The draft summary of Wake County's new student assignment plan seems to promise a lot of things to different people.

As noted in today's article, the plan promotes proximity by noting that "base assignments will be made at one of their proximate schools to the extent possible." It also says that "residential areas and subdivisions proximate to schools and representative of the students already attending the schools" were used.

For those concerned about diversity, administrators say "in the establishment of the base school attendance area, student performance data was used when an overcrowded or under enrolled school was adjusted."

Cary’s Green Hope and Panther Creek will be in a high school conference with Durham Hillside, Durham Jordan, Durham Riverside, Northern Durham and Person for the next four years according to a plan approved Wednesday by the realignment committee of the N.C. High School Athletic Association.

Wake County school board member Chris Malone is touting what he's done for Eastern Wake in his bid to win the state House 35 seat.

One of the school board accomplishments that Malone points to on his campaign website is the nixing of the Forest Ridge High School site in Raleigh in favor of Rolesville High. While hotly debated at the time, Rolesville High is set to open in August 2013.

"Mr. Malone was elected in 2009 to the Wake County School Board, where he has been working to bring Community Schools and sorely needed programs and equitable treatment to Eastern Wake County," says Malone's website. "Amongst his efforts that were brought to pass were the Student Assignment program, the moving of a high school from Raleigh to Rolesville, and the opening of two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) schools."

Green Hope and Panther Creek made requests to the N.C. High School Athletic Associaton on Tuesday to place the schools in a league with other current Tri-Nine 4A schools.

The Wake County school board will act today on, depending on your point of view, a major folly of the old board majority or the new board majority.

The school board is scheduled to vote today on declaring the abandoned Forest Ridge High School site as being surplus property. This would allow the school system to sell the property to recoup some of its costs.

The new board majority had directed that the site be sold after voting February 2010 to abandon Forest Ridge. But the issue got some impetus last month when staff left in its future building plans a proposal to still build an elementary school on the site.

UPDATE

The board voted 6-2 to declare the land surplus with Carolyn Morrison and Keith Sutton voting no.

How well do you think the new and somewhat fractured majority on the Wake County school board performed this past school year?

As noted in today's article, this past year saw a lot of fire and brimstone on the issue of student assignment and school diversity. While the former majority members say they wish they could have done more, they're pleased overall with what they did accomplish on student assignment and other issues.

“We’ve been doing some good things," said school board member Chris Malone. "We’re moving forward. We’re trying to get student assignment worked out."

You can officially use the name of "Rolesville HIgh School" for Wake County's new high school opening on Rolesville and Quarry roads.

Staff had originally only planned to present the naming as an information item today but board members said there was no reason to wait. The board chose Rolesville High School over two other alternatives — Buffalo Creek High and Quarry Road High.

CORRECTION

No decision has been made yet whether Wake Forest-Rolesville High School will need to be renamed.

The Wake County school board's agenda for Tuesday covers a wide range of things, including student assignment, eliminating the Effectiveness Index and relocating Central Office to Cary.

During the work session that begins at 3 p.m., the board will discuss board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new multi-year student assignment plan. They'll also get into a talk on the 2011-12 assignment plan, the third year of the plan adopted by the old board.

Also during the work session, the board will discuss whether to keep the process of having only one regular action meeting per month.

UPDATE

If passed, the resolution would essentially kill off the Effectiveness Index. E&R has said that the only resources put in are staff time.

Whether or not you agree with the review, it looks like the Wake County school board majority's policies will face tough scrutiny from an accreditation organization.

As noted in today's article, AdvancED gets dozens of complaints a year about school districts but only investigates a handful. Mark Elgart, the president and CEO of AdvancED, said they felt the concerns raised in the state NAACP complaint and in informal complaints later filed by other critics of the board majority warranted an in-depth review of Wake.

"It is rare, and it is serious,' Elgart said of the pending Wake review.

With some judicious editing, candidates for Wake County schools superintendent will find out what the public thinks about the search process.

As noted in today's article, George Conway, the team leader from Heidrick & Struggles, said participants in the feedback sessions cited improving the public image of the school system as one of the challenges facing the new superintendent. It's part of a  report shared with the board's superintendent search committee on Monday.

The report will also be shared with candidates. But some of the wording will be eliminated or modified after board members raised concerns.