Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata isn't backing down from the concerns he's raised about the ties between the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and school board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner.

Tata issued a statement today warning that the two board members may have "potential serious code of ethics violations" because of their ties with Great Schools. He also alleges that Great Schools has a "stranglehold" on the board members.

Both board members told Tata in their email responses they're not currently involved with the group. But Tata charges they refused his requests to sever ties with Great Schools.

Should Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata have questioned new school board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner about their ties to the Great Schools in Wake Coalition?

As noted in today's article, Tata emailed both board members on Saturday questioning whether they were involved in Great School's Friday press release on the bell schedule changes and the new assignment plan. Tata repeatedly questioned their affiliation with a group that's been critical of him and staff.

In their response, Evans and Kushner denied any current involvement with Great Schools or the press release. They also accused Tata of making a public attack on them because the email message is a public record.

(The text of the email messages is later on in the post.)

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition's latest attempt to derail the new Wake County student assignment plan is to criticize it by attacking the proposed bell schedule changes unveiled by Superintendent Tony Tata.

In a press release today, GSIW writes that the "the latest proposal tied to the new assignment plan — a new busing system that significantly affects bell schedules—boasts a theoretical cost savings based on the old assignment plan, without demonstrating how it will offset the undocumented costs of the new." Tata has denied that the bell schedule changes are being caused by the assignment plan, something that GSIW evidently disbelieves.

"Superintendent Tata's actions continue to erode the public's trust," says GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon in the release. "The plan he rushed through is starting to show signs of real inadequacy, but rather than responding to the community's concerns in a comprehensive way, he is forging ahead. He presented the new transportation plan to the public as if it were a 'done deal' — despite the fact that the Board has yet to vote on it."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Wake County school board has a lot crammed on its agenda today, including student assignment, school bus routing, the math placement policy and selling the Noble Road property.

That doesn't include the other items that may crop op, such as revisiting the mediation issue with the school board protesters and extending Superintendent Tony Tata's contract.

Let's start with the work session agenda, where we'll see if the new Democratic board majority heeds calls from its supporters to change the student assignment plan. Staff will give an update on the plan.

Thursday night's community mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church dealt with the new Wake County student assignment plan, getting mediation for the school board protesters and assailing the conditions at Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, most the focus of the meeting led by the state NAACP and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition was on complaints about the assignment plan. The crowd of around 50 people, mainly supporters of the old diversity policy, were urged to contact school leaders to change the plan.

"If you let the plane fly in the air and you don’t make those course corrections that you feel need to be made in order to make it a more successful plan for all students so we have a fair and diverse and well-funded education for all students, then shame on us if we don’t advocate for the changes to make it happen," said Patty Williams of Great Schools in Wake.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The state NAACP and Great Schools in Wake Coalition are teaming up to host a "community mass meeting" on Thursday to discuss Wake County's new student assignment plan.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin St. in Raleigh. It comes after both groups had unsuccessfully urged the school board to delay implementation of the new plan by a year.

The meeting also comes after GSIW released a new fact sheet on feeder patterns on Thursday that levels several complaints about the new plan. Among the complaints is the charge that the plan's use of feeder patterns "are creating segregated schools."

"Middle schools including, Carnage and Durant Road, will likely become more segregated, poorer, and overall proficiency will decline dramatically," says the GSIW fact sheet. "Where there is concentrated poverty, recruiting and retaining teachers is difficult, and schools are costly to run. Racial segregation undermines student achievement and will not allow WCPSS to apply for federal funding for magnet and other programs, as we have in the past."

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition, which is the darling of area liberal groups, is getting another award tonight.

WakeUP Wake County is giving GSIW one of its 2011 Volunteer of the Year awards at tonight's annual meeting. Great Schools was formed by WakeUP Wake.

WakeUP Wake has been cheering about last fall's election takeover by the new Democratic school board majority. The group has taken credit for the change.

Allison Backhouse now has her own blog and her focus today is on AdvancED's  accreditation investigation of the Wake County school system.

Backhouse criticizes the "ridiculous complaint" by the Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP that led to the review. Noting the recent positive AdvancED report, she writes that the organization's concerns were addressed "due to the hard work of the previous Board and Supt. Tata."

"But, what has really changed – besides the political majority on the School Board?" Backhouse writes. "Are our high schools and their students better in some way? Even the Wake Education Partnership came to the conclusion that accreditation is just a public perception issue. We think it’s important only because we’ve been told it is."

A member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition is quoted in a article critical of school choice.

In an article originally published by Alternet, a liberal online newsmagazine, GSIW member Karey Harwood charges that school choice supporters are out to create a "divided society of winners and losers." The article, originally titled "5 Biggest Lies About the Right-Wing Corporate-Backed War on Our Schools" was reposted Tuesday by Salon.com for National School Choice Week.

"When they talk about choice, whose choices are they referring to?" Harwood says in the article. "Are the children of people who are savvy enough to get out of the public schools the only children who are worth educating in our society? What happens to the children who don’t get out?"

Here's a recap of today's press conference in which speakers urged the Wake County school board and DA's office to use mediation instead of trials for the protestors arrested at board meetings in 2010.
 
Speakers said seeking mediation would heal the community, save taxpayer money and not tie up court dockets. You also had speakers from the Great Schools in Wake Coalition who both called for mediation while simultaneously defending the new Democratic board majority.

“I’m here to encourage the school board to take up mediation instead of ripping us apart,” said the Rev. Duane Beck, co-chair of Congregations for Social Justice and pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church.