Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo holds the clear fundraising lead for the District 3 seat.

New campaign reports filed this week show that Losurdo had raised $40,244.55 as of Sept. 26 with $9,522.60 on hand. School board member Kevin Hill reported raising $24,055 with $12,570.69 on hand. Jennifer Mansfield is well behind with $5,802.19 raised and $2,513.18 on hand.

Some of the disparity between Losurdo and Hill is mitigated by the spending that outside groups have put into the race attacking her.

AdvancED has got a lengthy list of people to interview over the next two days as part of the accreditation review of the Wake County school system.

The interviews, arranged by school administrators at the request of AdvancED, is largely similar to the list arranged when the review was to take place last month.

Today's interviews include several school board members, the chief officers, high school students, Growth and Planning Staff, the Wake Schools Community Alliance, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the Wake County PTA Council and the student assignment committee.

Heidrick & Struggles will have to deal with skepticism from critics of the Wake County school board majority as it recruits candidates for superintendent.

Most of the dozen people at tonight's input session opposed elimination of the diversity policy and dropping the requirement that the superintendent be an educator. This skepticism of the board majority extended to the search process for superintendent.

Willa Allen, a parent of two students, pointed out tonight that Heidrick was only hired by a 5-4 vote to be the search firm.

How much detail should the new Wake County school board majority provide before going ahead with the development of the new community-based assignment system?

As noted in today's article, members of the majority say it was not necessary to roll out dollar estimates and details before the resolution was put up for a vote Tuesday. But critics of the resolution say those details should have been provided first.

“I'm kind of tired of talking about a vision; I want a price tag to go with that vision," said Yevonne Brannon, charwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

Will there be a resolution tonight in the case of Wake County Schools Superintendent Del Burns' job status or will it drag on?

It depends on who you ask. Once today's special closed-session school board meeting was scheduled, people like Dallas Woodhouse, state director of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, were predicting Burns would be gone very soon.

"The bottom line is he can't stay on, and he won't be superintendent by this time next week," Woodhouse said in Saturday's article.

Kristen Stocking is unhappy that the Wake County school system left in her personal information on the copy of the check it released to the public.

The Carolina Journal reported Friday that Stocking, the founder of the Wake Schools Community Alliance, is complaining that Wake didn't redact the bank account and routing number from her check. She had written the $300 check to pay for part of the cost of the reception for new school board members.

I didn't post the page with Stocking's check when I blogged earlier in the week about the WSCA leaders only paying $300 of the $693.88 cost of the reception.

It would appear that Wake County taxpayers will have to foot some of the costs of the December reception for new school board members.

Leaders of the Wake Schools Community Alliance had agreed to pay out of their own pockets the cost of the reception. But now they're only paying part of the cost because of questions about the bill.

Joe Ciulla, Kristen Stocking and Sarah Redpath have picked up $300 of the $693.83 bill for the reception. (Staff had previously reported the bill at $749.66.)

The Wake County school board's vote ending mandatory year-round school assignments is getting both praise and criticism.

One source of praise is a Wednesday press release from the Wake Schools Community Alliance that "applauds" the new board. The WSCA says the vote "have helped put us on the path to school choice for all Wake County families."

While there's been a shake up in the leadership of the WSCA, founder Kristen Stocking said in the release that "we will continue to inform citizens on school matters that affect them, and to advocate for positive change in our public school system.”

Compared to the Raleigh City Council, the Wake County school board had a really cheap reception this week for new members.

As noted in today's article by Sarah Ovaska, Raleigh taxpayers will foot a $9,854.66 bill for food and drink for Monday's reception for newly sworn-in council members. In contrast, Tuesday's reception for new school board members will cost $749.66, with the cost being picked up by private citizens and not the public.

"That's a disgrace in this day and age," said Joe Ciulla of the cost of the Raleigh reception.

The new school board members have now taken their seats.

All four new members made brief speeches after being sworn in. Deborah Prickett singled out the Wake County Republican Party and the Wake Schools Community Alliance for their support during the campaign.

“This was a non-partisan race but as you know this became fairly political,” Prickett said. “I want to thank (Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope) and the Wake County Republican Party for stepping up to the plate. It shows they’re totally for families and children in this county.”