Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta issued a call for help in this fall's elections during last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

Most of Margiotta's speech focused on the actions initiated by the board since December 2009. But Margiotta closed his speech by pointing to the stakes for this fall's school board elections when he will be running for re-election while also hoping to pick up at least one of the Democratic seats.

"I think it's important that we recognize that the campaign from those that will be out there again will be an attempt to return to the old practices of moving kids around for the sake of socioeconomic diversity," Margiotta said. "And we can not go back to those programs. It's important that we elect candidates that are committed and will stay with their commitments and remain committed and follow through with the programs we've been able to initiate."

Today marks the start of a new calendar era for several Wake County schools.

Leesville Road elementary and middle schools will open back on a traditional calendar after having operated as year-round schools. Mills Park Elementary will make the switch to the traditional calendar after opening as a year-round school in 2009.

Today's opening of Mills Park Middle School reflects the first break with the prior board's policy of opening all new middle schools and elementary schools on a year-round calendar.

It looks like Wake County teachers want to work in more affluent schools.

The most requested schools for teacher transfers are typically those in more affluent parts of the county. Wake schools with higher poverty levels tend to see far fewer requests from teachers to work there. (The requests are made by current teachers who want to work elsewhere in Wake.)

Excluding the new schools opening this summer, the five most requested schools this year are Davis Drive Middle, Holly Springs Elementary, Salem Middle, Brier Creek Elementary and Holly Ridge Elementary.

Teacher transfer requests are up this year in the Wake County school system.

There were 1,699 requests for transfers to different schools this fall, up from 1,633 last year. Those are only requests, meaning they weren't necessarily approved. Before a certain date, teachers don't need to get the permission of the principal to request a transfer.

The numbers at individual schools are interesting, especially at some magnet schools. Whether the increase at these schools indicates teachers are wary about potential changes to the magnet program or want out for some other reason is uncertain.

There's plenty of empty seats at today's Wake County school board meeting.

Only 35 of the 153 vouchers were handed out for today's meeting. That's far less than the crowds that backed up into the hallway at recent meetings.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST 

Consider this your homework before Wednesday's 6 p.m. Wake County school board work session on student reassignment.

Click here for a handout that includes the changes approved Tuesday, the grandfathering rules approved Tuesday and the first half of a packet listing details on the nodes that were moved and those still under consideration for changes.

Click here for the second half of the handout on approved and potential node changes. Unless the student assignment committee chose not to recommend it last week it's still in play.

We're now seeing seeing some of the consequences from last week's Wake County school board to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools and Mills Park Elementary back to a traditional calendar and to open Mills Park Middle on that same schedule.

School administrators said today they're giving parents of 4,500 Leesville and Mills Park families until March 18 to apply to stay on a year-round calendar or to attend a magnet school.

The new window for Leesville and Mills Park families means Wake is pushing back the March 18 date to let other families know if they were accepted into a magnet school, year-round school or traditional-calendar school. The new date is April 8.

UPDATE: LEESVILLE AND MILLS PARK PARENTS DON'T HAVE TO FILE A NEW MAGNET APPLICATION IF THEY DID SO LAST MONTH 

For those who read BiggerPicture4Wake's press release, here's a different perspective on the calendar conversions from Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents.

In a press release today, CCLP says the return of Leesville Road elementary and middle schools to a traditional calendar means "families can finally breathe a sigh of relief that they will once again have unity in their community." CCLP says the year-round conversions "have proven to be extremely destructive and divisive to the close-knit Leesville community."

While BiggerPicture had blasted school board member Deborah Prickett, CCLP praises her for her role in pushing for the conversion back to a traditional calendar.

BiggerPicture4Wake is calling last week's vote to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools back to a traditional calendar the Wake County school board majority's "third strike."

In a press release Monday, BiggerPicture says the first two strikes were eliminating the weekly Wednesday early dismissals and abandoning the Forest Ridge High site. The group says that the board majority is fulfilling campaign promises but ignoring data with decisions like abandoning the year-round calendar at Leesville.

"Now, the public needs to call them out to avoid further damage to Wake’s school system,” said Rhonda Curtright, BiggerPicture co-founder, in the press release.

Details are still being worked out on how to accommodate the families who still want to stay on the year-round calendar now that the Wake County school board has changed schedules for four schools for the 2010-11 school year.

The school board unanimously agreed Tuesday to convert Leesville Road elementary and middle schools and Mills Park Elementary to a traditional calendar and to open Mills Park MIddle on that same calendar.

The plan is to allow families at those four schools to apply to a year-round calendar if they don't want to stay after conversion. But the mechanism for allowing families to apply still is being worked out.