Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta laid down the law at Tuesday's commissioners meeting before the vote approving the Rolesville High School site.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Margiotta came to the meeting to make a public pitch for purchasing the Rolesville site. He told commissioners that any thoughts of rejecting the site to try to force the school board to go back to the Forest Ridge High site would fail.

“Wake County Public Schools will not build H6 on the Forestville Road site,” Margiotta told commissioners.

Whether the Wake County school board can stick with the Rolesville High School site or has to go back to the Forest Ridge High site will be decided today by county commissioners.

Supporters of the Rolesville site are mobilizing for the public comment section of today's meeting before the commissioners vote. They'll be joined by opponents of the site, urged on by County Commissioner Stan Norwalk's call to draw a line in the sand against the school board majority.

One of Norwalk's arguments for going back to Forest Ridge is that the traffic concerns about the site have been resolved. The residents of Chesterfield Village strongly disagree.

UPDATE

County commissioners approved the Rolesville High School land purchase. The vote was 4-3 with Lindy Brown breaking ranks with her fellow Democrats to back the deal. Click here for the online story.

The recent dustup over Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's comments is raising questions again about a potential conflict of interest with his wife, Wake County school board member Anne McLaurin.

School board member Deborah Prickett, a lifelong Raleigh resident, called Meeker's comments "inappropriate" that the board majority are not from this area. She added that she's concerned now about Meeker's opposition to building a new high school in Rolesville instead of the Forest Ridge site in Northeast Raleigh.

Prickett raised concerns about how McLaurin receives confidential information about the H6 site during closed sessions. Prickett said she'd like to review the conflict of interest guidelines involving McLaurin and Meeker.

Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk is arguing that rejecting the Rolesville High School land purchase would be a case of drawing a line in the sand against the Wake County school board majority and stopping their "madness."

In a message posted Wednesday on Curmilus Dancy's blog, Norwalk calls locating the new high school in Rolesville and not the Forest Ridge site in Northeast Raleigh the latest example of politics by the school board. He said rejecting the Rolesville site is "about stopping the death of WCPSS by a “thousand cuts."

"If the line in the sand is not drawn here, future cuts will be harder and harder to stop," Norwalk writes. "The H6 vote is the first opportunity for the Board of Commissioners to take action to stop the madness, the meanness and the eventual death of diversified public education in Wake County."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County Commissioners Stan Norwalk hurled some pretty serious allegations at today's meeting about why the school board wants to build a high school in Rolesville instead of on Forestville Road in Raleigh.

"It stinks of politics being carried on behind closed doors," Norwalk said. "It's not logical."

Pressed by Commissioner Joe Bryan, Norwalk said he didn't have any evidence except that it was illogical that it happened any other way.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is accusing the Wake County school board majority of putting "special interest politics ahead of the values of the community" with the votes taken at last week's meeting.

In a press release today, GSIW complains about the 5-4 votes on hiring Heidrick & Struggles, eliminating the requirement that the superintendent be an educator and dropping out of the state and national school boards associations.

Yevonne Brannon, GSIW chairwoman, said the board actions taken last week "demonstrates reckless disregard for the community and for our family values.”

A political battle is looming over the Wake County school board wanting to buy the land off Rolesville and Quarry roads for the new Rolesville High School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk and Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker are leading the effort to get the commissioners to reject the land purchase. They want the school board to go back to the Forest Ridge High site.

Norwalk is calling the abandonment of Forest Ridge for the Rolesville site a case of rewarding people who support the new majority's ideology. (He's talking about Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and school board member Chris Malone and not the owner of the site being purchased, St. Lawrence Homes.)

It was a busy night for the Wake County school board once the protester were arrested.

I'll go into more detail in another post about the 5-4 votes to allow the board to hire a non-educator to be superintendent and to hire Heidrick & Sruggles to be the search firm.

This post will focus on the board's decision to drop membership from the N.C. School Boards Association and to buy land for a new high school in Rolesville to replace the Forest Ridge site.

CORRECTION

The new high school site is not one of the ones proposed by Frank Eagles. It's across the street from one of the sites he proposed.

Don't count on Raleigh to help come up with any of the costs for abandoning the Forest Ridge High School site in favor of a site in Rolesville.

Wake County school administrators had warned that abandoning Forest Ridge, located in northeast Raleigh, would lead to $15.4 million in additional costs. After losing the vote to keep Forest Ridge, the school board minority got Debra Goldman to join them in asking Knightdale, Raleigh, Rolesville, Wake Forest and Wake County to donate $7 million to help offset the additional costs.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said the request will be discussed at today's City Council meeting. But the response will be a quick no.

The actual student reassignment changes recommended on Thursday were small in number, but they show the difference in thinking with the new Wake County school board majority.

As noted in today's article, the board's student assignment committee recommended seven changes for this fall’s student assignment plan and left on the table for further review a dozen other changes. All were based on parental requests to have their children attend schools closer to home.

“We’re not talking about socioeconomic status anymore,” said school board member John Tedesco, chairman of the student assignment committee, after the meeting. “Once we pass the resolution, we won’t be talking about it again.”

(For those who are looking for the changes discussed Thursday, click the read more button to find the link later in the post.)