Are state Senate Republicans just giving some county governments more flexibility over school construction or are they trying to exact more political payback on the Democratic-led Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, Senate Democrats charged that Republican legislators were deliberately going after the Wake school board in Senate Bill 236. Senate Republicans denied politics were involved, just as they denied that politics was behind Senate Bill 325, the Wake school board redistricting bill.

The bill comes as the Wake County school board and county commissioners meet this morning to go over a proposed $939.9 million school construction program that would largely be funded by the fall bond issue.

In a late addition to today's calendar, the state Senate approved legislation that would allow the Wake County Board of Commissioners and eight other county boards to take over school construction.

Senate Bill 236 was approved 33-15 with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. Sen. Neal Hunt said the bill just makes business sense for commissioners to be in charge of construction.

But Sen. Josh Stein charged the bill was targeted at Wake County and was "payback" for the public voting in a Democratic school board majority. Sen. Dan Blue charged it was another case of "meddling" in the affairs of Wake and ensures defeat of the school bond issue this fall.

The bill now goes to the state House.

More to come later, but the state Senate Education Committee approved this morning a revised version of Senate 236 Bill, the school construction bill.

The bill, which now goes to the Finance Committee, now only affects nine counties, including Wake County. An amendment from Sen. Josh Stein to drop Wake was rejected.

Stein and school board vice chairwoman Christine Kushner basically raised the points from the school district handout for why the county shouldn't take over schools. They argued the system now works and doesn't need to be changed.

Sen. Neal Hunt argued that commissioners have more business experience than school board members. Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, told the committee that the school board had become "a board of construction versus a board of education."

UPDATE

The state Senate is moving quickly today to adopt Senate Bill 236. The Senate Finance Committee added the bill to its agenda and approved the legislation.

It's been added to today's calendar for a vote by the full Senate..

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is telling its members they need to continue to fight against the Wake County school board redistricting bill because "we must stop this interference in local representation."

In action alert dated Monday, GSIW asks people to contact Wake County House members to let them know they oppose Senate Bill 325. The bill, which passed the state Senate, is awaiting discussion in the state House elections committee.

GSIW offers talking points to use, including how "redrawing lines that racially polarize the community does harm to our county." They suggest mirroring locally a bill proposed in the General Assembly that would create a nonpartisan redistricting process for state legislative seats.

As expected, the Wake County school board voted 7-2 tonight to pass a resolution supporting keeping the current election districts.

The vote comes a day after the state Senate passed Senate Bill 325. Democrats in the state House will likely point to the school board's resolution as they try to block the bill's final passage.

During the debate, board member Deborah Prickett referenced this 2011 Wake Ed blog post in which Susan Evans and Jim Martin both criticized the current election lines before they were elected to the board.

Are there racial reasons in the changes in Wake County school board election districts in Senate Bill 325?

As noted in today's article, Sen. Josh Stein and Sen. Dan Blue, both Raleigh Democrats, charged that the bill had racial and partisan purposes in play. They spoke for most of the debate before the Senate voted 33-17 to approve the bill with all Republicans in support and all Democrats voting no.

During part of his speech, Stein focused on the urban regional district created by the bill. He said it matches the boundaries for Blue's legislative district, which he said was one of the minority districts that the Republican majority had drawn up before the rest of their new state legislative redistricting lines.

More to come later, but the state Senate approved tonight the Wake County school board election bill by a 33-17 vote with Republicans in support and Democrats voting no.

Sen. Neal Hunt said S325 was meant to increase voter turnout and, through the two regional districts, increase the chance that a parent could vote for a board member who represents the school their children attend.

Senators Josh Stein and Dan Blue charged that the bill was racially and politically based. Stein said it would reopen the wounds that the community is healing from.

Blue said the bill would tear down a great school system.

The Wake County legislative delegation should expect to hear more today from people opposing bills that would change how Wake County school board members are elected and take away their control of school construction.

WakeUP Wake County is urging people to show up again like they did at the March 25 public hearing. The new hearing takes place before the Wake school board will discuss during Tuesday's work session supporting the current election districts instead of going to the ones in S325, the school board election bill.

With WakeUP Wake, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and the Wake County Democratic Party urging people to show up March 25 to oppose the school bills, you can guess what the turnout was like. Here are some of the comments from the March 25 hearing.

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce's proposal for resolving the fight over school ownership and school board elections appeared to fizzle Wednesday.

As noted in today's article, Joe Bryan, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said no Wednesday to the chamber's proposal that both boards work out agreements before the pending state legislation passes.

“It’s a little late in the day for the Chamber and they’re not presenting much,” Bryan said.

Is Senate Bill 325 essentially a second try for Republicans to hold a majority on the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, the stated main purpose of the new legislation is to give individual Wake County voters the ability to elect a second school board member. But the bill also lets state Republican lawmakers rewrite the boundaries for Wake's school board districts.

This comes after the redistricting plan approved by the former Republican school board majority in 2011 didn't turn out as some thought that it would in ensuring GOP control of the state's largest school district.