Pencil in Dec. 4 for what could be a lively discussion about whether the Wake County school system should hold early release days on Wednesday or Fridays.

As noted in today's article, the school board's executive committee has put the early release issue on the agenda for the Dec. 4 board work session. The board's Democratic majority has the votes to push through a change but whether they want to risk any appearance of a scaled-back return to Wacky Wednesdays/Wake Wednesdays remains to be seen.

Aside from the argument from supporters that Wednesdays would be better for promoting student achievement, you're also likely to hear that they're only talking about six Wednesdays per student and not every week.

Wake County school board candidates Susan Evans and Christine Kushner have both released statements today trumpeting the endorsements they've received from Wake NCAE.

In Evans' press release, she says she's "proud to have earned the endorsement of the Wake NCAE, a group that truly has the best interests of students and teachers at heart." The group represents nearly 5,000 Wake school employees.

In Evans' press release, Wake NCAE Vice President Larry Nilles also takes a shot at the school board majority to explain the endorsement.

Wake NCAE, which represents 5,000 Wake County's school employees, is citing school funding in announcing its reasons for its school board candidate endorsements.

In a press release today, Wake NCAE announced it was endorsing Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8.

In the release, Wake NCAE faulted the current school board majority for not having backed a motion to ask county commissioners for enough funding "that could have prevented" cuts this year such as laying off custodians and cutting pay for teacher assistants.

In theory, school leaders think it's a good idea for students to have a longer school year.

But as noted in today's article, Triangle school administrators are looking for ways not to implement the new requirement mandated by state legislators to expand the school year by five days and with 25 more hours of instruction.

Wake's approach is to add the hours without adding the additional days. Wake Superintendent Tony Tata has said this change, having the 25 hours spread out over 180 days, "accomplishes the intent" legislators had by putting the 25 hours over five more days.

Schools in Wake County and across the country will be celebrating American Education Week starting on Monday.

American Education Week is an effort from the National Education Association to promote recognition of teachers and public schools. The week is marked by daily activities such as encouraging parents to visit schools, honoring support staff and substitute teachers and encouraging community leaders to serve as educators for a day.

Wake NCAE has encouraged individual schools to hold events.