Wake County school board candidate Jennifer Mansfield raised more than $7,500 during her unsuccessful run for the District 3 seat.

In Mansfield's year-end report filed Monday, she reported raising $7,543.33 and spending $6,324.56. Mansfield wasn't able to compete against her main opponents, who were heavily backed by their respective political parties.

Republican challenger Heather Losurdo raised $99,207.29 and spent $98,207.83. Democrat incumbent Kevin Hill raised $68,598 and spent $54,322.

Overall, Mansfield's husband, Shane O'Donnell, was the largest donor with $3,647.14. After finishing third in October, Mansfield did not give an endorsement in the runoff election.

How hard will it be for Wake County's new choice-based student assignment plan to fill new schools, especially ones opening in modular campuses?

As noted in this Dec. 23 North Raleigh News article by Chelsea Kellner, Wake school officials don't anticipate it being a problem. But others aren't as certain.

For instance, will parents choose the new Abbots Creek Elementary opening this summer at the modular campus next to East Millbrook Middle School? How likely are they to choose Abbots Creek considering that funding for the permanent location, adjacent to the North Wake Landfill, is from a bond issue that hasn't been scheduled yet?

I haven't gotten back yet the final Wake County magnet school application numbers but I thought this blog post from Jennifer Mansfield is worth talking about.

On her Voice For Equity blog on Tuesday, Mansfield mapped out the high-performing nodes that would get priority in situations where there are more applicants than magnet seats. Her map shows that the high-performing nodes are mostly in northern and western Wake.

"It confirmed what I'd suspected — that large swaths of the county will be virtually shut out of the magnet 'lottery,'" Mansfield writes. "Am I the only one who finds this disturbing? Disgusting, even?"

"Is the fear the same as it has always been: that high performers/middle to upper income kids from low performing/high poverty schools will leave for magnets?" Mansfield also writes. "Looks like if you live in Eastern Wake or Garner and have your sights set on a magnet, you'd better move."

No one disputes that more should be done to help the low-performing students at Enloe High School but the problem seems to be finding the right solution.

As noted in today's article, the rejection of the block schedule has left Enloe's leadership looking for alternatives. The challenge is finding something that will help the low-performing students without causing too many changes that would draw complaints from magnet students and their parents.

And with one current Enloe parent and two former Enloe parents now elected as school board members, what else is in store for the magnet school? Enloe has the dubious distinction of having the lowest passing rates on state tests among Wake's high schools for black and low-income students.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo is promoting her runoff endorsement from the Wake Schools Community Alliance in this new campaign mailer.

In the mailer, Losurdo quotes from the WSCA endorsement which had blamed incumbent Kevin Hill for "failing graduation rates," "600 teachers fired," "26,000 students reassigned," "'Wacky Wednesday' PLTs" and "mandatory year-round schedules." The mailer quotes how WSCA said Losurdo "has consistently supported neighborhood schools, advocated for the use of EVAAS" and "called for civility and consensus-building on our School Board."

"Wake County's Leading Independent Education Reform Organization Supports Heather Losurdo," says the mailer. "So should you."

The mailer is interesting considering how Losurdo's supporters were dismissive of the WSCA before the runoff when the group endorsed Jennifer Mansfield.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo says she's "thrilled" to receive the Wake Schools Community Alliance's endorsement in the runoff election.

In a statement Saturday, Losurdo called the WSCA endorsement "a major indication that Republicans, Democrats and independents are coming together" in the bid to oust incumbent Kevin Hill.

These upbeat words are a sharp contrast to the negative remarks traded backed and forth by supporters of Losurdo and the WSCA before Oct. 11. Both groups were saying some pretty harsh things about each other back when the WSCA was endorsing Jennifer Mansfield over Losurdo.

The magnet school selection criteria are being revised to fall in line with Wake County's new student assignment plan.

The new guidelines aren't explicitly set out in the plan but members of the student assignment task force walked me through them for today's article.

The two biggest changes are a specific priority for students from high-performing nodes and the elimination of the practice of setting aside 10 percent of seats to be randomly filled.

Look for a battle over the next month to influence voters in Wake County's school board District 3 runoff election.

But as noted in today's article, you've got some questions in the meantime. One, should Heather Losurdo ask for a runoff? Two, would it have made a difference if the Wake County Republican Party had backed Jennifer Mansfield instead of Losurdo to run against Kevin Hill?

On the first question, it's not a surprise that Democrats say they'd hope Losurdo would refrain from asking for the runoff.

CORRECTION

The high-end estimate for a runoff is $150,000.

I wouldn't count on Wake County school board member Kevin Hill being able to avoid a runoff.

New figures today from the Wake County Board of Elections show there are 50 provisional ballots and 48 late-arriving absentee ballots still outstanding in the District 3 race. Hill would have to win all 98 ballots and receive some mail-in ballots from military voters by Friday to have a majority to avoid a runoff against Heather Losurdo.

Also today, school board candidate Jennifer Mansfield said she hasn't decided yet whether she'll endorse Losurdo in the runoff. No word yet from Eric Squires.

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION

Revised wording to show that there are 50 provisional votes and that he'd need additonal batlots from military voters.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill is asking that opponent Jennifer Mansfield stop saying that he wants quick passage of the new student assignment plan.

In a press release today, Hill points to this statement on Mansfield's website that "District 3′s current representative has indicated a desire to get this passed as quickly as possible." Hill calls that statement "demonstrably false."

"Time and time again, I have declared that we need to slow the assignment process down," Hill says in the press release. "In fact, I asked whether we 'wanted to do it quickly or correctly' when we discussed the timing."