There's been some questions about what the school board discussed Tuesday about changes to the magnet selection criteria.

Click here for the handout that lists the questions the board was asked to answer by staff. Even though they delayed acting on options two and three, it wasn't without some heated argument.

School board member Lori Millberg was the most vocal about changing the process to make sure magnet schools are recruiting from "the right schools."

We'll see Tuesday just how far the school board is willing to go to make it harder for some families to make it into magnet schools, year-round schools or traditional-calendar schools.

During Tuesday's work session, staff will ask the board "to identify any revisions or additional guidelines" to the magnet/select criteria. Click here for the guidelines that were used last year.

As noted in a previous post, there's been growing complaints from board members that the current magnet selection guidelines aren't strict enough.

It looks like Wake will have a response to the fallout over the school board's decision not to sign off on a study on the diversity policy.

Administrators are trying to draw up the framework for an evaluation of the diversity policy. The nuts and bolts of the evaluation are still being prepared.

Is the new reassignment plan unfriendly to families?

As noted in today's article, yesterday's vote on the plan was far from unanimous. In what's become an annual event for him, Ron Margiotta voted against the plan as he accused his colleagues of not listening to parents.

"Reassignment should be used solely for the purpose of filling new schools," Margiotta said. "I can’t vote for a plan that’s so family unfriendly.”

The school system could regret making a new enemy in Dana Cope.

Cope, one of the Lacy parents facing reassignment, said a new group called the Children's PAC will be formed to help elect school board candidates "who will listen to the facts" and not make "politically expedient decisions."

As noted in today's article, school board member Beverley Clark is asking the board to revisit the Lacy moves on Wednesday. But Cope said parents have become so disgusted by the reassignment process that they're going ahead with the PAC no matter what the school board does now with Lacy.

UPDATE

Cope says the paperwork for the PAC was filed this afternoon. 

We'll have to wait until later in the week for the school board to definitively deal with Millbrook High and the rest of the northeastern Wake high schools.

School board members agreed that the reassignment plan would move too many students would be moved out of Millbrook. The problem is they're not sure what's the right balance to leave Millbrook at without leaving other nearby schools too underenrolled.

Millbrook parents argue that it's unrealistic to move so many students out and expect they'll be replenished so quickly with magnet students.

Things didn't go as planned for the school board on Thursday.

The board held a lengthy closed-session discussion on the ongoing dispute with Cary over road improvements near Panther Creek High. It's holding up the approval needed to use modular classrooms on campus.

The board's plan was to return to open session for an explanation on television of the school district's side of the case. There was only one problem.

Look for a new way for reviewing magnet programs.

The new plan is to have staff present an overview of the health of the school system, with magnet schools being just one part of the process. Board members said they didn't feel it was necessary to keep spending day-long reviews of the magnet program.

"By focusing on fixing magnets, we're not focusing on fixing other schools," said school board member Beverley Clark during Tuesday's student achievement committee meeting.

It looks like magnet schools won't lose much if anything by the time a new equity and equality policy is developed by the school board.

The board is trying to develop a policy that would help provide "equal access to programs and services and equitable distribution of resources." But during Tuesday's work session discussion, board members stressed that they wanted to protect magnet schools in the new policy.

"if we don't have some differences, we undermine why you'd leave Apex to go to Enloe," said school board member Beverley Clark.

Your chances of getting an Advanced Placement class or foreign language in a high school vary widely across the district.

The disparities were highlighted in data shared at this month's student achievement committee meeting of the school board. The differences were noticeable enough that board members are talking about the need to make some changes.

For instance, staff presented data showing that Enloe High leads the way with 28 AP courses. But none of the four small schools that make up East Wake High had more than five AP courses with one school having none.