Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton will seek a leadership role on the National School Boards Association's Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE).

Sutton told his colleagues at the Feb. 19 board work session that he's been asked to seek a seat on CUBE's national steering committee. He asked if he had the board's blessing. No one objected.

CUBE gave the school system an award for its former socioeconomic diversity policy in 2009. CUBE represents more than 100 urban school districts in 35 states, Ontario and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Will the Wake County school board's decision Tuesday to back a statewide resolution opposing transferring school ownership to county commissioners be a good or bad thing?

As noted in today's article, Republican school board members tried to talk their colleagues out of voting on the resolution Tuesday. But members of the Democratic board majority insisted they needed to respond to what's now become a statewide issue since the Wake County Board of Commissioners made the request.

“This is not the best way to deal with these situations," said Democratic board member Jim Martin. "But we’re not in the best situation. This is an issue that should have been discussed between our two boards. It shouldn’t be going to the legislature.”

More to come later, but the Wake County school board voted 6-2 along party lines tonight to pass the N.C. School Boards Association resolution opposing turning school ownership over to county commissioners.

Democratic board members argued that they needed to join with the state's other school districts in opposing what's now expected to be statewide legislation and not just a request from Wake County Commissioners.

Republican board members said it would only add fuel to the fire.

By the same 6-2 vote, the board approved the 2013-14 NCSBA legislative agenda. Republican board members objected to wording about giving school boards taxing authority.

The question now is whether the Wake County school board will vote tonight on the NCSBA resolution opposing transferring school ownership to county commissioners.

During the work session, Democrats said they need to respond to the Wake commissioners making it a statewide issue over who should own, build and maintain schools. But Republican board members argued that passing the resolution would only add more fuel to the fire.

School board chairman Keith Sutton said he will decide whether to remove the resolution from the meeting agenda and instead discuss the issue at Thursday's joint meeting of both boards.

UPDATE

Sutton said he will leave the resolution on the agenda because it's a statewide issue that the N.C. School Boards Association wants districts to vote on.

Former Wake County school board member Chris Malone is one of two Republican state legislators who is criticizing the school system for hiring a lobbyist to oppose changes backed by county commissioners.

Malone's comments are part of this press release issued today by the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group that's no fan of the current Democratic board majority.

“As a former member of the Wake County School Board, I understand the need for another elected body to offer its views on proposed or needed legislation," Malone says in the press release. "While on the Board, I often made our case to our Wake County Legislative Delegation, via telephone, email or personal visit. Legislators are more than willing to listen to various points of view."

The Wake County school board is going to fight it out in the General Assembly against the county commissioners over proposed legislative changes.

As noted in today's article, members of the school board's Democratic majority objected to the legislative changes backed by the GOP majority on the county commissioners. The school board will fight letting commissioners take over ownership of schools, give money to help charter schools build facilities and their support for adding at-large school board seats.

Democratic board members said they were defending the school system by hiring a lobbyist to oppose the commissioners' 2013 state legislative agenda.

The desire to conduct a full-scale national search is apparently what tipped the balance Tuesday in favor of the out-of-state firm that was chosen by the Wake County school board to conduct the superintendent search.

As noted in today's article, school board chairman Keith Sutton said he felt that McPherson & Jacobson could potentially do a better job of recruiting nationally than the N.C. School Boards Association. Sutton also liked how McPherson & Jacobson would solicit community input.

Sutton's concerns blocked his fellow Democrats from picking the School Boards Association, resulting in the deal that led to McPherson being hired after the recess.

The Wake County school board is deadlocked on picking a superintendent search firm.

The board 4-4 to hire McPherson & Jacobson when Democratic chairman Keith Sutton voted with the Republicans. The board then deadlocked 4-4 when Sutton sided with the Republicans and voted no on hiring the N.C. School Boards Association.

Sutton has called for a 10-minute recess. He quipped though it won't take 56 rounds of voting, harkening back to the 2011 vote for vice chair.

UPDATE

The board voted 7-1 to hire McPherson when the other Democrats, except Kevin Hill, flipped their votes.

More to come later, but it looks like the Wake County school board will vote tonight to hire the N.C. School Boards Association to conduct the superintendent search.

Of the four firms who submitted proposals, board members of both parties liked McPherson & Jacobson while Democrats said they liked them and NCSBA. The other two firms were ruled out for various reasons.

But what seems to be the clincher is that while Democratic members say they like both firms, they say the cost differential is too great for them to pick McPherson. NCBSA is offering to do the search for $14,500 plus expenses while McPherson would be $47,000 per expenses.

Members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition are offering their perspectives on the search for a new superintendent to the liberal N.C. Policy Watch.

In an article published Thursday, author Lucy Hood says GSIW members want the next superintendent to be a career educator, someone with experience in the classroom. This would come after GSIW had opposed the hiring of former Superintendent Tony Tata, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general.

“No more professional hires from the military, or business,” says GSIW program coordinator Patty Williams in the article. “I’m a business person. I do not believe business people should be running a school district. …. The superintendent needs to be professionally trained and a highly experienced educator.”