Parents of East Wake High school students soon will have their last chance to weigh in on the school's four-concept program.

About five years ago, the school board decided to divide the school into four schools: the School of Engineering, the School of Global Studies and Creative Arts, the school of Health Science and the school of Integrated Technology. The idea was to see if smaller schools and more one-on-one instruction would lead to better test scores.

East Wake High trails other high schools in the county on standardized test scores.

Now, the board plans to look and see if the idea is working. While the item is not on the agenda, the May 19 school board meeting at 3 p.m. does give the public a chance to speak. Speakers are asked to sign up before the meeting.

That's one meeting before when they will likely make a decision June 2 on the school's future, according to Lori Millberg, who represents District 1 which includes eastern Wake county and Wake Forest.

By that time, the board will have preliminary end-of-year test results and will be able to make a sound decision, according to Millberg.

Also on May 19, East Wake High School Principal Craig Baker will be discussing the four-school concept at a Zebulon Chamber of Commerce sponsored luncheon. It is open to the public. For more information, call the chamber at 269-6320.

It doesn't look like state education leaders are okay with the Wake school board's request to cut the school day by a year to allow employees to serve their furlough time.

As noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, State Education CEO Bill Harrison said "I don't think so" when asked whether a waiver would be granted to Wake. Instead, the state Board of Education adopted procedures for when employees can take their 10 hours off.

The state is saying teachers can use planning periods on instructional days so long as substitutes don't need to be hired. That could increase pressure on Wake to use the early release and early dismissal time on Wednesdays.

Rosa Gill won't be leaving the school board quite so soon.

The executive committee of the Wake County Democratic Party chose state Rep. Dan Blue tonight to fill the state Senate seat of the late Vernon Malone. Gill was nominated by fellow school board member Lori Millberg, but she declined it and instead backed Blue.

Gill might still be in the running for Blue's House seat when it's filled at a later date by the executive committee.

The consent process that was used for the past two years got bashed repeatedly by school board members and administrators on Tuesday.

As noted in today's article, school leaders blamed the consent process for underutilization of year-round schools, crowding at traditional-calendar schools and damaging efforts to maintain balanced, healthy schools.

Board members blamed the late May timeframe of the consent process for not providing "predictability" for principals. They said it made overly hard for schools to know how many students they'd have when determining how many teachers to hire.

While the formal vote won't be until later this afternoon, it looks like consent forms won't be sent this year.

Several school board members repeatedly stressed at the COW meeting that families could have applied in February if they wanted to attend a traditional-calendar school. Around 95 percent of those 2,676 applicants were placed at a traditional-calendar school or magnet school.

Board members added that those families can still apply for transfers if the year-round calendar won't work for them.

UPDATE

Kevin Hill wasn't at the meeting and Rosa Gill didn't vote because there was no tie.

You can count Wake County school board chairwoman Rosa Gill as one of the candidates who want to fill the District 14 seat of state Senator Vernon Malone.

Gill said she will be among the speakers who will make their case to replace Malone, who died April 18, at a forum Saturday sponsored by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, a civil-rights organization.

While the forum won't determine who will get the seat, the RWCA will make a recommendation to the Wake County Democratic Party after the meeting.

Wake high school sophomores are being put on notice that they should expect to complete a state-mandated Graduation Project or similar local requirement in order to graduate in 2011.

As noted in today's article, the school board agreed to not make the Graduation Project a requirement for the Class of 2010. But board members repeatedly said Tuesday that sophomores who gamble it will be optional in 2011 would be making a big mistake.

"We need to look to ourselves to have it in place," said school board member Eleanor Goettee, a big supporter of the Graduation Project.

The school system is touting how a new method for auditing individual schools will "help schools see how they can improve."

Click here for the district's press release on the new audit process.

The new approach drew a lot of discussion at the March 31 school board committee of the whole meeting. Much of the talk was around whether the audits might actually hurt morale at individual schools.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST 

The school board's discussion of funding Leesville Road Middle School's conversion to year-round saw some sharp words thrown out.

Beverley Clark kicked things off Tuesday by saying they need to base this year's budget on the immediate situation facing Wake. She said the growth now facing Wake doesn't demand converting LRMS, especially when several year-round middle schools are under capacity.

Clark said it especially makes sense to delay conversion because the state Supreme Court hasn't ruled yet on the year-round case. She expects consent forms will have to go out.

So will a concerted effort to explain professional learning communities smooth over complaints that many parents have over the new bell schedules?

As noted in today's article, that's the hope of school board members, teachers and administrators who supported dismissing schools one hour early every Wednesday and increasing the number of early release days.

"Once the community knows what it wlll be used for they’ll be able to buy into it with a better heart," said school board member Patti Head.

UPDATE

Put links for bell schedules and early release days at end of post.