Costs are going up for Wake County's two new single-sex leadership academies while the delayed sale of the school system's office buildings is cutting into its ability to use its unspent bond money.

Last week, Don Haydon, Wake's chief facilities and operations officer, presented this handout of spending from the current school construction program showing they're projecting $5.1 million in savings. He said it's more than previously projected because they're able to get lower bids now for projects.

But before the board talks about how to spend that $5 million, Haydon said that they need to sell the district's vacated office buildings, including the former headquarters on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

The deal to house the Wake County school system's two new single-sex leadership academies at William Peace University fell apart in a matter of days this week.

As noted in today's article, the turning point came during Tuesday's school board meeting. The lobbying from Peace alumnae and students against the deal culminated in a lengthy closed-session board discussion that resulted in new questions for Peace that the university decided not to answer.

Peace's response was the terse statement saying it was walking away "due to the division and controversy on the Wake County Public School System board."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST WITH STATEMENT ISSUED TODAY BY THE PEACE ALUMNAE WHO OPPOSED PLACING THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMIES ON CAMPUS

Peace University just issued this statement walking away from the deal for the single-sex schools:

STATEMENT

“William Peace University has requested that the Wake County Public School System remove the university from consideration for the leadership academies due to the division and controversy on the Wake County Public School System board. We wish the Wake County Public School System the best as they continue to consider whether to move forward with the leadership academies.” – William Peace University

It looks like the Wake County school board will need to use its contingency plans for the schools.

UPDATE

Here's the statement the Wake County school system released in response to Peace's statement:

"The Wake County Public School System and William Peace University have been unable to reach an agreement on the location of the early college portion of the Leadership Academies. We will continue discussions in the future at a time that works for both of us to determine what is in the best interest of both organizations and their students."

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is reassuring parents at two new single-sex schools that they’ll open this fall even if a deal to house the academies at William Peace University falls through.

In this letter Wednesday to families at the new schools, Tata told them that the contingency plan would be to house the men’s leadership academy at a modular school site next to East Millbrook Middle School in North Raleigh.

Tata said the backup plan for the women’s leadership academy would be to house them at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in downtown Raleigh.

School officials said there’s enough space next to East Millbrook that they could house both the men’s academy and the new Abbotts Creek Elementary School if needed. Abbotts Creek received so few applicants in the first round of the school selection process that the school’s opening may be delayed.

More details to come, but the three new Democratic Wake County school board members are making a bid today to derail the two new single-sex leadership academies.

During the presentation at today's work session (click here for the handout), school board member Susan Evans said it wasn't fiscally responsible to start the academies now.

"Maybe it’s late in the game to have this discussion, but we haven’t had the chance to discuss it until now," Evans said.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Heather Losurdo got into some spirited discussions during their joint appearance on WRAL's "On the Record" show.

The discussion opened with Losurdo saying her resume is "contextually accurate." She said she was offended that people would say that someone like her with her military background and organizational and communications skills couldn't do the job of overseeing $2 billion in small business loans.

The topic then moved to the recently adopted student assignment plan.

Wake County's two new single-gender leadership academies are undergoing some changes before they open the doors for the 2012-13 school year.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Wake is now looking at partnering with Peace University to house both schools on their campus. The earlier plan was to have the male academy at the Longview School site and the female school at Raleigh Charter High's former space at Pilot Mill.

Wake will now only require that ninth-graders take Junior ROTC instead of having all grades in the program.