Susan Pullium, one of the senior staffers in the Wake Count school system's student assignment office, has become at least the seventh person from the school district hired by the state Department of Transportation.

State Transportation Secretary Tony Tata announced today that Pullium will be the DOT's director of strategic planning. Pulliam will oversee the Transportation Planning Branch and Performance Metrics Management Office as she works on developing a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan.

“Susan has overseen large-scale planning and community engagement efforts and understands the importance of collaboration,” said Tata, the former Wake school superintendent, in the press release. “She is a talented, innovative individual who will be a tremendous asset as we work with our business and community partners to develop a long-range transportation plan that boosts North Carolina’s economy.”

Nearly two-dozen Wake County students are facing the impact of the enrollment caps that were placed on some schools for the rest of the school year.

Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment, said that as of Wednesday 22 students have been capped out of their base school for the rest of the school year. The information was shared during Thursday's joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners.

“It’s not something like we do, but we also don’t like excessively crowded schools," Evans said.

The Wake County school system is saying most, if not all, parents who file a request during the base declaration period this week will be approved.

As noted in today's article, the base declaration period kicks off today and runs through next Monday, Jan. 14. The district's website says that "these students will have a guaranteed seat for the new school year unless that school is fully capped."

Some skeptics of the new address-based plan contend that it won't be that easy for families to get into their base school.

Seven of the 13 Wake County schools on the full-cap list have hit their figures to stop taking new students for the rest of the school year.

As this handout shows, Brooks, Conn, Davis Drive, Hunter, Lacy, Mills Park and Wiley elementary schools are now at the figure to trigger the full enrollment cap restrictions.  New families who move into the base will be given three other schools to pick from for this school year.

Originally, Davis Drive Elementary's full-cap target was 990 students. But Laura Evans, senior director of student assignment, said it was lowered to 970 — the school's current enrollment — after Principal Chip Mack said he couldn't take any more students.

Hunter Elementary School, a magnet school near downtown Raleigh, looks like it will be among the 13 Wake County schools that will have a full enrollment cap placed on it today for the rest of the school year.

But the discussion last week about where the capped out base children for Hunter would go gives more insight into the differences between the board members about how students should be assigned. It could serve as an another example of what direction the new 2014-15 student assignment plan will take.

Last week, staff added Hunter to the original list of 12 schools it was recommending for a full cap for the rest of the 2012-13 school year. Students who are capped out of Hunter would be given the option of Oak Grove, Timber Drive and Washington elementary schools.

The difference between a guarantee and a priority could be a big deal for Wake County families who apply for magnet schools or during the first transfer application period next year.

Based on last week's discussion, staff has placed in both the magnet and selection criteria a priority for applicants who are not in an entry grade to go to the same school as a sibling. This came after board member Susan Evans asked about adding this kind of priority.

There's also now officially a transfer priority that fleshes out wording in the draft assignment plan about dealing with requests from rising 6th- and 9th-graders for feeders from the choice plan.

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.

There seems to be widespread agreement among Wake County school board members that enrollment caps, especially the new partial caps, are a good idea.

But as noted in today's article, board members were hesitant at Tuesday's policy committee meeting to sign off on proposed revisions to the capping policy. The main revision requested by staff was to insert new wording allowing the superintendent to implement partial caps to go along with existing wording permitting the board to set full caps.

“This is one of the items that I think all of us found pleasantly surprising in the proposal that we all sort of agreed to," said board member John Tedesco of the partial caps.

How hard should the Wake County school system go to keep siblings together at the same school?

During this month's student assignment discussion, school board member Susan Evans asked about the proposed rules for the first transfer period that guarantee that rising kindergarten, sixth-grade and ninth-grade siblings can go the same non-base school as their older sibling.

"Is it possible to include all siblings and not just the entry grades?" Evans asked.