Is this the right time for Wake County to scrap the new choice plan and move to a base school assignment plan starting in the 2013-14 school year?

As noted in today's article, critics say problems have developed in the choice plan to warrant directing staff today to begin developing the switch back to an address-based plan. But supporters of the choice plan say it hasn't been given enough time to work.

"It's arrogant of them to do this and to disregard the parents who had problems before," said Republican school board member Chris Malone.

Is it redundant or unfair to make student achievement as part of the guiding principles of Wake County's magnet school program?

As noted in today's article, a bipartisan group of board members rejected Wednesday including student achievement in the guiding principles. Only school board member Keith Sutton voted for its inclusion while board members John Tedesco and Deborah Prickett were absent.

The proposal on the table was to amend the current first guiding principle to say that magnets "reduce high concentrations of poverty, support diverse populations and increase student achievement."

More to come later, but the Wake County school board voted today against making student achievement one of the principles of the magnet school program.

Democrats Kevin Hill, Jim Martin, Susan Evans and Christine Kushner were joined by Republicans Chris Malone and Debra Goldman in not supporting its inclusion. They argued that student achievement is already part of the system's mission statement and that it's unnecessary to add the wording just for magnets.

Only Democrat Keith Sutton voted for including it in the principles.

The board preliminarily agreed to keep the principles of expanding educational opportunities and maximizing use of school facilities. No decision was made on the principle of keeping schools diverse after Goldman objected to having the vote without all the board members present or getting public feedback first.

Was the Wake County school board's decision to only extend the dissolution of first-choice wait lists to July 18 the right call?

Some school board members talked last week about extending the deadline even further for all students, or least for those in high schools. But staff cited the need to lock in a date for schools to have their enrollment figures and to be fair to newcomers who will be moving in over the summer.

The waiting lists were going to expire on June 29. But after parents lobbied for more time to get into their first-choice school, the board told staff to look at a later date.

Is the Wake County school board looking after its interests or being a bully by joining the lawsuit against the proposed online charter school?

As noted in today's article, the issue went 5-4 along party lines with the Democrats backing the N.C. School Boards Association's request that it take part in the litigation. The Republicans voted no, questioning the propriety of the decision.

"I think it’s anti-charter school and I don’t think we belong in it," said school board member Debra Goldman, the GOP nominee for state auditor.

Former Wake County school board member Beverley Clark wasn't the only speaker firing bombs at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, critics of the new choice-based student assignment plan and supporters of magnet schools made up much of the turnout for public comment. Several speakers urged the board to make major changes to the new assignment plan.

Speakers also defended the magnet school program, downplaying the data indicating they have larger achievement gaps than non-magnet schools. They also denied that magnets were schools within a school as terms such as "social justice" and "diversity" were often mentioned.

The vote to move the start time for Middle Creek Elementary School to 8:30 a.m. for this fall was approved unanimously and with some melodrama.

During public comment, Middle Creek parents supporting the change thanked Superintendent Tony Tata for bringing it forward. Board member Susan Evans said the credit should go to board member Jim Martin for "pleading their case."

Martin thanked Evans but said that Tata and other people had worked hard on  it too.

It looks like, at least in the near term, any use of teacher performance pay in the Wake County school system would be on a limited basis.

Wake County school board members debated the use of merit pay when reviewing the draft strategic plan last week. Some school board members support its use while others are adamantly against it or only support using it in limited cases.

Performance pay is already in limited use in Wake.

The impact of the new student assignment plan on Wake County's magnet schools and potentially adding more magnet programs to Eastern Wake are just some of the issues that have been put on staff's plate.

Wednesday's school board discussion on how well magnet schools are meeting their current objectives produced a number of comments and requests for more information from staff.

The information could help shape which schools get magnet programs.

How significant, if at all, is it that the gap has narrowed between the Wake County school system's graduation rate and the state average?

It was one of the points of contention during Tuesday's school board retreat as the board reviewed this draft strategic plan. Superintendent Tony Tata talked about how pg. 6 shows the state's graduation rate has risen since 2006 while it's dropped in Wake.

"That’s an alarming trend there where we are flat or marginally decreasing while the state is steadily increasing," Tata told the board.