Stay tuned Tuesday to see whether the Wake County school board reconsiders the deal to lease a vacant office building to use as Panther Creek High School's new ninth-grade center.

School board chairman Kevin Hill said that the lease deal, approved by the board on Feb. 7, is the sole topic of the specially called board meeting that starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Parents have been flooding the school district to voice their objections to the deal.

If the school board does a 180 on the lease deal, the likely alternative would be to plop some modular units on the site of the future Alston Ridge Middle School. While closer to Panther Creek that the office building, the Alston Ridge site wouldn't be ready until August 2013.

On a related note, school board member Deborah Prickett sent out an email today saying that it's been determined that the official vote on Feb. 7 on the deal was 8-1 with only Jim Martin voting no. This comes after the email exchange between Prickett and Susan Evans about the vote.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association released its proposal for conference realignment on Thursday.

Cary’s Green Hope and Panther Creek will be in a high school conference with Durham Hillside, Durham Jordan, Durham Riverside, Northern Durham and Person for the next four years according to a plan approved Wednesday by the realignment committee of the N.C. High School Athletic Association.

Wake County school board members Deborah Prickett and Susan Evans have been engaged in a heated email exchange over how the vote went to lease an office building to use as the ninth-grade center for Panther Creek High.

Evans says the vote was not unanimous but Prickett says it was unanimous. The issue may hinge on whether you're talking about the vote in closed session or the one in open session at Tuesday's board meeting.

The board was briefed on the proposal during the work session.

Green Hope's girls and Apex's boys won the regular-season titles, and backed them up by winning the conference tournament.

Click here to read the story from both finals, including Apex's exciting overtime win against the Green Hope boys and Green Hope's girls denying the upset bid of 6-seed Middle Creek.

Click here for a photo gallery from the girls final

Click here for a photo gallery from the boys final

Here's the quick recap of today's press conference held by Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata defended the proposed bell schedules changes as a way that will save money that can be put to better use in the classroom. But he also acknowledged parental concerns, pointing to the online survey that has generated 1,100 comments so far.

Tata also said today that, based on parental feedback, he'll talk with school board chairman Kevin Hill about taking another look at the deal to lease an office building to serve as a new Panther Creek High School ninth-grade center.

The board opted not to stick modular units on the site of a future middle school next to Alston Ridge Elementary School. While the office building at 3700 Pleasant Church Grove Road in Morrisville is further away from the high school, it can be ready for the 2012-13 school year.

UPDATE

Click here for the online story.

Wake County school board member Jim Martin flexed some of his political muscle at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Martin got the board to amend the plan to reallocate $130 million in unused bond money to cover the cost of design work for renovations to Athens Drive High's stadium. Staff is projecting they'll have $500,000 left over, which Martin noted would cover the design costs for the stadium.

The design work would jump start the renovation project. The actual funding for the $7.4 million in renovation work would come from the next bond issue.

The Wake County school board voted tonight to acquire two sites to relieve overcrowding at Garner and Panther Creek high schools.

The school system will pay $1.75 million to buy the Garner Towne Square 10 theater, located at 2600 Timber Drive. The theater, which closed in 2010, will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for the nearby Garner High.

The school system will pay $12.38 per square feet to lease a 77,574-sq. ft. office building at 3700 Pleasant Church Grove Road in Morrisville. It would be a six-year lease, starting July 1, with a 3 percent annual escalation. The building will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for Panther Creek High.

The Leesville Road boys and Panther Creek girls won the East regional on Saturday afternoon. Leesville's 254 point edged Cap-8 Conference foes Enloe (246) and Millbrook (194). Panther Creek had to fend off members of its own conference as well, as the Catamounts' 288 points bested Green Hope (261.5), Apex (260) and Cary (213).

The day had one major revelation, as Green Hope had four relay teams -- all three boys teams and one girls -- disqualified before competition began.

Green Hope and Panther Creek made requests to the N.C. High School Athletic Associaton on Tuesday to place the schools in a league with other current Tri-Nine 4A schools.