPTF.

In this letter dated today, Woods' attorney, Jack Nichols, demands Goldman write an apology and issue a retraction for all the "defamatory statements" in the police report because they are "false and slanderous." Nichols warns that unless the apology and retraction are published by Nov. 1 they may file a lawsuit against Goldman.

In an interview Monday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Woods denied he had anything to do with the break in of Goldman's car. LuMaye said Woods was in the studio during the whole debate and "would never" break into a person's car.

It's not every day that one elected official accuses another of potentially committing a felony and then both tell police about their relationship.

As noted in today's article, a Cary police report shows that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman reported in June 2010 that $130,000 was stolen from her home and that she named board member Chris Malone as a potential suspect.

Malone was able to satisfy investigators that he didn't commit the burglary. In the process, both board members gave conflicting statements about whether they had a romantic relationship.

Among the names appointed to a Wake County school board advisory council on Tuesday was the familiar one of Ellen Nightingale.

School board member Jim Martin tapped Nightingale to serve on his District 5 board advisory council as the rep for Conn Elementary School. Nightingale was a vocal public critic of the choice plan, speaking to media outlets and appearing at board meetings.

Nightingale had complained that although she lives in the Mordecai neighborhood near downtown Raleigh, she and several neighbors weren't able to get their kids into kindergarten after the first choice round.

CORRECTION/UPDATE

Nightingale says she lives in Oakwood, which is near Mordecai and that Conn is her closest school. Nightingale says that, despite being on Yevonne Brannon's email list, she's not a member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association now wants AdvancED to investigate the firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

WCTA announced today it had amended its original complaint against the school system to include the firing of Tata, which it says has left Wake "leaderless." The complaint also faults the board's Democratic majority for holding the discussion in closed session and not allowing a public hearing before the vote.

"This firing was shocking and has had an extremely negative impact on our community and our schools," said WCTA in the amended complaint. "It has become even more clear since the filing of our original complaint, that the majority members of the Wake County Board of Education are under undue influence of the partisan group, Great Schools in Wake (GSIW)."

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is continuing his efforts to justify the board majority's firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Hill met Friday with N&O editors and reporters to list out issues such as concerns about Tata's relationship with board members and staff and his handling of taxpayer dollars. Some of it's similar to what he said at Tuesday's board meeting but he went into more detail.

Hill also went into how he wants to handle the superintendent's search and the timing of the next school bond issue.

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter to the editor from Kevin Hill that will appear in Tuesday's paper in response to Tata's point of view column.

Officially, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition has been silent about the firing last week of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

But individually, GSIW members have been writing letters to the editor praising the Democratic school board majority's decision to fire Tata. Click here, here and here for examples of letters to the editor written by GSIW members such as Karey Harwood, Sharon Eckard, Swain Wood, Heather Koons and Adrienne Lumpkin.

One piece was written by GSIW member Jason Langberg, an attorney for Advocates for Children's Services. His piece appeared Friday on the website of Parents Across America, a national group that supports diversity and opposes the expansion of high-stakes testing and charter schools.

UPDATE

Swain Wood says he's not a member of Great Schools. He's on Yevonne Brannon's email action list and is the husband of GSIW activist Karey Harwood. He worked on board member Susan Evans' campaign last fall and was the lead attorney in the Open Meetings lawsuit filed against the school board in 2010.

Democratic members of the Wake County school board were under the gun Tuesday to justify their decision to fire Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Democratic members got far more explicit about their reasons for firing Tata than they did last week. At the same time, members of the audience and the Republican board members ripped into the board majority for its decision.

School board chairman Kevin Hill set the tone for the Democratic response during his opening comments.