Tuesday night's Wake County school board vote on the student assignment plan will be accompanied by a protest.

Cary Town officials say a permit has been issued in Maria Reier's name for 50 to 100 people to protest outside the school system's headquarters on Tuesday. They'll be protesting from 5:30 to 6 p.m., ending in time for the start of the public comment section of the board meeting.

Organizers say they want to bring attention to widespread issues with the new assignment plan.

Has the Wake County school system been transparent as Superintendent Tony Tata has repeatedly told the public?

As noted in today's article, critics of the plan accused Tata and school administrators of being deceptive in how they've pitched the plan to the public. Two areas they raised in particular are their charges that Wake didn't list the true seat availability in round one and that they haven't been open about the assignment algorithm.

"Liar, liar pants on fire,” said Amy Lee, a member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, during the public comment section of the school board meeting. “Mr. Tata, are your pants on fire? From the public’s perspective, your pants are on raging fire."

Did the Wake County school board make a mistake in 2010 by voting to open Mills Park Middle on a traditional calendar instead of as planned on the year-round calendar?

As noted in today's article, the answer was yes Tuesday from several Carpenter Elementary parents who blamed the decision to open Mills Park on a traditional calendar as a big reason why they're feeding into East Cary Middle in the new student assignment plan.

Without Middle Park as a year-round school, the plan gives the Carpenter families calendar continuity by sending them to East Cary. But parents said it's their seventh closest middle school located on the other side of Cary.