Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta has named the members of the superintendent search committee but Keith Sutton is not one of them.

Board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman will chair the committee. She had previously been charged with looking at various firms that might be hired to help conduct the search.

Goldman will be joined on the committee by Chris Malone, Carolyn Morrison and Deborah Prickett.

UPDATE

Click here to view the school district's press release on the committee appointments. 

The Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association wants school board member Keith Sutton to have a greater say in selecting a new superintendent and in developing the new student assignment model.

In a letter Wednesday to school board chairman Ron Margiotta, RWCA President Dan Coleman asked that Sutton be appointed to the student assignment committee and to be named co-chair of the superintendent search committee.

FYI, Sutton is the school board rep for Southeast Raleigh, which is the home for much of the RWCA's membership.

What's the best course of action to take if you're a supporter of the diversity policy after Tuesday's night Wake County school board vote?

As noted in today's article, some groups are vowing to fight the new board majority's every step over the next nine to 15 months as the community assignment zones are developed. But others are taking a more conciliatory tone.

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, said they're going to vet everything the board does and point out problems to the public. She doesn't think the majority will be able to implement the new model.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco has approached several African-American leaders to be a part of the economically disadvantaged student performance task force.

Tedesco said he's contacted several people, including Raleigh City Councilman James West, Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Daniel Coleman and the Rev. Patrick Wooden, the pastor of Raleigh's Upper Room Church of God in Christ. He said he's been asking people who are leaders and who represent a broad section of the community.

Tedesco said he has not asked the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, to participate on the task force. Both men have had a war of words over the new school board majority's plan to end the diversity policy.

Wake County school board candidates Deborah Prickett and Horace Tart are the first ones to file their year-end campaign finance reports.

Tart's final report shows he spent $12,306.98 during his unsuccessful bid for a second term on the board. Toward the end of the campaign, he got $150 from school board member Anne McLaurin and $150 from former Raleigh Mayor Smedes York.

The report shows Tart paid $700 to the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association's political action committee to be his poll workers on Election Day.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition went live today.

According to the group's web site, its mission is to "provide accurate information to educate the public about policy initiatives that would impact the quality of education, to foster well-informed discussions about critical education issues, and to advocate for policies that improve public education in Wake County."

Based on the coalition's partners, you can tell that they're supporters of the current school diversity policy and are not fans of the new Wake County school board majority.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The new school board members are reaching out to the black community to discuss the changes looming on the horizon in Wake.

New school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone and District 2 candidate John Tedesco met Thursday with school board member Keith Sutton and Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association President Danny Coleman.

Tedesco said new board member Deborah Prickett couldn't attend because of a scheduling conflict. 

It looks like the joint press conference by the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is on hold.

Both groups, along with potentially some others, had been looking to meet Thursday to publicly back school board candidates who support the diversity policy. The latest word is that there might be a press conference, or just a press release, sometime next week.

We'll see if the groups try to make a last-minute election splash.

Some local African-American leaders are planning to publicly state their support for Wake school board candidates who back the diversity policy.

The details are being finalized, but it's looking like a Thursday press conference will be held involving groups such as the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children.

The game of guessing who wants to replace Rosa Gill on the school board is well underway.

Board members say they've been contacted by people interested in filling the soon-to-be vacant slot. As noted in a previous post, the board agreed Tuesday on the procedures that will be used to appoint a successor.

Two people whom Gill had indicated are interested in the job — PTA volunteer Jonica Rowland and retired principal Alice Garrett — were at Tuesday's board meeting. Garrett was there in her role as education chairwoman of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association to present Gill a silver bowl.