How significant, if at all, is it that the gap has narrowed between the Wake County school system's graduation rate and the state average?

It was one of the points of contention during Tuesday's school board retreat as the board reviewed this draft strategic plan. Superintendent Tony Tata talked about how pg. 6 shows the state's graduation rate has risen since 2006 while it's dropped in Wake.

"That’s an alarming trend there where we are flat or marginally decreasing while the state is steadily increasing," Tata told the board.

Jim Huge was mistaken when he said he wasn't trying to make Tuesday's Wake County school board retreat a counseling session.

As noted in today's article, school board members traded heated words with each and with Superintendent Tony Tata. In turn, the superintendent didn't hold back either in his feeling that some board members were trying to undercut staff.

In the end, board members agreed to meet one-one-one with Tata to start things anew. Whether those meetings and the two-hour discussion Tuesday helps remains to be seen.

The Wake County school board agreed to one change in the draft strategic plan this afternoon while having some heated discussions on other areas.

They board agreed to modify the vision section of the plan to add in the words that students will "be accountable partners" in their education. it was added after board member Jim Martin said that students need to have some responsibility in the issue.

I'll get into more on the other issues later, but the board disagreed about whether to leave in the draft strategic plan the use of teacher merit pay and the expansion of academies. Board members also disagreed on the significance of the rest of the state catching up to Wake's graduation rate.

The board is taking a lunch break before resuming discussion at 2:45 p.m. on board-superintendent communications.

UPDATE

Staff will bring back the revised core mission, vision and beliefs to the June 5 regular meeting for a vote.

The full strategic plan will be pulled from the June 5 action meeting. School board chairman Kevin Hill said individual members or groups of two can meet with Chief of Staff/Chief Transformation Officer Judy Peppler to go over any suggested wording changes before discussing at the June 5 work session.

Does the Wake County school system need a separate school board policy on transparency?

School board member Debra Goldman has been pressing for what she says is a greater need to make the district's website more transparent. School staff has turned her memo into a proposed new school board policy.

The policy has been sent to the school board's policy committee for review. But in the process there was debate both about the need for the policy and changes in the way that committee agendas are now set.

Track My Steps is hosting a public forum tonight on the state of education in Eastern Wake County.

Forum organizers say there is a "crisis in public education in eastern Wake County and that they want to "break the silence on education inequality." The forum will focus on the challenges faced by Eastern Wake students and parents in the areas of early education, student discipline, student/parent rights and resources, course selection/availability and student achievement.
 
"Eastern Wake residents are calling for education reform in their part of Wake County to create a better Wake County," according to the press release. "Participants will introduce a plan of action to change the perception of education in Eastern Wake."

Should the Wake County school system move now to offset a $2.1 million cut in school instructional supplies or hold off to see if the money is needed to deal with other budget cuts?

As a quick refresher, the budget proposal adopted May 1 by the school board calls for cutting instructional supplies by $13.96 per student. That covers things like paper and pencils. With some board members balking at approving the budget, staff said they'd look for ways to mitigate the cuts.

The proposal presented by staff at Tuesday's board work session is to give schools an additional $2.1 million for supplies in this fiscal year. The cut for the 2012-13 fiscal year would still occur but this infusion of money would offset it.

What responsibility does the Wake County school system have in providing transportation to preassigned rising sixth- and ninth-graders who don't have bus service this fall?

As noted in today's article, the school board voted to direct staff to, when possible, modify existing bus routes to accommodate students or to offer them a spot at a school on their proximity list that would give them transportation.

But that motion stops short of guaranteeing bus service to their feeder school. And that motion only extends to students who are receiving bus service this year and would lose it this fall, not transfer students who now don't get bus service.

More to come later but the Wake County school board voted tonight to direct staff to try to provide transportation to the 470 preassigned students facing losing bus service.

The board passed 6-3 this motion: "WCPSS, shall provide transportation, when it can be provided with adjustments to existing routes, to all rising sixth- and ninth-graders currently receiving district transportation, who are pre-assigned without transportation for the 2012-13 school year OR offer that student a seat in one of the schools on his/her proximity choice list with transportation."

The board resisted language that would have required providing transportation, including potentially adding extra buses. The board also resisted amending the motion that would have  added 539 rising sixth- and ninth-graders who are at their current school as transfer students.

Susan Evans, Christine Kushner and Jim Martin were the dissenting votes.

The Wake County school board will deal with a variety of items at today's meeting, including whether to provide transportation to all rising sixth- and ninth-graders going to their feeder schools this fall.

During the work session, staff will give an update on how many of the preassigned students still don't have transportation and what can be done to accommodate them. The vote on the issue, requested by board member Jim Martin, will come at the regular meeting.

In response to board member Debra Goldman's complaints that Martin was being given more consideration than her for today's meeting, the board will also deal with her concerns about board and district transparency.

The decision to allow all students in Wake County middle schools and high schools be eligible to participate in interscholastic sports led to some heated rhetoric from the school board.

Under this revised policy adopted two weeks ago, a student at a middle school or high school that doesn't have an interscholastic sports program will now be able to try out at another school designated by the district. The change affects two magnet middle schools, the early colleges, the alternative schools, Hilburn Drive Academy and the two new single-sex leadership academies.

The debate got so heated that school board member Deborah Prickett accused board member Jim Martin of opposing the policy because he personally disliked her, which he denied.  The rhetoric caused board member Christine Kushner and board chairman Kevin Hill to urge their colleagues to show more decorum.