AdvancED plans to come to Raleigh on Feb. 17-18 to conduct the special review of Wake County schools "with or without the cooperation of individual board members and professional staff."

That was the message in this letter that Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, sent to the school system today. In the letter, Elgart also officially rejects the conditions in Thursday's letter that Wake had set in order to work with AdvancED in the review.

Elgart said in today’s letter that they’re focusing on the school board’s governance and leadership.

Is it the Wake County school system or AdvancED that is being unreasonable and uncooperative in the accreditation review?

As noted in today's article, both sides insist they've been cooperative and that the other party has been unreasonable. There has been plenty of finger pointing over the process, which is putting at risk the accreditation of Wake's 24 high schools.

"All said, the history of communication reflects that the school system has been cooperative and that AdvancED has not," writes school board attorneys Ann Majestic and Jonathan Blumberg in Thursday's letter to AdvancED. "Collegiality is a two-way street, and the school system wants to restore constructive dialogue and good faith to this process."

The Wake County school board could vote Wednesday to pull out of AdvancED just as a a team from the accreditation agency is about to begin its special review.

As noted in this online article, Ann Majestic, the school board's attorney, said that pulling out of AdvancED will be discussed during a Wednesday closed session meeting. Some school board members have been vocal in complaining they felt AdvancED was overstepping its authority with the wide-ranging special review prompted by a state NAACP complaint.

AdvancED President Mark Elgart sent Majestic an e-mail message Monday complaining about Wake's lack of cooperation with the review.

UPDATE

For the umpteenth time today, the school board has revised the agenda for Wednesday's meeting. They've now scheduled a public discussion and vote on AdvancED for after the end of the reassignment hearing at Millbrook. The AdvancED talk would likely begin after the public comment ends at 8:30 p.m.

Click here to read the latest e-mails between Majestic and Elgart.

AdvancED is apparently perplexed by why the Wake County school system is being so resistant to the special accreditation review.

As noted in today's article, AdvancED CEO Mark Elgart said that school board attorney Ann Majestic's Sept. 8 letter questioning the scope of the review was an unusual response. School districts usually are less resistant to reviews.

“A normal response from a school system would be to provide the requested information and to ready themselves for the visit," Elgart said.

Whether or not you agree with the review, it looks like the Wake County school board majority's policies will face tough scrutiny from an accreditation organization.

As noted in today's article, AdvancED gets dozens of complaints a year about school districts but only investigates a handful. Mark Elgart, the president and CEO of AdvancED, said they felt the concerns raised in the state NAACP complaint and in informal complaints later filed by other critics of the board majority warranted an in-depth review of Wake.

"It is rare, and it is serious,' Elgart said of the pending Wake review.