Could the Wake County school board make one more change to the student assignment plan for this fall?

The only change the board made last week was to accept the staff recommendation to increase the percentage of magnet seats at Poe Elementary School. But school board member Jim Martin unsuccessfully tried to call for a vote on having staff keep magnet schools within their projected percentage of magnet seats.

Wake has divided the magnet schools into three groups.

Three new principals and two interim principals were announced at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Barry Richburg was named principal of Conn Elementary School in Raleigh with a salary of $72,386. He's been an assistant principal at Briarcliff Elementary since last year.

Annice Williams was promoted from assistant principal to principal of Poe Elementary School in Raleigh with a salary of $89,521. She had been principal of Barwell Road Elementary until much of the staff was replaced last year when it became part of the Renaissance School program.

More to come later but Wake County school administrators said today that 75 percent of families who requested a school under the new student assignment plan got their first choice

School administrators said that 74.9 percent of the 19,048 applicants got their first choice. The figure rises to 82.2 percent when the second choice is included.

The results varied across grade levels with 92.2 percent of students entering kindergarten getting their first choice. The percent getting their first choice drops to 73.4 percent of rising ninth-graders and 65.3 percent of rising sixth-graders.

UPDATE

The only change staff will recommend today is increasing the percentage of magnet students at Poe Elementary to 80 percent. Staff hopes this will lower the school's F&R rate.

The Wake County school board named two new principals tonight and transferred another school leader to a job in Central Office.

Dhedra Lassiter was named principal of the new Rolesville Middle opening in  July with a salary of $98,350. She's been principal of Heritage Middle since 2007.

Elizabeth MacWilliams was named principal of Brassfield Road Elementary with a salary of $68,513. She's been an assistant principal at Davis Drive Elementary since 2009.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS

Wake County school leaders have hired a new area superintendent and named the person who will lead a new single-sex school for male students.

On Tuesday, the school board hired Kevin Hobbs to fill the vacant position of Area Superintendent for Central Wake, covering a number of Raleigh schools in and around the Beltline. Hobbs has been the assistant superintendent for leadership and development in the Houston Independent School District since 2010.

Although Hobbs spent much of his career working in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, he was a teacher at Garner High School from 1993 to 1995. His salary will be $120,000 a year.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE HOBBS' SALARY