Both political parties have now officially weighed in with their endorsements for this fall's Wake County school board and municipal elections.

As expected, the Wake County Democratic Party announced Tuesday that it was endorsing Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8.

In the announcement, the Democrats accused the Republican school board majority of having "made a number of empty promises to voters (in 2009) that they have not met."

How has the Wake County school system determined if a school is "healthy?"

David Holdzkom, assistant superintendent for evaluation and research, gave the school board's economically disadvantaged student performance task force a rundown on Thursday as he presented Wake's 2009-10 Healthy Schools Report.

The repot looks at academic performance, school populations, facilities, technology, climate, resources, staffing and programs at individual schools. The report is a carryover from the old days of the socioeconomic diversity policy.

UPDATE

For those who are having problems viewing the PDF links I put up, the ED task force has now posted them on its website. Click here to view the Healthy School Report. Click here to view the report with the staffing data.

Wake County school board members Ron Margiotta and John Tedesco and county commissioners Tony Gurley, Joe Bryan, Paul Coble and Betty Lou Ward are slated to attend a special showing tonight of the documentary "Waiting for Superman."

Those elected officials are among the nearly 200 people that Parents for Educational Freedom in N.C. says have agreed to attend tonight's free screening and post-film discussion. The Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association is partnering with PEFNC in sponsoring the screening at 6 p.m. at Regal North Hills Stadium 14 in Raleigh.

"The discussion will allow parents and community leaders — including members of the Wake County School Board and the Wake County Board of Commissioners — to share questions and ideas about local educational issues and solutions for reform," according to a PEFNC media advisory.

It would be an understatement to say that Wake County school board member John Tedesco and Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Dan Coleman faced a largely hostile crowd Thursday night.

As noted in today's article, both men faced sharp questions and were repeatedly interrupted by the crowd of around 100 people at the RWCA meeting. Coleman faced calls for a no confidence vote while Tedesco was accused of not being able to prove that the new community-based assignment plan would improve academics.

"You don't know me but I know you," said Montica Talmadge, an RWCA member, to Tedesco. "The program that you want to implement is crap."

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is potentially walking into a hostile crowd this evening.

Tedesco will be a guest speaker at tonight's meeting of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association. While RWCA President Dan Coleman has been supportive of Tedesco and critical of the old diversity policy, you can't necessarily say the same for the membership, which had endorsed Horace Tart last fall.

Tedesco will discuss the work of the student assignment committee and the economically disadvantaged student performance task force. He'll be joined  by the other guest speaker, school board member Keith Sutton, who will give his observations on Tedesco's remarks.

UPDATE

I'll post more in the morning. But in short, Coleman and Tedesco were both verbally beaten up by a largely hostile crowd.

Dan Coleman, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, is stepping up his pointed criticism of Wake County's magnet school program and the old diversity policy.

In a letter to the editor today, Coleman complains about how Southeast Raleigh students are bused out of magnet schools that "are loaded with extras to attract affluent families from other sections of the county." Instead of those extras, he says those Southeast Raleigh kids are attending "just plain old traditional schools in other sections of the county."

"The magnet school component of our diversity school assignment policy is nothing more than the repackaging of separate and unequal," Coleman writes. "All children should expect the same equal access to an extraordinary education."

Where the Wake County school system stands days away from the 50th anniversary of the integration of Raleigh's schools depends on whom you ask.

As noted in today's article, those who fought for integration in 1960 and today's supporters of the discarded diversity policy say Wake is heading in the wrong direction with the move to community schools. But the school board majority says they're trying to fulfill the dreams of those who wanted integrated schools to give children a better education

“I am disappointed that – with so many seemingly having endured so much for so long to get to what was a terrific school system in Raleigh – it would be dismantled without any consideration of the long-term detrimental effects,” said former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell, who became the first black child to attend a white Raleigh city school on Sept. 9, 1960.

Dan Coleman, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, is getting fallout for his public criticism of the old Wake County socioeconomic diversity policy.

In a press release today, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children accuses Coleman of making "uninformed and misleading statements" about the diversity policy's impact on student achievement. CCCAAC President Calla Wright is accusing Coleman, the head of a group that's represented Raleigh's African American community since 1932, of supporting resegregation that will harm student achievement.

"It is shocking that Dan Coleman is so out-of-touch with the thoughts and feelings of the African American community and the academic needs of our students,” Wright said in the press release.

Dan Coleman, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, is speaking out against the old Wake County socioeconomic diversity policy.

As noted in today's article, Coleman's public criticism of the diversity policy is putting him at odds with the rest of the leadership of the local African American community. But Coleman said the test data shows that the diversity policy hasn't helped Southeast Raleigh students.

The passing rate on state reading exams for Southeast Raleigh students was 46.7 percent in elementary schools and 48.6 percent in middle schools. None of the other zones in the plan being considered by the board had passing rates below 60 percent.

The Wake County school board majority may be losing the goodwill of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association by not responding to the group's request that Keith Sutton be appointed to the student assignment committee.

In a letter Sunday to school board chairman Ron Margiotta, RWCA President Dan Coleman is complaining that the group's March 31 request for Sutton's appointment hasn't been responded to yet. Coleman notes again the group's willingness to work with the board in developing the new assignment zones.

Coleman writes that the group is willing to have another member of the board majority join the committee to balance Sutton's membership.