Former Wake County school board member Patti Head will now have a statewide education role as one of Gov. Pat McCrory's latest appointees.

On Tuesday, McCrory appointed Head to the board of the Public School Forum of North Carolina. It's a not for profit policy think tank which is a partnership of business leaders, education leaders, and government leaders in North Carolina.

Head served as the school board member representing northwest Raleigh from 2001 to 2009, including two stints as chairwoman. During her tenure, the record $970 million school bond issue was passed and she backed controversial proposals such as converting 23 schools to a year-round calendar.

Like McCrory, Head is a Republican. But Head didn't hesitate to oppose the former Republican school board majority. She joined more than 20 other former board members in 2010 in issuing a statement supporting the policy of busing for socioeconomic diversity.

Wake County Superintendent Del Burns will be honored today for his many years of service to the school system.

But don't expect the celebration to be held by the school board, whose new majority put Burns on paid leave for the complaints he made about them during media interviews. Instead, a group of former school board members will be hosting a celebratory dinner tonight for Burns.

"This is the proper thing to do," said former school board member Patti Head, who organized tonight's celebration. "This is a celebration."

The 22 former Wake County school board members who gathered together today were officially diplomatic about the changes being made by the new board majority, but it was clear they were personally unhappy with what's happening.

The former members talked about wanting "to ensure an equal opportunity for a sound basic education for every child in Wake County Public Schools." It was clear from their two-page statement that they feel "equal opportunity" is based on keeping the school district's longstanding busing for diversity efforts.

"For over 30 years, the Wake County Public School System has been a model for school districts around the nation," according to the statement read at today's press conference. "Because research consistently shows that challenges to success for all students in high poverty and racially isolated schools are greater, we have worked hard to prevent the creation of such schools."

UPDATE

Click here for an article in the Independent that lists the statement read by the former school board members..

The TAP program could get a big boost now that the new school board majority is set to take over on Tuesday.

As noted in today's article, the new majority thinks TAP can help provide incentives for teachers to work at high-poverty schools, which would increase in some areas under neighborhood schools.

It's a shift from how TAP was viewed by the old board as a supplement to the diversity policy. Outgoing board members such as Patti Head had thought of using TAP in schools where the F&R percentages were high despite efforts to balance enrollment.

The outgoing school board members left without throwing any real verbal bombs today as they were showered with awards and praise.

The outgoing board members spent much of their final comments thanking their families and school administrators. They also stood behind the decisions they made.

"Parents haven’t really liked what was done," said school board vice chairman Horace Tart. "But we always did what we did with the children in mind. That was the big picture."

Today marks the end of an era on the school board.

This afternoon will be the final regular board meeting for Eleanor Goettee, Patti Head, Lori Millberg and Horace Tart. You can expect a lot of laudatory statements from groups such as the other board members, administrators and Wake NCAE.

The outgoing school board members are getting some love as they leave the board this month.

This afternoon, board member Patti Head received a National PTA Life Achievement Award "for her devotion and distinguished service to children and youth." They're supposed to surprise her at this afternoon's District 7 Board Advisory Council meeting.

You can expect similar accolades for her and the three other departing board members at tomorrow's school board meeting.

Are Wacky Wednesdays on the way out with the new school board majority?

As noted in today's article by Ray Martin, new school board member John Tedesco said it's "highly probable" that the new majority will scrap the weekly Wednesday early dismissals. Tedesco didn't rule out the possibility that the change could happen as soon as this school year instead of waiting until July.

"I can tell you what I've heard and what the others have heard is an overwhelming number of parents who are not happy with this and we'll do our best to represent the parents," Tedesco said in the article. "I could not imagine that this would go on in the next academic year,"

If the Forest Ridge High fight is any indication, it's going to be a tumultuous transition for the new school board majority.

As noted in today's article, it doesn't look like the current board is too impressed by the new majority's request that they stop spending any money on Forest Ridge. Outgoing board member Patti Head said the new board members don't have all the information that the current board has on Forest Ridge.

"They're duly elected, but they're not sworn in yet," Head said in the article. "We're still the elected officials."

The recession is helping the school system find land for a new elementary school in northwest Raleigh.

The school board voted Tuesday to pay $2.54 million for 30.834 acres at the intersection of Baileywick and Strickland roads. Wake is buying the site from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is the receiver for the parcel.

According to a 2008 Triangle Business Journal article, a subdivision had been planned there. But the bank foreclosed on the Raleigh real estate investment firm that owned the land.