Congratulations to the 12 finalists for the Wake County school system's 2013-14 Teacher of the Year award.

The finalists are Lisa Amador of Yates Mill Elementary in Raleigh, Sonya Brown of Smith Elementary in Garner, Elizabeth Crowell of Davis Drive Middle in Cary, Laurie Dillman of Fuquay-Varina High, Amy-Lyn Foster of Lockhart Elementary in Knightdale, Lindsay Hamrick of Martin Middle in Raleigh, Dianne Jones of Wiley Elementary in Raleigh, Anne Mayer of Sycamore Creek Elementary in Raleigh, Luke Miles of Durant Road Middle in Raleigh, Lynn Rustay of Holly Ridge Elementary in Holly Springs, Rachael Stauffer of Olive Chapel Elementary in Apex and Keri Woronka of Pleasant Union Elementary in Raleigh.

The winner will be announced May. 9.

The Wake County school board announced tonight that new principals have been named for Lufkin Road Middle School and Holly Ridge Elementary School.

Karen Sinders was hired to be principal of Lufkin Road Middle in Apex with a salary of $84,902.48. She has been principal of Madison Junior High School in Madison, Ind., since 2008.

Joy M. Gorman will be principal of Holly Ridge Elementary in Holly Springs with a salary of $80,474. She has been principal of Briarcliff Elementary in Cary since 2008.

UPDATE

Click here to view the bio sheets.

The Wake County school board appointed a principal to North Forest Pines Elementary School tonight and made several interim principal appointments.

Syreeta Smith was promoted from assistant principal to principal of North Forest Pines Elementary in Raleigh. She's been at the school since 2007 and will receive a salary of $80,788.24.

As for interim principals:

Wake County school leaders announced tonight the appointments and transfers of seven permanent and seven interim principals.

Scott Lyons was named principal of Enloe High in Raleigh with a salary of $99,666. He's been principal of Leesville Road High since 2009. He used to be an assistant principal at Enloe.

Christopher McCabe will be principal of Heritage Middle in Wake Forest with a salary of $93,303. He's been principal of North Forest Pines Drive Elementary since 2007.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS

It looks like Wake County teachers want to work in more affluent schools.

The most requested schools for teacher transfers are typically those in more affluent parts of the county. Wake schools with higher poverty levels tend to see far fewer requests from teachers to work there. (The requests are made by current teachers who want to work elsewhere in Wake.)

Excluding the new schools opening this summer, the five most requested schools this year are Davis Drive Middle, Holly Springs Elementary, Salem Middle, Brier Creek Elementary and Holly Ridge Elementary.

How your children's teachers rate their schools could surprise you.

As noted in today's article, some schools got scalding evaluations on the N.C. Teacher Working Conditions Survey. How comfortable would you be if you knew that a majority of the teachers at your child's school didn't think it was a good place to teach and learn?

Can you guess which Wake school had the highest percentage of teachers who say they plan to continue teaching there in the next two years?