Could the Wake County school board decide after all to implement for this fall seat set-asides at the high-performing schools or lift the priority for students from low-performing nodes?

Both topics are part of the student assignment update that will be presented at the work session. Topics, according to the handout, include assignment priorities for displaced magnet students and the number of AG students accepted into sixth-grade at Ligon and Carnage middle schools.  

Also on the agenda, is a staff presentation to change the bell schedules for nearly all of the schools this fall.

UPDATE

The school board ran out of time to discuss the student assignment update.

Click here for the online story about the bell schedule proposal.

Michael Alves stands to get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Wake County school system for his help implementing the new controlled-choice student assignment plan.

The school board will vote today on this contract to pay the Alves Educational Consulting Group up to $110,000 for the rest of the fiscal year. The contract pays Alves' firm for services in support of implementation of the assignment plan and the continued utilization of his proprietary "Controlled Choice" software system.

The contract expires June 30. But the contract also contains wording that it's expected to be renewed and in effect for at least the next three years.

UPDATE

The contract was approved 6-3. Jim Martin voted no. I'm not sure who else did.

Some familiar names are on the list of people being nominated Tuesday for placement on Wake County school board advisory councils.

The nominees for school board member Jim Martin's BAC include former Assistant Superintendent Mike Burriss and Ann Overton. Diana Bader has been nominated to serve on school board member Debra Goldman's BAC. Karey Harwood has been nominated for board vice chairman Keith Sutton's BAC.

Some of the new BAC members were nominated by other people.

CORRECTION

Harwood was nominated to school board vice chairman Keith Sutton's BAC.

New Wake County school board member Jim Martin raised more than $37,000 during his successful election bid, despite what it says in his filings.

Martin's year-end campaign report filed Monday shows him with a deficit of $13,443.70. But it looks like the report has a number of errors, including not including the amounts raised and spent in prior reports.

When factoring in the last report filed before the election, it looks like Martin raised $37.076 and spent $30,732.19 in winning the District 5 seat.

Should the Wake County school board move quickly to extend Superintendent Tony Tata's contract?

As noted in today's article, Tata is generally getting good reviews as he hits the one-year anniversary mark of his tenure on Tuesday. But he also faces some challenges, including potentially from members of the new Democratic school board majority.

Republican school board members are talking about wanting the board to take action next month to extend Tata's contract past the June 30, 2014 end date.

In line with the new common core standards adopted by the state, the Wake County school system will implement new math course names and sequencing for the 2012-13 school year.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, staff laid out how the new math sequencing, which in middle school would be used with EVAAs to place students, would look. Staff also gave new data that could put a different spin on the arguments used by critics who've said that using an EVAAS predictor score of below 80 percent is too low.

All five member school districts of the Triangle High Five are supposed to use the same sequencing and course names.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF REPORT FOR LINKS TO HANDOUTS

How worried should the Wake County school system be about how the new student assignment plan is impacting the magnet schools?

As noted in today's article, the Democratic board members expressed concern Tuesday about the sharp decline in magnet applications. They also raised concerns that not enough academically identified students got accepted into Carnage and Ligon middle schools, which operate the AG Basics magnet theme.

“It seems to me that demand for magnets has gone down by half,” said new Democratic school board member Christine Kushner in remarks to staff members. “I’m concerned about that decline. I hope it’s something you are paying attention to.”

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman says she's taking on the role of board "watchdog."

During last week's board meeting, Goldman, a Republican, repeatedly raised concerns about the way she felt the new Democratic board majority was operating. She accused the board of committing several policy violations and not passing the "smell test" on email discussions.

"You’ve referred to me as the watchdog and I will pick up that mantle and go forward with it," Goldman said during the meeting.

The new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board may adopt a tougher line on handling public records requests.

Members of the former Republican board majority were subject to many public records requests for their personal and school district emails from their critics. Now the Democratic members are finding themselves subject to the same kinds of requests.

People who make requests now get the first 100 pages of copies free. They pay 10 centers for each additional page. But now they may also have to pay for the cost of staff time to handle the requests.

The issue of Michael Alves' unannounced private meeting with the new Democratic members of the Wake County school board won't seem to go away.

The issue was revisited with some heated comments during Tuesday's board meeting. The discussion, more of which is detailed later in the post, shows the continuing wariness between the Republican and Democratic members.

More recently, Terry Stoops, director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, brought up the issue in a Thursday blog post.