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.

Tuesday's discussion about Fox Road Elementary highlights the challenges and limits that the current assignment policy faces in Wake.

For those who don't want to read the whole post, I'll run off some of the main points from Tuesday's facilities committee meeting. Staff is reviewing the draw areas for magnet and year-round schools, which could affect where current and future application students will go.

For diversity reasons, some magnet schools were deliberately left with empty seats this school year. For diversity reasons, an effort to encourage more low-income students to apply for year-round schools may have backfired, at least at Fox Road Elementary.

School board member Keith Sutton wasn't happy last week at the apparent lack of diversity among the latest winners of the district's Employee Excellence awards.

Once a month, the school district honors employees, who've been nominated by their colleagues, at a school board meeting. Last week, 13 employees were recognized.

It was the first such ceremony for Sutton, who joined the board in August. After the ceremony ended and the employees left the room, Sutton said the winners did not appear to be a very diverse group.

It looks like you can add the Forest Ridge High site to the list of battles that will divide new and old school board members starting in December.

As noted in today's article, the current board members, with the exception of Ron Margiotta, told staff to go ahead with plans for using the Forest Ridge High site. But Chris Malone said Wake should be prepared for a change in that plan when he and other new board members take office.

"They should have stopped today," Malone said. "We're going to push ahead and make them stop it."

It was an interesting coalition of school board members who helped put Carolyn Morrison on the board last week.

In the 4-3 final vote, Morrison got support from Patti Head, Ron Margiotta, Keith Sutton and Horace Tart. Christine Kushner, an active PTA member and chairwoman of the District 4 Board Advisory Council, got votes from Eleanor Goettee, Anne McLaurin and Lori Millberg.

The 30-day pre-election campaign finance reports for Wake school board candidates are trickling in.

Candidates who intend to spend more than $3,000 have to have their report postmarked by today. As of this morning, five reports were in at the Wake Board of Elections.

The most interesting reports tell who is backing incumbent Horace Tart and challenger Cathy Truitt in the District 2 race. John Tedesco's report hadn't been in as of this morning.

Outgoing school board members Eleanor Goettee, Patti Head and Lori Millberg are backing candidates in at least some of this fall's races.

All three board members, whose terms will expire after November, are backing Horace Tart in the District 2 school board race. Tart is the lone incumbent seeking re-election this fall.

"He's brought great service to that district," Head said of Tart. "He's brought great common sense."

At her final regular meeting, school board members lavished Beverley Clark with praise.

While Clark will stay on through Aug. 14, Tuesday was her last regular meeting after 9 1/2 years on the board. One after another, board members and Supt. Del Burns praised Clark for her service.

"You have always sought consensus where possible, but you have also always held to your vision of what our schools and school system should aspire to become," said school board chairman Kevin Hill as he read from a letter written by the board members to Clark. "That clarity has benefitted our board, our schools, and our children well. It is a voice that will be missed."

For what could be the only time in his/her life, the new school board member for District 4 could see what it's like to speak to board members while under the clock.

Board members agreed Tuesday to give each of the nine applicants 30 minutes to answer questions at today's meeting. The plan is to put the applicants on the same timer in the board room that measures how long people have to speak during public comment sessions.

That was one of the things that came up during a fairly lengthy discussion about the ground rules that would be used during the interview and selection process.

UPDATE: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE AT END OF POST