Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

How does the idea sound of having a mass election for all Wake County school board seats in 2014?

As noted in today's article, state Rep. Chris Malone said legislators are considering various options for changing the way Wake school board members are elected in response to the request from the board of commissioners.

Ideas on the table include making some or all the seats at-large and changing the elections to even-numbered years. One of the more intriguing ideas would involve extending by a year the board members elected in 2009 and shortening by a year those elected in 2011.

The Wake County school system might be in line to get as much as $10 million more from county commissioners this year.

During today's operating budget presentation, it was repeatedly mentioned that county commissioners don't know how much of an increase the school board will request. Interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey is expected to present a budget proposal to the school board in March.

County Manager David Cooke noted that last year, as has sometimes happened in the past, they gave the school system a proportionate share of the growth in the tax base. If that's done again, Cooke said that would mean around an $8 million increase.

Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton is warning about severe consequences should county commissioners have their way and get their legislative changes approved.

As noted in today's article, Sutton repeatedly characterized the changes commissioners want in school ownership, charter school facilities funding and at-large school board elections as a "power grab." He said there's nothing showing things would improve if commissioners have their way.

“The plan is to decimate the public school system as we know it and build it up in some other way,” Sutton said in a meeting Thursday with News & Observer reporters and editors.

Wake County taxpayers are on the hook for as much as $125,000 for dueling lobbyists representing the school board and commissioners.

The school board voted Tuesday to authorize interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey to pay up to $100,000 to hire a lobbyist to oppose legislative changes commissioners want in school construction, charter school funding and school board elections.

It turns out that county commissioners already hired their own lobbyist this week. Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, said that Tom Fetzer, the former Raleigh mayor and past state Republican Party chairman, will be paid $5,000 a month — for a maximum of $25,000 — to be their lobbyist.

"My reaction is, if we're going to keep score, we're going to win,” Bryan said Wednesday in a meeting with News & Observer reporters and editors.

The bad blood continues to flow between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the school board.

As noted in today's article by Martha Quillin, Republican commissioners accused the school system of misleading taxpayers about its fund balance. The GOP majority also tabled approval of a land purchase for a northeast Raleigh middle school and accused the school board of engaging in politics in wanting them to approve buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

GOP commissioners said they were speaking for the taxpayers. But Democratic commissioners said Republicans were endangering development of the next school bond issue and harming relations with the school board.

It looks like the Wake County school board should be prepared to see the General Assembly pass the legislative changes requested by county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, State Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, House Speaker pro tempore, said Wednesday he expects the GOP-led legislature to pass this year new laws that would allow Wake County commissioners to take over ownership of schools and to require that some Wake school board seats be elected on a countywide basis.

Stam also said he’s expecting a bill to pass this year that would allow all counties to help charter schools build their facilities.

You might have been wondering whose meeting you were attending on Tuesday as school issues came up at the meetings of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, commissioners voiced their concerns about the school system proposal's to add unarmed private security officers to every elementary school. As noted in today's article by Josh Shaffer, school board members reacted to the school issues that the commissioners were voting on as part of their 2013 State Legislative Agenda.

All this suggests a rocky road ahead as they work together on the bond issue and school funding.

Nearly two-dozen Wake County students are facing the impact of the enrollment caps that were placed on some schools for the rest of the school year.

Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment, said that as of Wednesday 22 students have been capped out of their base school for the rest of the school year. The information was shared during Thursday's joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners.

“It’s not something like we do, but we also don’t like excessively crowded schools," Evans said.

The purchase of the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for a future Wake County school is now dead.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners had agreed Nov. 19 to purchase the property, but title problems were later discovered with one of the three tracts in the deal. The school system asked commissioners to approve today this amended deall allowing it to split up the purchase into two parts.

But in a departure from the 4-3 vote in November, the commissioners unanimously voted today for Commissioner Tony Gurley's motion to reject the new request and to declare the prior approval dead.