You can take a glass is half empty or half full view of Wake County student assignment in the short term.

As noted in today's article, the good news for families in the immediate future is that the 2013-14 plan is expected to have relatively few reassignments. But it's very much a transitional plan with a new plan to be developed for the 2014-15 school year that's likely to include a lot more reassignments for things such as promoting balance in student achievement and socioeconomic diversity.

"We were looking at trying to give the staff and the parents a respite so we could have the larger discussion that it seems like we’re trying to have right now, that we could have the larger discussion to put together a sustainable assignment plan," said board chairman Kevin Hill.

After a week of tearing into each other, Wake County school board members finally found something they could agree on Thursday night.

As noted in today's article, Republican and Democratic board members unanimously agreed to scrap the 2013-14 draft assignment maps in favor of going to the 2011-12 base maps. The fact they were agreeing drew several mentions and jokes at the board table.

The change occurred when board member Jim Martin interrupted the discussion of how the draft maps would affect the percentages of low-income students next year.

UPDATE

The 2011-12 base address lookup feature is still up. Click here to view.

If you don't remember what the pre-choice plan maps looked like in 2011-12, click here to refresh your memory. The link puts you on Wake's school directory page. Pick a school and then click on its assignment tab. Under the assignment tab you'll find a link to a PDF map for the 2011-12 base assignment area.

If you live near Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle, Richland Creek Elementary's permanent campus off US 1 in Wake Forest near the Franklin County line or Abbott Creek Elementary's permanent campus near the North Wake Landfill you can expect you might be added to their base areas.

Also, if you live in Panther Creek High's base look for change as you're reassigned to Green Hope High since they're not using a standalone ninth-grade center for PCHS.

The board agreed with the stay where you start rules proposed in the draft plan so you'd be able to grandfather if you're an existing student.

No one in the Wake County school system is thrilled with the options but by the end of the day there should be a plan in place to deal with short-term overcrowding at Panther Creek High School.

Of the four options on the table, staff will recommend today that the school board approve a plan to install two additional modular units at Panther Creek and three at Green Hope High School. The projected cost is $6,944,600, which includes an assumed offsite budget of $1.5 million.

This option is being recommended over other more expensive options that would call for a standalone ninth-grade center. But while the modulars are cheaper, it means the loss of some athletic fields and mean fewer students would be able to attend the popular Panther Creek.

UPDATE

The school board unanimously approved the staff recommendation to put the modulars at Panther Creek and Green Hope high schools.

What seemed to influence several board members is that Panther Creek Principal Rodney Nelson and Green Hope Principal James Hedrick backed the option.

Click here for the link for today's handout.

The good folks at NCRunners.com have crunched all of this year's cross country numbers and came out with top-10 rankings for every championship class in both genders.

In the interest of having you visit NCRunners.com and supporting that site, we won't tell you who is ranked where. But we will list below the area teams that made each ranking and provide links to each of NCRunners' full rankings.

Green Hope senior Ashley Williams, a starter in every game for the Falcons in her career, has committed to N.C. State as a preferred walk-on for next season. Green Hope is 87-6 in Williams' three years, and she led the state in assists (7.0) last season.

More to come later, but Wake County school administrators laid out today these four options for dealing with crowding at Panther Creek High School in Cary, three of which would still result in a ninth-grade center.

Two of the options are new but one to lease the former Kmart at SW Maynard and Kildaire Farm roads seemed to pretty much get the least support from the board. This option would cost $16.5 million, not the $9.9 million in the handout, and would be ready in August.

The other new option would be to scrap a standalone ninth-grade center and instead place more classroom modular units at Panther Creek and Green hope high schools, splitting the future PCHS students onto both campuses.

Green Hope has announced Lauren Nosal as its new swimming coach. Nosal replaces coach Richard Wesendunk.

Former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is being praised for showing "what conservatives accomplished for Wake schools" in the latest issue of Civitas Review.

The magazine article published by the conservative Civitas Institute praises Margiotta and the former Republican school board majority for various accomplishments in their two-year tenure. The list includes raising the graduation rate, passing the new choice-based student assignment plan, increasing minority placement in Algebra I, lowering student suspensions and not laying off teachers.

"Liberals and their allies like to stereotype conservatives as penny-pinchers who don’t care about students," writes Civitas President Francis DeLuca, the author of the article. "But Ron Margiotta and his conservative allies showed how false that image is."

Green Hope boys' soccer, the defending 4A state champions, have tabbed former RailHawks assistant and professional soccer veteran Richard Huxford as its next head coach.

Huxford, who as an assistant coach for the RailHawks during the 2009 season, played for professional teams in England and Scotland from 1992-2007, per his Wikipedia page.

The native Scot earned a degree as a sports scientist in 2008, which also interested Green Hope athletics director Wayne Bragg.

Wells Fargo, along with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, today announced the final standings in the Wells Fargo Cup competitions for the 2011-12 academic year.

It was nearly a Triangle sweep. Green Hope won 4A, Cardinal Gibbons won 3A, Carrboro won 2A and N.C. Science & Math tied for first in 1A.