Congratulations tonight to Ken Branch of Brentwood Elementary School being named the Wake County school system's 2012 Principal of the Year and Ruth Ann Freeman of Bugg Elementary School being named Assistant Principal of the Year.

An interesting note here is that Brentwood is one of Wake's Renaissance schools, which have come under fire lately from members of the school board's Democratic majority.

Before his firing, Superintendent Tony Tata had repeatedly touted the academic gains at the Renaissance schools. A sore point, for the majority members, is the use of merit pay at the Renaissance schools.

Wake County school leaders are touting the academic gains this past year at several schools with high levels of low-income students

New results released today show that all four Renaissance Schools saw gains in their passing rates and made at least expected growth. The most dramatic gain was at Barwell Road Elementary, where the passing rate rose 9.7 percentage points to 74.1 percent. 

Wake used $9.5 million out of its $10.2 million in federal Race to the Top funding to create the Renaissance model.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata was at Barwell Road Elementary School this morning to laud the Renaissance schools for their academic success.

During a brief pep talk with teachers, Tata said preliminary test results indicate that Barwell had the highest increase in test score proficiency in the district. His remarks drew applause from the teachers.

Tata said that Barwell showed high growth and also had a 10-point increase in proficiency.

It looks like, at least in the near term, any use of teacher performance pay in the Wake County school system would be on a limited basis.

Wake County school board members debated the use of merit pay when reviewing the draft strategic plan last week. Some school board members support its use while others are adamantly against it or only support using it in limited cases.

Performance pay is already in limited use in Wake.

Learn to embrace the new common core of standards that could result in a nationwide education curriculum.

Wake County school officials said today they will drop plans to add an additional 10 minutes to the school day as part of their effort to temporarily circumvent the new state requirement for a longer school year for students .

Instead, Wake will take advantage of the process set up Friday by the state Board of Education to get waivers without having to add the additional days or hours. Wake will request a waiver to provide teachers more training on the common core of standards.

The Wake County school board announced tonight they had replaced three principals who are part of a new program to help struggling schools and had also chosen a new leader for Southeast Raleigh High.

New principals were chosen for Barwell Road, Brentwood and Wilburn elementary schools while the principal of Creech Road Elementary was allowed to keep her job. They’re all part of the Renaissance Schools program, a new effort targeting additional resources at Wake’s four lowest-performing elementary schools.

The principals and teachers at the four Renaissance schools had to reapply if they wanted to keep their jobs, which comes with a hiring bonus and merit pay. Those who aren’t hired back or don’t want to stay are transferred to other schools.

SEE END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS FOR THE PRINCIPALS

Here's some more details about the Renaissance Model being used to turn around the Wake County school system's four lowest performing elementary schools.

The quick description is that additional resources, including new technology, signing bonuses and performance bonuses, will be used at Barwell Road, Brentwood, Creech Road and Wilburn elementary schools. All four schools happen to have high poverty levels but they were chosen because their passing rates were below 60 percent on state exams last year.

The issue has gotten more attention this week because the school board voted Tuesday on a $950,000 a year bonus plan for the schools using federal Race to the Top money.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton wants the school district to begin setting priorities for things to protect in the face of next year's budget crunch.

Sutton got the process started at last week's finance committee meeting, where he proposed ideas such as protecting pre-K funding, providing enough funding for alternative schools and improving the academic performance for African American male students.

Sutton said he's hoping the full school board will have a similar discussion on the issue.

You've got two weeks to press you case to Growth Management to suggest changes to the 2011-12 student assignment plan before it's presented to the Wake County school board.

Laura Evans, senior director for growth management, told board members on Tuesday that she wants input on changes by the Thanksgiving break to be able to incorporate them into the plan that will be presented Dec. 7.

Most of the suggestions will likely come from the community workshops being held next week. But Evans said people can also send e-mail to studentassignment@wcpss.net to suggest changes.

Wake County's share of the Race To the Top Grant could be used to reinvent four low-performing elementary schools.

Wake is slated to get $10.2 million over the next four years. Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens told board members today that administrators want to use the grant money for efforts such as teacher performance pay and additional technology at schools where lower than 60 percent of students are passing state exams.

This group now includes Barwell Road, Brentwood and Wilburn elementary schools in Raleigh and Creech Road Elementary School in Garner.