The Wake County school board named two new principals tonight and transferred another school leader to a job in Central Office.
Dhedra Lassiter was named principal of the new Rolesville Middle opening in July with a salary of $98,350. She's been principal of Heritage Middle since 2007.
Elizabeth MacWilliams was named principal of Brassfield Road Elementary with a salary of $68,513. She's been an assistant principal at Davis Drive Elementary since 2009.
SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS
The site in Rolesville for a new high school hasn't been acquired yet, but it looks like a name is already in place.
The Wake County school board's facilities committee unanimously recommended today that the new school planned in town be called Rolesville High School. The recommendation comes a week after the board voted to scrap the Forest Ridge High site in favor of looking at a pair of alternatives suggested by Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles.
Staff has been told to look at a property on Louisbury Road near U.S. 401 and another on Rolesvile Road near Quarry Road.
There's a healthy dose of skepticism among members of the Wake County school board majority to the idea that abandoning Forest Ridge High would cost $15.5 million.
As noted in today's article, administrators said switching sites now would push the opening back form 2012 to 2014. This two-year delay would lead to $10 million in classroom trailer costs, $4 million in inflated construction costs and $1.5 million in redesign work.
Unlike the old board, new board members are taking the staff info with more reservations.
Today should be a long day for some Wake County school board members.
It will start off at 9 a.m. with the board's facility committee meeting. It will wrap up sometime this evening with the community engagement meeting at Holly Springs High that could end at 9 p.m. or later.
This will mark the first committee meeting of the new board.
It looks like you can add the Forest Ridge High site to the list of battles that will divide new and old school board members starting in December.
As noted in today's article, the current board members, with the exception of Ron Margiotta, told staff to go ahead with plans for using the Forest Ridge High site. But Chris Malone said Wake should be prepared for a change in that plan when he and other new board members take office.
"They should have stopped today," Malone said. "We're going to push ahead and make them stop it."
Get ready for some overcrowding in parts of the county now that assignments to Forest Ridge High, Rolesville Middle and Walnut Creek Elementary have been put on hold.
As noted in today's article, the school board voted Tuesday to delay the assignments to those three schools by two years because the recession has delayed when they'll open. There will be consequences.
Not assigning students to Forest Ridge High until 2012 means that Wake Forest-Rolesville and Wakefield high schools will need to keep their off campus ninth-grade centers until at least then.
The recession will officially impact the student reassignment plan today.
Staff will ask the Wake County school board to vote today on a two-year delay in implementing assignments to Forest Ridge High, Rolesville Middle and Walnut Creek Elementary. The opening of all three schools is being delayed because the recession is limiting the amount that can be borrowed to build schools.
The board had agreed in February on a multi-year reassignment plan that included all three new schools. But changes were inevitable once the board voted in April to delay the three new schools.
UPDATE
The board approved the delayed assignments.
Staff is recommending delaying the opening of H6 in order to fund the renovations for Wake Forest-Rolesville High School.
Supt. Del Burns said that the Monday infusion of $100 million from the county still leaves the school district short of all that is needed. He said that some projects will be delayed.
Burns said that the Wake Forest-Rolesville High renovations should remain the top priority and be kept on schedule. But that means the other big ticket item, H6, would be put on hold.
