Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton has finished revising the rosters for the school board committees.

New board member Tom Benton is vice chairman of the policy committee and a member of the student achievement committee. New board member Bill Fletcher is a member of the student achievement and finance committees.

Board member Kevin Hill has also been added to the finance committee.

Sutton is an ex officio member of every committee. The other eight board members all have two committee assignments.

Is creating an Office of Diversity and Equity something that the Wake County school system should look at exploring?

As noted in today's article, the school board told staff on Tuesday to revise the budget proposal to come up with up to $200,000 to create this new office. Board members say this office, along with the revisions in the student assignment policy to minimize concentrations of low-income and low-performing students at schools and the new equity policy will help promote equity for students.

School board chairman Keith Sutton has been the big backer of creating this new office, which is modeled on one in the Guilford County school system. It's because of Sutton that staff developed a business case for creating the new office even though it wasn't part of the original budget request.

As expected, the Wake County school board voted 7-2 tonight to pass a resolution supporting keeping the current election districts.

The vote comes a day after the state Senate passed Senate Bill 325. Democrats in the state House will likely point to the school board's resolution as they try to block the bill's final passage.

During the debate, board member Deborah Prickett referenced this 2011 Wake Ed blog post in which Susan Evans and Jim Martin both criticized the current election lines before they were elected to the board.

Should Wake County's next middle school be built without a track or should the district buy land so that one can be built on site?

M-8, located off Leesville Church Road in northwest Raleigh, is a small property that initially was considered for use as an elementary school. So when the decision was made to open it as a middle school with a smaller than typical property size, no track was included in the design.

But school administrators asked the school board's facilities committee last week to consider authorizing the acquisition of enough land around M-8 so that a track can be built.

You've got a role reversal taking place about the 2011 redistricting map that were adopted by the Wake County school board.

The school board is expected to pass on April 23 a resolution endorsing the current election boundaries. It's one way of how the board is opposing Senate Bill 325, which would change when and how Wake school board members are elected.

What you're likely going to see, based on last week's board discussion, is that the resolution will be supported by board members who either voted against the 2011 map or who criticized it at the time. You'll probably see board members who voted for the map in 2011 not backing this new resolution.

The lobbying and negotiating over what projects to include in the next Wake County school construction bond referendum is already in progress.

As noted in today's article, the scenarios presented Wednesday range from $609 million to $2.3 billion. It's understood that the $2.3 billion, which lays out all the district's needs, isn't going to happen.

The question is which projects to still fund in a reduced bond amount.

It looks saving teacher assistant positions will be the major crusade by school leaders in Wake County and the rest of this state during this budget season.

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators said Tuesday that Wake's loss of $12 million in funding for teacher assistants in Gov. Pat McCrory's budget would be "very detrimental." McCrory's budget would cut all $117 million in funding for TAs in grades 2 and 3, only funding them for K-1.

McCroy has touted how his budget would add 1,800 teaching positions. But Chief Business Officer David Neter said those positions are just to keep up with growth so they can't convert the positions to pay for TA positions.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill is no longer a registered Democrat.

Hill is officially listed on State Board of Elections records as unaffiliated. According to the Wake County Board of Elections, Hill submitted the change in November and it went into effect in January.

Hill said Tuesday he made the change because he felt he needed to model the remarks he has made about the school board being non-partisan.

It's safe to say that you're not going to see a $2.2 billion Wake County school construction bond referendum on the fall ballot.

School administrators laid out today their construction needs through 2018, which would mean $2.2 billion with most going toward building 32 new schools and 28 major renovation projects. According to the county, that's the equivalent of a 14.68 cent property tax increase, or about $375 more a your on a $250,000 home.

Everybody from school staff to school board members to county commissioners was quick to say that they're not planning on that big a bond.

There's a different seating order today following last month's dust-up between Wake County school board member Susan Evans and Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley.

At today's joint meeting, Evans is sitting between school board members Tom Benton and Jim Martin. Gurley is sitting between school board member Kevin Hill and an empty seat set aside for school board member John Tedesco

Evans and Gurley were sitting next to each other at last month's joint meeting. Gurley accused Evans of calling him a jerk while he spoke, which she denies.

So far this morning, they're gotten an overview of the $2.2 billion that Wake County school administrators say is needed in the next few years for school construction. That number will be reduced by school staff to try to get a school bond passed.