The conservative Wake Community Network is continuing its criticism of Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby for seeking mediation for the 30 people arrested for disrupting Wake County school board meetings.

In today's Daily Journal, Joey Stansbury contrasts the mediation efforts for the school board protesters with the Occupy Raleigh protesters who've shown up in court ready to go to trial. Stansbury believes that the Occupy Raleigh protesters were less confrontational and volatile than the school board protesters.

"So Willoughby is concerned about court dockets with (the Rev. William) Barber as it relates to BOE meetings but not with Occupy Raleigh?" Stansbury writes. "Why? Why the difference between Occupy Raleigh protestors and those arrested at Wake BOE meetings? We'll let our readers make that judgment."

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New Wake County school board member Jim Martin is drawing criticism for his decision not be sworn in on a Bible on Tuesday.

In today's edition of the Daily Journal, the conservative Wake Community Network questions Martin's statement that he chose to be sworn in over the U.S. Constitution because of his support for separation of church and state.

"Strange how we've not seen any mention of his concern about this separation as every 'John 2:16' organization in Wake County and beyond inserted the God prop over the last two years," Joey Stansbury writes.

The conservative Wake Community Network is going two years in the past to attack Wake County school board member Kevin Hill's re-election bid.

In Tuesday's Daily Journal, Joey Stansbury points back to how Hill had made a big deal in 2009 about the National School Boards Association’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) giving Wake an award for its diversity efforts.

"They say a picture is worth 1000 words," Stansbury writes. "In this case a picture is worth thousands of reaassigned (sic) children. In this photo, Kevin Hill presents the National School Boards Association Council of Urban Boards of Education's Award to the Wake County Board of Education."

The conservative Wake Community Network is calling U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan "dumb" for his latest comments on the Wake County school board elections and the old diversity policy.

In addition to saying the recent election results were "very positive," Duncan said Tuesday he "would hate to see Wake County lose that mantle" as "a national leader in diversity."  

"Does he know about how effectively these diverse, 'integrated,' magnet schools like Enloe graduate socio-economically disadvantaged children?" Joey Stansbury wrote today in his Wake Community Network Daily Journal. "Does he know that under the old failed diversity busing policy, graduation rates for those children bottomed out at 54.2%?

Another outsider coming into Wake County to speak about something they know nothing about."

The efforts to portray next month's Wake County school board election runoff as a battle of neighborhood schools vs. busing for diversity is well under way.

In today's Daily Journal by the conservative Wake Community Network blog, Joey Stansbury focuses on statements made by school board member Kevin Hill and newly elected school board member Susan Evans about the need for a stronger student achievement component in the student assignment plan.

Stansbury cites Hill saying in his campaign profile for WRAL that "To help balance percentages of high- and low-achieving students, and to maintain our current magnet program, students may have to attend their second or third closest school."

As you can tell from the constant online references, opponents of Wake County school board candidate Susan Evans are taking every chance they can get to point to images of her with the Rev. William Barber.

The latest example comes from Joey Stansbury, the one-time campaign treasurer of Evans' opponent, school board chairman Ron Margiotta. In today's edition of The Daily Journal on Stansbury's conservative Wake Community Network site, he points to a Carolina Journal video showing Evans singing with Barber at the June 2010 school board meeting where he was arrested for refusing to give up the podium.

"The fact that there are so many videos and photos of Susan Evans on youtube and elsewhere underscores her substantial involvement and collusion with William Barber, Great Schools in Wake and others to disrupt school board meetings and create as much chaos as possible," Stansbury writes.

It picks up on the theme that Margiotta has used in his recent mailers. Wake County Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul charges these efforts are racially motivated.

When it comes time to make a decision, will Southeast Raleigh families still continue to go to suburban schools or opt to stay in their neighborhoods?

As noted in today's article, the Southeast Raleigh families have traditionally been silent when it comes to participating in Wake County's student assignment process. That was shown again Thursday at Southeast Raleigh High when only 30 people showed up at the latest student assignment public meeting.

A lot could depend on what Southeast Raleigh families think about the old diversity policy.

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Money is already flowing into Wake County school board campaigns several months before the elections or even the start of the campaign filing period.

The biggest early donors are Ann Campbell and John Campbell. School board members Kevin Hill and Keith Sutton have both received $8,000 from the Campbells.

Ann Campbell, the president of Campbell Alliance Pharmaceutical Consulting, might sound familiar. She's a magnet school parent from North Raleigh and Great Schools in Wake Coalition member who wrote this March 17 op-ed piece urging support for maintaining socioeconomic diversity in schools.

Newsweek is questioning the strength of the ties that The Washington Post pointed to between the Wake County school board and the Tea Party.

In a blog post Friday, Ben Adler, national editor of Newsweek.com, says the connection that the Post pointed to in its front-page article on Jan. 12 were "tenuous" and "weak." Liberals have picked up on the Post article to accuse the Tea Party movement of trying to resegregate the Wake school system.

"But was the school board really 'backed by the national Tea Party'?," Adler writes. "No, the national Tea Party movement doesn’t normally get involved in races for school board."

The Wake Community Network is accusing the Great Schools in Wake Coalition of making "dubious" claims in criticizing the way the Wake County school board hired Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

In a press release today, Joey Stansbury, director of the Wake Community Network, challenges the Dec. 23. claim from GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon that the public met with prospective finalists in past searches.

This is a case where it may depend on what superintendent search you're discussing.