Email records show a high degree of behind-the-scenes tension during the first two months of the new Wake County school board.

Board members were complaining about each other and staff in the email exchanges. The emails, part of a public records request, covered messages sent by board members to each other and to Superintendent Tony Tata between Dec. 6-Jan. 25.

I'm off the rest of the week and won't be updating the blog or responding to questions. But I'm sure you guys will be kept busy by reading and commenting on the emails.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, is at today's Wake County school board meeting.

Barber had been barred from attending school board meetings as a result of his arrest on trespassing charges at board meetings in 2010. Barber pleaded guilty to the charges on Friday as part of a plea deal that will allow him to get the charges dismissed if he performs 40 hours of community service over the next six months.

It's unclear whether Barber has permission to be at the meeting since the District Attorney's Office said the trespassing notice is still technically in effect until the charges are dismissed. But the board could have opted on its own to waive the trespass notices.

Even before the charges were adjudicated, Barber and other protesters could attend board meetings if they submitted a letter in writing saying they promised to follow board rules. They didn't exercise that option before.

UPDATE

The Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, and Middle Creek High student Seth Keel are also at the meeting. They had also been trespassed and pleaded guilty Friday.

Barber said the trespass notices ended once they pleaded guilty. He said he and ther others will be reglarly back at the board meetings to monitor things.

Barber, Petty and Keel are getting hugged and congratulated by members of the audience.

If the idea of prosecution is to deter people from committing an offense again, it doesn't look like that's happening for at least some of the people who pleaded guilty on Friday to disrupting Wake County school board meetings in 2010.

As noted in today's article, protesters who spoke to the media after entering guilty pleas were defiant. They said they were proud of their actions and would be prepared to be arrested again if they don't like how the new school board or future boards are acting.

"We now are able to go back to the school board to speak again," said the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. "And if we sense that they're  headed off as the old board did, we will follow our conscience again and we will do what is necessary to protect our children and to keep our community involved in this conversation."

Here's a quick recap from today's court proceedings in which 21 people pleaded guilty to disrupting Wake County school board meetings in 2010.

The protesters will perform 40 hours of community service such as working in food banks and soup kitchens and pay $430 in fees. If they complete the work in the next six months, the charges will be dismissed. They can ask to have the charges expunged.

Although he entered a guilty plea, the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, still remained defiant. He pointed to last fall's school board elections as a sign they were doing what was right.

"We’re guilty of standing up for righteousness,” Barber said at a press conference where he was joined by the Rev. Nancy Petty, the Rev. Curtis Gatewood and Dante Strobino.

It looks like the closing chapter of the Wake County school board protests could begin on Friday.

As many as 19 of the 30 people arrested for protesting at school board meetings in 2010 are expected to enter guilty pleas under the first-offender program. Among the group who will plead guilty are the Rev. Nancy Petty and Tim Tyson.

I don't know whether the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, will be entering a guilty plea.

Unless the judge says no, the protesters would plead guilty and agree to perform a minimum number of hours of community service. If they perform the work within a specified time period, the charges would be dismissed. The protesters could then also ask to have the charges expunged from their records.

Wake County school board member Susan Evans has turned to a leader of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition to be one of her District 8 Board Advisory Council chairs.

Evans nominated Patty Williams, the communications director for Great Schools, on Monday to be one of the two BAC co-chairs. Williams was appointed in December to the BAC, which acts as sounding boards for board members.

The appointment comes after the controversy last week about the involvement of Evans and fellow board member Christine Kushner with Great Schools.

March 2 could be a memorable day for former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

In the morning, Margiotta will be in court as a potential witness in the case against the Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP, who was arrested on charges of disrupting school board meetings in 2010. In the evening, Margiotta will receive the Civitas Institute's inaugural Courage in Leadership Award.

"We need to respect politicians who do the right thing in the face of criticism and hostility," said Francis DeLuca, president of Civitas, about the conservative group's award to Margiotta.

It looks like the 30 protesters who were arrested at Wake County school board meetings in 2010 will finally be going to court.

Court dates have been scheduled for four Fridays between March 2 and April 13. Prosecutors grouped the court dates for the defendants based on when they were arrested.

This means the people arrested in March and June 2010 will be in court March 2. This group includes the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP; the Rev. Nancy Petty, pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; Tim Tyson, a Duke University historian and author; and Dante Strobino, co-founder of the self-described socialist group Raleigh FIST.

The Wake County school board has a lot crammed on its agenda today, including student assignment, school bus routing, the math placement policy and selling the Noble Road property.

That doesn't include the other items that may crop op, such as revisiting the mediation issue with the school board protesters and extending Superintendent Tony Tata's contract.

Let's start with the work session agenda, where we'll see if the new Democratic board majority heeds calls from its supporters to change the student assignment plan. Staff will give an update on the plan.

Thursday night's community mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church dealt with the new Wake County student assignment plan, getting mediation for the school board protesters and assailing the conditions at Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, most the focus of the meeting led by the state NAACP and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition was on complaints about the assignment plan. The crowd of around 50 people, mainly supporters of the old diversity policy, were urged to contact school leaders to change the plan.

"If you let the plane fly in the air and you don’t make those course corrections that you feel need to be made in order to make it a more successful plan for all students so we have a fair and diverse and well-funded education for all students, then shame on us if we don’t advocate for the changes to make it happen," said Patty Williams of Great Schools in Wake.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST