The Wake County school system is back to square one when it comes to finding a ninth-grade center to relieve overcrowding at Panther Creek High School.

The Cary Town Council voted Thursday against amending a town ordinance to allow the school system to place modular classrooms at the site of the future Alston Ridge Middle School to house the ninth-grade center.

Town staff said the change would open the door for any other school to put trailers on vacant lots. Council members were also worried about how temporary they'd actually be on the site.

It's been a long winding path where the school board initially voted to lease an office building in Morrisville that would have been ready for this year. But after parental complaints, the Democratic majority nixed the deal and voted along party lines to go with the Alston Ridge site, which wouldn't have been ready until 2013.

UPDATE

Click here for the Saturday article on the vote by Andrew Kenney.

Three Wake County school board members are requesting a revote on placing  Panther Creek High School's ninth-grade center at the site of the future Alston Ridge Middle School.

Republican board members Deborah Prickett, John Tedesco and Debra Goldman are requesting a discussion and revote on the location of the ninth-grade center at the June 5 meeting. They're citing the concerns raised by Cary Town Councilman Don Frantz about the town having to grant an ordinance amendment to approve the use of the site.

But the board's fourth GOP member, Chris Malone, is asking "isn't it very late to be having this discussion?" He asks what the "value proposition is" to reconsider the item at this late date.

Different methodologies are yielding different results on competing lists of the nation's top public high schools.

Four schools in the Triangle made the top 100 of Newsweek magazine’s “America’s Best High Schools 2012” list that was released this week. A total of 11 Triangle schools made the top 1,000 school list.

In contrast, only three schools in the entire state were in the top 1,000 in the U.S. News & World Report list released this month. Broughton High School in Raleigh was the only Triangle school in the top 1,000 on that list at 966.

The Wake County school system could find it hard getting approval from the Cary Town Council to erect a ninth-grade center for Panther Creek High School.

Cary Town Councilman Don Frantz writes in this Wednesday blog post that "we can all agree that we need additional school capacity, and I am well aware of many of the issues Panther Creek students and teachers are dealing with."

But Frantz adds he has several concerns with granting an ordinance amendment that would allow the ninth-grade center to be erected on the site of a future middle school next to Alston Ridge Elementary.

The proposed move to "standards-based" grading will be the main topic at today's first meeting of the reconstituted Wake County school board student achievement committee.

Ruth Stedinger, senior director of middle school programs, will give the committee an overview of the grading review and the recommendations that have been made. Recommendations such as reducing the value of homework, counting retests and letting students hand in work late caused the prior board to put the idea on hold.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children has been advocating Wake to implement the recommendations.

The grading review has gained new attention since the Panther Creek High cheating scandal. Panther Creek has been one of the schools that been pursuing the grading changes on its own, such as not giving zeros and allowing students who've cheated to take alternative exams or assignments.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children says that all Wake County students deserve the same second chance that's been given to the Panther Creek High School students who were caught cheating.

In this press release today, CCCAAC points to school officials having called the Panther Creek students who were allowed to take an alternative exam instead of getting a zero "good kids." The CCCAAC asks "how many children have received 0’s when caught cheating and failed the class for the year because they were not given a second chance?"  

The CCCAAC alleges racism in Wake not moving ahead with the grading review, writing that "discrimination, SEGREGATION occurs when students do not receive the same opportunities for achieving mastery and equity when being evaluated on graded activities."

"Are these students at Panther Creek more deserving of a second chance because they are from an affluent family and viewed as UPPER Middle Class students who attend one of the top schools in the nation?" the CCCAAC writes. "...All students deserve the same opportunities even if CAUGHT CHEATINIG (sic)!!"

The Panther Creek High cheating incident and the school budget proposal dominated much of the discussion today's news conference held by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata said he stands behind how Panther Creek issued short-term suspensions and in-school detentions for the five students who were caught cheating. They were also required to take an alternative exam to see if they knew the material.

Tata was asked how fair it was for Panther Creek to give an alternative exam when some schools would give zeros for cheating. Tata pointed back to the ongoing grading practices review and how principals have autonomy to make decisions within the broad framework of board policy.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

With cheating and grading being up for discussion now in Wake County, let's look to the situation at Panther Creek High School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County school officials said that five Panther Creek juniors were implicated in up to three incidents of cheating, including distributing copies of an exam. Students and parents say some of the students cited for cheating had been among the top 10 percent in academic rank in the junior class.

In terms of consequences, at least one student was removed from the National Honor Society. A student who distributed a test to several classmates received a short-term suspension and several students received detention as an in-school suspension.

Students also faced academic consequences such as having to take an alternative exam or do an alternative assignment.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association girls lacrosse playoffs begin Friday, May 4. Conference champions East Chapel Hill, Green Hope and Cardinal Gibbons received first-round byes. Defending state champ Apex is a 2-seed.

See more match-ups by clicking below.

Cardinal Gibbons has hired Todd Schuler - athletics director at Panther Creek - to the same position. Schuler (pictured left) had been at Panther Creek since the school opened in 2006 and the athletics director since 2008.

Gibbons had been searching for a replacement since January, when Dean Monroe left the school after 22 years as athletics director to become the AD at St. Mary's.