The outgoing school board members left without throwing any real verbal bombs today as they were showered with awards and praise.

The outgoing board members spent much of their final comments thanking their families and school administrators. They also stood behind the decisions they made.

"Parents haven’t really liked what was done," said school board vice chairman Horace Tart. "But we always did what we did with the children in mind. That was the big picture."

Speaking of the weekly Wednesday early dismissals, Wake NCAE is holding a press conference today on how professional learning teams are helping improve student performance

At the press conference, Wake NCAE "will invite invite parents, community leaders and school board members to celebrate American Education Week by joining educators at local schools during a PLT Wednesday session."

"Educators want to keep this important time to communicate, cooperate, and help ensure that all children's educational needs are met," according to the press release.

CORRECTED DANA KING'S TITLE TO SAY PRESIDENT OF SCHOOL SYSTEM'S PRINCIPAL'S DIVISION 

Wake NCAE President Jennifer Lanane is in damage control mode after having sent an e-mail message accusing the new school board members of not caring about children and teachers.

As noted in today's article, Lanane sent an apology letter on Monday to the new board members, who weren't happy about the tone of an earlier message sent to Wake NCAE reps. She says that the first message was a draft that was never meant to be sent, pointing to the multiple grammatical errors.

Lanane is in a difficult spot as she wants to try to get along with the new board majority. The problem is Wake NCAE didn't endorse any of the new members.

Today's face-off columns about the Wednesday early dismissals has drawn plenty of reaction.

On the pro side, Jennifer Lanane of Wake NCAE says "students become the real beneficiaries of time dedicated to their teachers' professional growth, and clearly, our students deserve nothing less than the best we have to offer!"

On the con side, North Raleigh News Editor Matthew Eisley says "this is a big hassle for many dual-income households at all economic levels, which apparently doesn't register with the school board."

Calls for Wake to do more to use federal stimulus dollars to reduce class sizes have only increased since traditional-calendar schools opened last week.

As noted in today's article, the reality of many classes with more than 30 students because of fewer teachers on the books has set in. You've got classes of more than 40 students in some rooms.

Gov. Beverly Perdue, State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison and the N.C. Association of Educators is contrasting how Wake used stimulus dollars with districts such as Winston-Salem/Forsyth that jumped all in to use the money to save jobs and keep class sizes the same at Title I schools.

An out-of-work special education teacher wants to fill the Wake school board District 6 vacancy.

Etta Wilson filed her application today to seek the position created by Beverley Clark's resignation from the school board. Wilson was most recently a special education teacher at Southeast Raleigh High School until June.

Wilson said she had resigned her job there in hopes of working at an elementary school or a middle school but hasn't been picked up yet. She's like a lot of other teachers who are hoping to get hired after the 10th day of traditional-calendar schools.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake NCAE announced today its endorsements for this fall's school board elections.

The group is backing Rita Rakestraw in District 1, Horace Tart in District 2, Karen Simon in District 7 and Lois Nixon in District 9. With 5,000 school employees in the organization, Wake NCAE's backing could be a major factor in the elections.

Jennifer Lanane, president of Wake NCAE, said the group "will work hard this election season to help each of these pro-public education candidates get into office."

It looks like Wake may have made the right call playing it conservatively with state budget projections.

As noted in today's article, Wake school officials feel they're in good shape to deal with the state budget adopted last week. The state's approximately 4.8 percent funding cut for K-12 education falls in line with the 5 percent figure Wake principals were working on for this upcoming school year.

At this point, Wake isn't expecting to lay off teachers.

How does the idea of closing school for one day sound as a way to help school employees take off the 10 hours required under Gov. Bev Perdue's furlough order?

That idea was proposed at today's school board meeting by Jennifer Lanane, president of Wake NCAE. She argued that school employees won't find the time any other way to take off the 10 hours.

Lanane asked the school board to back the group's call for closing school for one day. There was no immediate reaction from the school board.

UPDATE

The school board passed a resolution asking the state to let them shorten the school year by a day.

There's still not much clarity on how teachers are supposed to use the 10 hours of furlough time mandated for state employees by Gov. Perdue.

As noted in today's article, it looks like the state Board of Education will be asked to approve a policy saying that teachers can't take off on days that students are in session. That's because it would cost money to hire substitute teachers.

While it looks like teacher workdays would have to be used, the mechanism for scheduling the time for the state's teachers will be a pain.