Longtime Wake County school board attorney Ann Majestic is the focus of a front-page article in last week's issue of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.

The profile details how Majestic started a legal career that will lead to her in April receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys.

Much of the article focuses on Majestic's work in Wake, including her successful efforts to win over the initially suspicious Republican board majority in 2009. The article also talks about her personal views on the role of socioeconomic diversity in student assignment.

It looks like protesters were wrong if they were hoping that the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board would be more sympathetic that the Republicans were on the issue of mediation instead of prosecution.

As noted in today's article, the school board met in closed session last week and agreed to stick with the decision made by the former majority to recommend that the protesters who disrupted board meetings in 2010 go to trial.

Since it was discussed in closed session, neither the board members or board attorney Ann Majestic are saying why the board decided not to go with mediation.

The state NAACP is joining the Great Schools in Wake Coalition in calling for a delay in implementation of Wake County's new student assignment plan.

In today's open letter, the NAACP says "we believe it is in the best interest of all children of Wake County to delay implementation." The NAACP says there are too many unanswered questions to implement the plan for the 2012-13 school year.

"We encourage the school board to proceed in implementing a new student assignment plan only once they have the data and a clear program to ensure they are making the very best decision," according to the open letter. "We believe thoughtful people who put all our children first and who want high-quality, constitutional, well-funded, diverse education for every child -- as opposed to those driven by ideological agendas and partisan politics -- can always find common ground."

The letter was co-signed by the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP; and Timothy Tyson, education chair of the state NAACP.

The Rev. Robert Campbell, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, sent this letter to the Office of Charter Schools in opposition to the proposed Lee Scholars Charter School. The school will be considered for approval in the new year. (All text in bold is Campbell's emphasis.)

Dear Application Review Committee:

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and other concerned citizens of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District (CHCCS) respectfully request that your Committee reject the application for a charter school written by a Grand Rapids, Michigan for-profit corporation, the National Heritage Academies, Inc. (NHA)  We just learned the application was endorsed by a group of dedicated people from the Triangle area.  We know and respect  many of them.  It is on the fast track and the NHA proposes to open the school in 9 months.  

It is the position of the NAACP and our allies that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District (CHCCS) does not need this School.  The Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP stands firmly on the position of no diversion of taxpayers' money from our public schools to support the NHA's profiting from building a new school here. We throw our support behind the new superintendent of our schools, Dr. Thomas Forcella, and our new, duly-elected school board to determine the policies and personnel to meet our shared objective of educational success for every student.  We believe Supt. Forcella, the Board, and the team he is assembling are committed to work with the community stakeholders to forge a new path to end the achievement gap and advocate for diverse, constitutional, and high quality schools for all of our children.

The NHA did not see fit to inform or check with Dr. Forcella and his staff when it developed the proposal.  We urge you to investigate how this proposal was put together, its  purposes other than to make a profit for the NHA, and the impact it will have on the plans of the new Superintendent and his team to improve the educational experiences of all the students in our District.  The NHA application purports to meet three primary needs the NHA has identified in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community: 1) close achievement gaps; 2) prepare students for a rigorous high school and college preparatory program; and 3) alleviate overcrowding in elementary schools.  On information and belief, the Grand Rapids proposal writers have, in other proposals, stated quite similar “needs” in disparate school districts.  Although there are several problems with the application being submitted, we focus on these three “needs” the NHA has identified in our community.

Former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta says protesters arrested for disrupting school board meetings don't deserve leniency for "reprehensible behavior" that "threatened" public safety and "deliberately created chaos and fear."

In a letter to the editor Sunday, Margiotta contrasts the people who were arrested with those who were not during the last two years. He writes the board "tolerated" the "rude and disrespectful" behavior of people who were "cheering and jeering" and "simply refused to maintain civility and adhere to proper decorum."

But Margiotta writes that the protesters who were arrested went beyond simple acts of civil disobedience or disruption. He charges those protesters used "extreme and intimidating tactics."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR RESPONSE FROM STATE NAACP

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, is welcoming the new Wake County school board taking office today.

In a press release today, Barber writes that "we remain hopeful and optimistic for the new direction of the new Wake County School Board." He notes how the new Democratic majority has said it will review the new choice-based student assignment plan.

"The new majority seems to be willing to review and analyze the current plan," Barber says. "We hope that they will be use the standards of research, the law and lessons of history as opposed to a narrow-minded, regressive, political ideology that undermines public education rather than uplifting public education."

Barber says "any new plan that is implemented needs to surpass the nationally recognized and researched Gold Standard plan that existed prior to 2010." His release lists various concerns the NAACP has with the choice plan and urges the board to consider the guidance issued last week by the Obama Administration on promoting diverse schools.

Will the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board find their new "third way" of governing or will they act like the prior majorities that provoked such heated opposition?

As noted in today's article, the new members say they recognize the problems that dogged past Democratic and Republican majorities on the school board. They say they won't go back to acting like it was pre-2009 when Democrats were last in charge.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll find that third way where we’re strengthening our schools and not going backwards,” said new Democratic school board member Christine Kushner.

The review team from AdvancED will begin today the interviews that will help determine whether Wake County's high schools remain accredited.

The interview schedule for today includes seven current school board members and the three newly elected board members. Also on tap today are Superintendent Tony Tata, teachers and high school principals.

Wednesday's interview schedule includes two school board members, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore, the chief officers, area superintendents, the student assignment task force and the student body presidents.

Tomorrow's interview schedule also includes several community members and groups, including the state NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the Wake Schools Community Alliance, the Wake PTA Council, the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, is calling tonight's Wake County school board election results "a major step forward on the Highway of Justice and Love."

In a press release this evening, Barber said that "once again, children of all colors, we pray, can feel welcome in their schools and at their School Board."  

"Once again, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, old and young, rich and poor, Republicans and Democrats have all said, 'We want to go forward and not backwards,'" Barber says in the press release.

The state NAACP is calling on the Wake County school board to delay Tuesday's vote on the new student assignment plan until at least after next month's runoff election.

In an open letter sent late Monday evening, the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, argues that the vote shouldn't be held while the results of the school board election and investigations by the U.S. Department of Education and AdvancED are still unknown. The group also argues that last week's public hearing at Broughton High School is insufficient.

"Only one public hearing has been held, and a decision of this magnitude should have more," Barber writes. "The results of the election and two investigations are unknown, and the plan could be changed within a few months, wasting the school system's time and resources."