Changes on the Wake County school board mean new leadership roles for board members Kevin Hill and Susan Evans.

Hill will now chair the board's facilities committee, replacing the departed Chris Malone. Hill, who can now chair committees since he's no longer board chair, will lead the committee as it takes the lead role in developing the new school bond issue.

New board chairman Keith Sutton has asked Evans to take over for him as chair of the board's finance committee. Evans will chair the lead committee on developing the school budget in what could be a tough funding year with county commissioners.

The desire to conduct a full-scale national search is apparently what tipped the balance Tuesday in favor of the out-of-state firm that was chosen by the Wake County school board to conduct the superintendent search.

As noted in today's article, school board chairman Keith Sutton said he felt that McPherson & Jacobson could potentially do a better job of recruiting nationally than the N.C. School Boards Association. Sutton also liked how McPherson & Jacobson would solicit community input.

Sutton's concerns blocked his fellow Democrats from picking the School Boards Association, resulting in the deal that led to McPherson being hired after the recess.

The Wake County school board is deadlocked on picking a superintendent search firm.

The board 4-4 to hire McPherson & Jacobson when Democratic chairman Keith Sutton voted with the Republicans. The board then deadlocked 4-4 when Sutton sided with the Republicans and voted no on hiring the N.C. School Boards Association.

Sutton has called for a 10-minute recess. He quipped though it won't take 56 rounds of voting, harkening back to the 2011 vote for vice chair.

UPDATE

The board voted 7-1 to hire McPherson when the other Democrats, except Kevin Hill, flipped their votes.

A retired Wake County principal became today the second person to apply for the district’s open school board seat.

Tom Benton of Zebulon said his 32 years in education would help the often divided Wake County school board. He’s seeking the District 1 seat vacated by Chris Malone that represents Wake Forest, Rolesville and most of eastern Wake.

“I’ve got some useful experience, and I consider myself a consensus builder ... this is a really good opportunity to step in and try to have an impact,” said Benton, 62. “I’m too young to stay at home and do nothing.”

UPDATE

Benton also has a letter from former District 1 school board member Linda Johnson urging the board to appoint him to the position.

The Wake County school system is denying that members of the school board's Democratic majority are being unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

As noted in today's article, Wake's school board attorneys are telling AdvancED that majority members are making decisions based on their independent judgment and not because of the influence of Great Schools or any other advocacy group. The Wake County Taxpayers Association had charged GSIW had "extreme influence" on the majority, particularly the new board members.

"The allegation that the Board members who voted in favor of the June 19 student assignment directive did so because of 'extreme influence' from GSIW is suppositional and wrong," says this report.

Wake County school board member Chris Malone has his swan song from the board this week before moving over to the state House to take his new seat.

During Tuesday's board meeting, Malone looked back at his tenure on the board, gave some advice to his colleagues and thanked them and staff for their help. He also acknowledged the members of the audience who've often come to the meetings in the past three years to criticize his positions.

"It’s been three good and, I think, largely productive years, tumultuous years," Malone said. "If you remember when I first got on the board, during my very initial speech during swearing in, I said that we’d live in interesting times. And I think this time that I’ve spent on the board has been very interesting."

It looks like there's still going to be a priority for Wake County students from high-performing nodes to get into magnet schools, but there won't be a transfer priority for applicants from low-performing schools to get into high-performing ones.

Both issues became intertwined during last week's student assignment work session as board members and staff worked through the details of the draft 2013-14 student assignment plan. The final vote will come during Tuesday's meeting.

During last week's discussion, you had discussion about how far the board should go to keep students from leaving some schools and who should get priority for magnet access.

Barring any last-minute changes next week, it looks like the new year-round calendar option for Lynn Road Elementary base families will be Wakefield Elementary.

But the discussion on the issue during Tuesday's Wake County school board student assignment work session raises issues about the role year-round calendar options should play in the district. Should Wake continue to not offer year-round options that are considered more attractive than the base school?

The discussion also raised the prospect that the school system may at some point convert Wakefield Elementary back to a traditional calendar.

What should the Wake County school system do with $32 million that's built up over the past year in its rainy day fund?

During Tuesday's school board meeting, staff reported that the undesignated fund balance had been replenished much higher than expected, leaving $32 million available in the undesignated fund balance. Staff said that cost-cutting during the year helped raise the amount above the $20 million they expected to have.

Some school board members want to return part of the fund balance to the county. But some board members and staff say the money should be retained because they need to make up for the recurring expenses covered by using fund balance earlier this year and in case the country goes over the federal funding cliff.

In case you didn't get the hint Tuesday, Wake County school board members repeatedly said they're listening to parents and trying to provide stability by making changes to the draft 2013-14 student assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, the board preliminarily agreed Tuesday to some assignment plan changes requested by families. Board members said they're listening to parents who've attended the public hearing and provided feedback in other formats.

"I’m hoping for folks who spent their day inside watching TV as opposed to being outside in the pretty weather, I think if anything we’ve shown — staff has shown and the board with their interaction today — that folks at the public hearings and emails are being listened to and their issues and concerns are being addressed," said outgoing board chairman Kevin Hill at the work session. "Some changes are being made.”