School board members are miffed at the fallout from their decision not to do a study on the diversity policy.

During Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting, board members argued that they weren't against a study, per se. Board member Beverley Clark said the problem was that the question was framed in a way that was unanswerable.

Board members Horace Tart and Ron Margiotta had wanted staff to see if students who were reassigned from North Garner Middle School to West Lake Middle School for diversity reasons are now doing better academically.

The school board shot down a proposal today to have staff research whether students are benefitting from the diversity policy.

School board members Ron Margiotta and Horace Tart argued for having the Evaluation and Research Department track the performance of students who are assigned for diversity reasons. They said it would help show whether trying to balance the percentage of low-income students at schools is succeeding.

But other board members at today's student achievement committee meeting disagreed. Some said a study wasn't needed while others said it wouldn't be possible to do a valid study.

One of the questions that parents and some school board members are asking is what's changed in the past month for Broughton High to be in danger of losing its magnet program.

After all, the school board had unanimously agreed on Oct. 21 that Broughton should keep its International Baccalaureate Program. But now a majority of board members are supportive of removing the magnet program.

School board member Beverley Clark, who is leading the charge to demagnetize Broughton, gave an explanation on Tuesday.

It's looking like Broughton High only has a little more than a week to remain as a magnet school.

The school board agreed today to reconsider its decision to keep the magnet program at Broughton. A special meeting has been scheduled for Dec. 10 to give parents time to respond and for staff to suggest which school should get Broughton's International Baccalaureate program.

The formal vote will take place next week. But a majority of board members indicated today they'd support the switch.

School board members are not happy at the prospect of having to cut more than $11 million from its budget.

As noted in today's article, board members complained that having to make cuts so deep would hurt a "lean budget." Board members said that might even lead to considering things such as cuts to the classroom and layoffs.

With potentially as much as $5.7 million being cut by the county, the year-round conversion tiff resurfaced.

Would a student lie about being homeless to get assigned to a particular school or to ride the bus?

Those were some of the questions that popped up during this week's facilities committee meeting. Eddy Adams, senior director for transportation, said there have been cases when students claiming to be homeless demand bus service.

Adams said people have actually seen cases where students are dropped off from a Mercedes and claim to be homeless. He acknowledged it could be a friend of the student who is driving the car.

It's apparently not easy getting modular classrooms moved quickly, as the folks at Panther Creek High School in Cary can attest.

School administrators told the board this week that the projected completion date for installing 22 modular classrooms at Panther Creek is now Jan. 30. The original projected date had been Aug. 15.

Back in September, administrators said they hoped to have the units ready by Dec. 18.

How soon do you think the New York Times will do another story about Wake's academic results?

As noted in today's article, things have changed since the Sept. 2005 Sunday front-page Times article on Wake. Tougher math and reading EOG exams have lowered Wake's passing rate from 90.4 percent in 2005 to 70.8 percent this year.

That article, along with the ensuing coverage in other publications, helped boost Wake's national reputation. Wake school and community leaders would often argue that Wake is one of the best school systems in the nation.

The playing field for getting into a magnet school could get a lot tougher for next school year.

As noted in today's article, school board members are talking about changing the selection criteria for magnet schools. Options that have been proposed include reducing the percentage of seats that are randomly filled and capping the number of students that could leave each school.

A sizable number of prospective magnet applicants could be affected by either change.

You can tell a lot about candidates from who gives them money.

As noted in today's article by Michael Biesecker, there are pretty noticeable patterns in the people giving money to County Commissioner Kenn Gardner and challenger Stan Norwalk.

Gardner's getting a lot of money from developers and the housing industry. Norwalk is getting a lot of money from slow-growth advocates and educators.