Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo holds the clear fundraising lead for the District 3 seat.

New campaign reports filed this week show that Losurdo had raised $40,244.55 as of Sept. 26 with $9,522.60 on hand. School board member Kevin Hill reported raising $24,055 with $12,570.69 on hand. Jennifer Mansfield is well behind with $5,802.19 raised and $2,513.18 on hand.

Some of the disparity between Losurdo and Hill is mitigated by the spending that outside groups have put into the race attacking her.

The Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC is looking like it could be a big player in this fall's Wake County school board elections.

As noted in today's article, the PAC has reported raising $27,803.28 with $25,671.54 on hand. In contrast, the Wake Schools Community Alliance has reported raising $268.92 an having only $1 on hand.

There's a strong connection between Wake Citizens for Good Government, the five Democratic school board candidates and the Wake County Democratic Party. A number of people are giving money to all three groups, similar to how some of the 2009 donors gave money to the four winning school board candidates, the WSCA and the Wake County Republican Party.

Here's the official Wake Schools Community Alliance announcement that the group is endorsing Jennifer Mansfield for the District 3 seat on the Wake County school board.

In the Friday press release, WSCA praises Mansfield, a founding member of the group, for her "knowledge of and dedication to Wake County Schools." WSCA also says Mansfield shares their objectives of academic success as the first priority for all Wake County students, stable neighborhood schools in a community model and voluntary calendar options for all families.

The press release notes how the four candidates backed by the WSCA were elected in 2009 and that "good progress has been made toward providing Wake County families with less onerous school calendar choices." But WSCA also says it's "concerned by the current injection of politics of our schools and the polarization of our board members."

Here's more about what was said at last week's OCR meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church.

Click here for an earlier post about the meeting. Most of the speakers and the crowd were opposed to the school board majority's elimination of the diversity policy.

The meeting kicked off with the Rev. Earl Johnson, pastor of Martin Street Baptist, getting laughs and applause from the crowd when he quipped that the church was "a very neutral site by the way." That was in response to the complaints from the school system about holding the meeting at the church.

The Wake Schools Community Alliance hasn't switched from focusing on the Wake County school system to industrial saws.

Recently, WSCA's website has been taken over by a company that makes industrial saws. Joe Ciulla, a leader of WSCA, explained that they recently changed domain hosting services and that something may have happened to the website in the process.

Ciulla said they're keeping their current URL and it will be back up soon.

Things definitely got heated at Wednesday night's forum looking into allegations of racial discrimination by the Wake County school system.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, speakers used terms like "white supremacy" and going "back to the back of the bus" to describe the move toward neighborhood schools in Wake.

“They are being introduced to blatant white supremacy in the Wake County school system,” said parent Darryl Fulton about what his four children are facing with the end of the diversity policy.

Likely new Wake County Superintendent Anthony Tata comes in with a reputation as being a hard worker both in his day job with D.C. Schools and in his night job as a political commentator.

As noted in today's article, former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee praised Tata and said he's ready and qualified to lead the Wake school system. Rhee singled out Tata's work streamlining D.C.'s school nutrition and purchasing programs during his 18 months as chief operating officer.

"He's not a touchy-feely guy who will hold people's hands" Rhee said. "He's very goal oriented. He was a general so he knows about leadership. He knows how to get the job done."

The X-factor in the year ahead is the role that Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman will play in the major decisions facing the district.

As noted in Sunday's article, Goldman's former board allies want to pick up seats in the board elections so they won't need her vote. School board member Chris Malone said that Goldman's recent votes on student assignment have created “unpredictability” on the school board.

“We’re having to deal with unpredictability now," Malone said. "It’s the reality we have to live with. We’re going to work as best we can and work for all parents and families.”

The Wake County school diversity fight will be the focus of today's State of Things show on WUNC.

Supporters of the old diversity policy will make up the majority of guests on today's show. Host Frank Stasio will talk with the Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; Gerald Grant, author of ""Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh;" and Marie Garlock, a former Wake student who was among those arrested at the July 20 school board meeting.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, INCLUDING SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SHOW

The Wake Schools Community Alliance is calling on the school board to strip Del Burns of his duties and immediately appoint an acting superintendent.

Joe Ciulla, a leader of the WSCA, said today's media interviews show that Burns can't "in good conscience" carry out the new Wake County board majority's goal of implementing neighborhood schools.

UPDATE

See end of post for WSCA press release. Changed term from interim superintendent to acting superintendent.