The battle for state schools superintendent has some notable parallels with the Wake County school board's decision in 2010 over to who to hire as superintendent.

As noted in today's article, State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson, the Democratic incumbent, points to her career as an educator to argue she should get a third term. But Wake County school board member John Tedesco, her Republican challenger, argues that what's not needed is someone like Atkinson who has been part of the "Raleigh education establishment since 1976."

Similar issues were raised in 2010 when the Republican majority on the Wake school board opted to hire Tony Tata, a retired Army general, as superintendent over a career educator. Member of the Democratic board majority, who fired Tata on Sept. 25, had resisted efforts to make it possible for non-educators to hold the position.

Wake County's three new magnet schools and two revamped magnet schools will look to make a splash with parents for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, staff unveiled at Thursday's meeting of the school board's student achievement committee the magnet programs that will be offered at the five schools covered by the federal MSAP grant.

Click here for a handout on the themes at the schools and where they'd fit in the magnet program pathways.

Congratulations tonight to Ken Branch of Brentwood Elementary School being named the Wake County school system's 2012 Principal of the Year and Ruth Ann Freeman of Bugg Elementary School being named Assistant Principal of the Year.

An interesting note here is that Brentwood is one of Wake's Renaissance schools, which have come under fire lately from members of the school board's Democratic majority.

Before his firing, Superintendent Tony Tata had repeatedly touted the academic gains at the Renaissance schools. A sore point, for the majority members, is the use of merit pay at the Renaissance schools.

It's looking less likely that the Wake County school board will push for a May 2013 school construction bond issue.

As noted in today's article, school board members Susan Evans, Jim Martin and Chris Malone all said after Wednesday's facilities committee meeting that a fall 2013 bond vote is more realistic. This comes after school board chairman Kevin Hill made similar remarks in Friday's meeting with N&O reporters and editors.

“There’s been a lot that’s gone poorly in the last few months,” Evans said. “The extra time will help us re-earn the public’s trust.”

One issue that the Wake County school board will have to decide for the 2013-14 student assignment plan is what to do with the feeder patterns that were part of the choice plan.

Staff recommended, as part of the now discarded draft base maps, honoring the choice plan feeders for middle school and high school. The board's agreement last week to work with the 11-12 base maps means reconciling cases where the feeders are different from the choice plan.

The Democratic board members have been openly skeptical of the choice plan's premise that parents could be guaranteed a K-12 feeder pattern. But at last week's work session, board member Susan Evans offered what she called a "good compromise."

Should Wake County magnet school families have to apply to advance to a magnet secondary school or should it automatically be done for them by the school system?

Staff is recommending preassigning rising magnet application sixth-graders and ninth-graders from group one magnet schools without making them apply.

The group one magnets are ones where the majority of students are supposed to be magnet applicants and the primary role is to reduce concentrations of poverty at the school. Examples include Hunter, Poe and Washington elementary schools.

The Wake County school system appears likely to return to the practice of setting aside 10 percent of magnet school openings in the annual application process that would be filled on a random basis.

Wake used to set aside 10 percent of the magnet application seats for a more or less random lottery with the rest being filled based on selection criteria and priorities. That process was dropped this year under the choice plan.

But there was a consensus at Thursday's work session from board members to bring back the 10 percent seat lottery. if implemented, this change would most significantly impact families trying to get into high-demand magnet schools where there are for more applicants than openings.

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is continuing his efforts to justify the board majority's firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Hill met Friday with N&O editors and reporters to list out issues such as concerns about Tata's relationship with board members and staff and his handling of taxpayer dollars. Some of it's similar to what he said at Tuesday's board meeting but he went into more detail.

Hill also went into how he wants to handle the superintendent's search and the timing of the next school bond issue.

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter to the editor from Kevin Hill that will appear in Tuesday's paper in response to Tata's point of view column.

After a week of tearing into each other, Wake County school board members finally found something they could agree on Thursday night.

As noted in today's article, Republican and Democratic board members unanimously agreed to scrap the 2013-14 draft assignment maps in favor of going to the 2011-12 base maps. The fact they were agreeing drew several mentions and jokes at the board table.

The change occurred when board member Jim Martin interrupted the discussion of how the draft maps would affect the percentages of low-income students next year.

UPDATE

The 2011-12 base address lookup feature is still up. Click here to view.

If you don't remember what the pre-choice plan maps looked like in 2011-12, click here to refresh your memory. The link puts you on Wake's school directory page. Pick a school and then click on its assignment tab. Under the assignment tab you'll find a link to a PDF map for the 2011-12 base assignment area.

If you live near Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle, Richland Creek Elementary's permanent campus off US 1 in Wake Forest near the Franklin County line or Abbott Creek Elementary's permanent campus near the North Wake Landfill you can expect you might be added to their base areas.

Also, if you live in Panther Creek High's base look for change as you're reassigned to Green Hope High since they're not using a standalone ninth-grade center for PCHS.

The board agreed with the stay where you start rules proposed in the draft plan so you'd be able to grandfather if you're an existing student.

The Wake County school board will tackle the 2013-14 student assignment plan tonight looking at changes requested by the Democratic majority.

At Saturday's work session, which was only attended by Democratic board members, staff was asked to look at making changes to the draft plan, from elementary through high school. This could result in achievement-based changes and revisions to the middle school and high school feeder patterns.

At the same time, majority members said they don't want to move a lot of students next year and want to make changes over several years.