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.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is mobilizing to get the new Wake County student assignment plan to include the diversity-related assignments.

In an email message dated Sept. 12, GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon tells people that her discussions with school board members was "not encouraging." Brannon writes about a "board member who wants what we want but is too weak to push for it and too afraid to step up to the plate, because he is worried about community push back."

Brannon writes that "another board member who doesn’t seem to 'agree' about how to fix diversity-how to have balanced schools.....he seems to believe kids can choose out. After some discussion he agreed to 'think it over.'"

Former Wake County school board member Beverley Clark wasn't the only speaker firing bombs at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, critics of the new choice-based student assignment plan and supporters of magnet schools made up much of the turnout for public comment. Several speakers urged the board to make major changes to the new assignment plan.

Speakers also defended the magnet school program, downplaying the data indicating they have larger achievement gaps than non-magnet schools. They also denied that magnets were schools within a school as terms such as "social justice" and "diversity" were often mentioned.

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.

A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.

Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.

A total of 26 people have pre-registered to speak at Broughton High School at today's Wake County school board public hearing on the student assignment plan.

A number of the usual people who've criticized the school board majority over the past two years are on the list, including Neil Riemann, Rhonda Curtright,  Patty Williams, Greg Flynn, Heather Koons, Tom Rhodes and Amy Lee. One person also on the list is Seth Keel.

I haven't received word yet on whether Keel, who is still banned at showing up at school board meetings following his arrest, will be allowed to speak today. It will be interesting seeing whether Keel, the Rev. William Barber and all the other people who've been barred from attending board meetings will be allowed back if the Democrats regain the board majority.

Over the past two years, some speakers have railed against the board majority for leaving the ban in place. Their trespassing cases still haven't been adjudicated yet.

UPDATE

Keel is not being allowed to speak at the meeting over the objections of him and his supporters.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Susan Evans are both pulling in substantial amounts of cash in the District 8 race, including money from the Popes, Bob Luddy and the Campbells.

The new campaign report filed today by Margiotta shows he had raised $40,367.33 as of Aug. 30 with $34,111.23 on hand. The new report for Evans shows she had raised $26,406.43 as of Aug. 30 with $21,405.30 on hand.

The biggest donors for Margiotta in his new report are the $4,000 apiece from conservative businessman Art Pope, his wife Katherine Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

The latest round of campaign finance reports show that Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and school board hopeful Jim Martin are off to a good financial start.

According to a report filed July 15, Margiotta reported having raised $8,985 in his bid to win re-election in District 8. His biggest donor at $4,000 was Dr. James Fulghum III, a member of the John Locke Foundation board of directors and a frequent contributor to Republican causes.

Margiotta's next largest donors were retired CPA Harry Eberly at $1,745 and lobbyist/former state GOP House member Connie Wilson at $500.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR INFO ON JIM MARTIN'S DONORS

Christine Kushner has already eclipsed the $25,000 fundraising mark for her Wake County school board campaign.

According to a new report filed today, Kushner has raised $27,271.24 in her bid to win the open District 6 seat. It gives Kushner a formidable campaign war chest edge in a race where no other person has announced yet.

The biggest donors in the new round of reporting are Ann Campbell and John Campbell, who both gave her $4,000. The couple have now given a total of $24,000 to Kushner and school board members Kevin Hill and Keith Sutton.

Supporters of Wake County's old school diversity policy are going on the offensive in attacking the latest response to federal investigators justifying the change made by the school board majority.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, multiple speakers criticized the board majority's assertions that the diversity policy may have hurt academic achievement. Often to cheers, words like "B.S.," "cherry picking," "misleading" "treacherous" and "dishonesty" were used by speakers, especially when it came to attacking the district's linkage of long bus rides with lower achievement.

"The governance of this board majority has reached a new low with the release of your response to the Office of Civil Rights last week," said Susan Evans. "And I really thought you didn't have any lower to go."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST