The school board has voted to back the staff recommendation to move Wood Valley kids out of Leesville Road Middle to West Millbrook Middle.

Board members backed Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney's argument that the kids are needed to help make West Millbrook look more like Leesville demographically.

The board hasn't made a decision yet though on whether to make Leesville as the year-round calendar option for Wood Valley. Staff will come back on Monday with more informtion on the issue.

This may be a case of wishful thinking, but Lisa Boneham is confidently predicting victory in the Leesville year-round calendar fight.

You'd expect the school board will discuss the conversion of Leesville Road Middle School to a year-round calendar at Thursday's reassignment work session. In a press release sent today, Boneham thinks the board will put Leesville Road Elementary back on a traditional calendar and not convert the middle school.

Here's the press release sent by Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents:

Thursday's reassignment public hearing wasn't a normal one.

As noted in today's article, nearly half of the 16 speakers spoke in support of the reassignment plan. Some speakers backed the conversion of Leesville Road Middle School to a year-round calendar. Ohers praised the reassignment of Lacy Elementary students to Stough Elementary.

The Stough parents argued that the school would become healthier if it got the Lacy students. They also said it would ease crowding at Lacy.

Should the school board cut a reassignment break for refugees who fled from Myanamar?

As noted in today's column by Ruth Sheehan, the reassignment plan would move a node that includes a large group of Karen refugees who now live in North Raleigh. The move would create hardships for these families who, because they're largely low income, would be hard pressed to take advantage of transfer options.

"Political oppression and poverty chased these people halfway around the world. If only the Wake County School Board would let them put down roots — and stay," Ruth writes in the column.

BiggerPicture4Wake is now officially online.

The group reopened its Web site so a password is no longer needed. The group also issued a press release today.

BiggerPicture4Wake forms, supports year-round conversion of Leesville Middle School

I'm going to try to hit some of the high points of the plan here.

First, the three-year plan affects 26,771 students. It starts with 8,162 students in 2009-10, 14,200 in 2010-11 and 4,409 in 2011-12.

Administrators are recommending unconverting Knightdale Elementary School for the 2009-10 school year. But it comes with a catch.

UPDATE

Click here for the link to the plan. Demand on Wake's site is high now so be patient. 

Supporters of converting Leesville Road Middle School to a year-round calendar now have a formal group and their own Web site.

The group calls itself BiggerPicture and says it's "a community-based organization that supports common sense solutions that maximize efficiency and educational opportunities for all students."

BiggerPicture is countering Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents (CCLP), which formed its own Web site to oppose converting the middle school.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST