Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is trying to ease concerns about the school board's recent vote to change the student assignment plan for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, Hill said during a Friday meeting with N&O editors and reporters that he's not expecting the return to an address-based plan to result in large-scale reassignment. He stressed the proposed "stay where you start" policy which would allow students to stay at the school they're attending until they complete the grade span.

But Hill also said they're still going to have to reassign people to fill all the new schools that Wake will need to deal with growth.

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is taking heat for saying that he agrees with the statement that "'family choice' is, therefore, basically selfish and anti-social in that it focuses on the 'wants' of a single family rather than the 'needs' of society."

In a Wednesday blog post for the Civitas Review, the weblog of the conservative Civitas Institute, Jim Tynen writes that "you have to give credit to the chairman of the Wake County School Board for frankness in discussing what’s important." Hill and others have attributed that statement about choice being selfish and anti-social to the Association of California School Administrators.

"Some bloggers see this in the ACSA statement as far left-wing," Tynen writes. "But you don’t have to go that far; it seems to me to be a rather clear, if unusually candid, expression of what liberals everywhere actually think. They believe society comes first."

Cash Michaels is speculating on whether Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will do as he's publicly stated that he'll carry out the new student assignment directive.

In an article in The Carolinian out today, Michaels notes that Tata "has had several very public nasty fights with" the school board's new Democratic majority. The liberal Michaels also calls Tata "a conservative Tea Party sympathizer who sources say has US senatorial aspirations in a few years."

"With his heart really not into establishing a base school model with aspects of choice, and elements of stability, proximity, student achievement and diversity, will Tata drag his feet in meeting the 2013-14 school year deadline, or will the retired US Army brigadier general be the “good soldier,” and follow the directive?" Michaels writes.

Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant charges the school board's Democratic majority "lied" when they said they wouldn't scrap the choice-based student assignment plan.

In Thursday's issue of the Elephant Express and in a press release that day, Bryant focuses back on the fall elections where she says the Democratic board candidates "deliberately soft-pedaled their intent to scrap Tata’s bipartisan parental-choice assignment plan."  Bryant points to interviews that the candidates gave about not making sweeping changes to the Wake County school choice plan.

"The truth is, they are going back to the old plan as closely as the law will allow," Bryant writes. "Each child’s address will be tied to a specific school to be chosen on some sort of socioeconomic basis."

It looks like Wake County school board member Susan Evans is ready to jump in with ideas she wants the staff to explore under the student assignment directive.

In a Wednesday morning email to staff that was copied to board chairman Kevin Hill, Evans said she wanted to "float some ideas" about next steps in the assignment process. Evans wrote that Hill suggested she initiate the meeting with staff because the board won't be meeting for a month.

"I realize that you will need some time to determine what staff members will be charged with this task, etc., so I am not asking for this discussion to take place immediately, but would appreciate an the opportunity to brainstorm with those involved before we get too far into the process," Evans writes.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata literally played the good soldier at today's press conference as he didn't criticize the school board's call to develop a base school student assignment plan.

Tata defended the choice plan, repeatedly saying it had produced "high parental satisfaction," pointing to this handout showing that student transfer requests are down this year compared to past years. But Tata said they'll do what the board wants.

“We work at the direction of the board," Tata said when asked if he felt the vote was a "slap in the face" to him. "We are taking the board guidance and we’re going to move forward and we are going to provide the best possible solutions for parents and students. We know that we implemented a plan that provided a high level of parental satisfaction so we’ll try to increase that satisfaction going forward.”

The Wake Education Partnership is, to put it mildly, not happy with the Wake County school board's decision to change direction on the student assignment plan.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Steve Parrott, president of the WEP, said they were "extremely disappointed in the decision-making process used by the school board and frustrated by the absence of a collaborative approach." The WEP was heavily involved in the new choice plan, working directly with Michael Alves.

As for the board meeting Tuesday, Parrott writes that "late-night, partisan debate is not how a world-class organization would conduct its strategic work and is not representative of the skills and behaviors demanded from our students for college and career success."

UPDATE

I've reposted the WEP document as a PDF file.

More to come later, but the Wake County school board voted 5-4 against a motion from board member Debra Goldman to pull the student assignment directive off tonight's meeting agenda.

Goldman said the directive should be referred to policy committee first. Other board members said there's been lack of notice to the board and public for a vote tonight.

But board chairman Kevin Hill said it was time sensitive to act now so they can make changes for the 2013-14 school year.

The vote went along party lines with the five Democrats voting against Goldman's motion and the four Republicans voting yes.

UPDATE

It's not likely the board will vote before 10:30 p.m. so stay tuned. At 9 p.m., they've got one more information item and five action items before getting to the assignment directive. Since Goldman was unsuccessful about getting the Richland Creek Elementary item off the agenda, expect plenty of questions on that one too.

At 10:22 p.m., the school board went into recess so some members could use the restroom. Hill said he intends to continue the meeting past 11 p.m.

After an houe-discussion, Hill called for a 11:48 p.m. recess.

The recess is stretching to 30 minutes as Democratic board members wordsmith the directive. Board attorney Ann Majestic had raised concerns that it was specifying too many things.

The Wake County school board re-elected Kevin Hill today as board chairman and Keith Sutton as vice chairman on a pair of 5-4 votes.

Hill defeated board member Debra Goldman. In her nomination speech, board member Deborah Prickett said Goldman is noted for her efforts to bring transparency and efficiency to the district and is a "family friendly board member."

Sutton defeated Prickett, who was nominated by Goldman. In her speech, Goldman said Prickett is in the forefront at her community for getting feedback and solutions.

The term is officially for one year but could change if the General Assembly passes local legislation allowing Wake to move the annual meeting to December.

Among the many items on today's Wake County school board meeting agenda is electing a school board chair and vice chair.

It's expected that either current board chairman Kevin Hill or vice chairman Keith Sutton will be elected to the top job. How long that terms lasts remains to be seen.

Officially, the term at the annual meeting in June for chair and vice chair is one year. But that term could end as soon as December.

At the request of the school board, the state House passed local legislation allowing Wake to move the annual meeting to December. It's now awaiting approval in the state Senate.