The new school board majority is flexing its muscles today.

Just one day after Tuesday's election win by John Tedesco, the new board majority sent a letter today urging Wake to immediately stop work on Forest Ridge High. The letter is signed by Tedesco, Chris Malone, Debra Goldman, Deborah Prickett and Ron Margiotta.

The four new board members don't take office until Dec. 1 so it's up to the current board whether to honor the request. The current board and staff have warned that any delays to Forest Ridge High will push back the opening of the school.

Here's the joint letter:

The Wake Schools Community Alliance has continued to raise more money for the runoff.

In this campaign report received today, the WSCA reported having raised $36,919.44 as of Oct. 19. The group had spent most of the money, leaving $2,650.54 available.

The biggest new donor was conservative businessman Robert Luddy, who gave $4,000. School board member Ron Margiotta gave $1,650.

SEE CORRECTION AT END OF POST

Chalk this up as another example of how things are changing on the school board.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association is announcing that school board candidate John Tedesco and the three newly elected school board members will speak at the group's monthly meeting on Thursday.

They'll be joined by current school board member Ron Margiotta, called "our hero" by the WCTA, and Allison Backhouse of the Wake Schools Community Alliance.

School board member Keith Sutton wasn't happy last week at the apparent lack of diversity among the latest winners of the district's Employee Excellence awards.

Once a month, the school district honors employees, who've been nominated by their colleagues, at a school board meeting. Last week, 13 employees were recognized.

It was the first such ceremony for Sutton, who joined the board in August. After the ceremony ended and the employees left the room, Sutton said the winners did not appear to be a very diverse group.

School board member Ron Margiotta made another unsuccessful pitch today for the current board to halt spending more dollars on the Forest Ridge High project.

Margiotta said they should stop spending any additional dollars on Forest Ridge while staff reviews other sites. He pointed out that the new board members also have concerns about the Forest Ridge site.

But the issue brought up by board members again is the lack of time.

Cathy Truitt's decision to concede the election on Monday puts the likely new school board majority in good shape to run the show for four years.

As noted in today's article, the school board's approach of electing members by district instead of countywide will make it hard for the other side to regain control in 2011. It's ironic considering that supporters of current board polices have been the ones who most fought against at-large elections.

As it now stands, three of the board seats in 2011 are held by supporters of the diversity policy. The only one that they could pick up to flip the board is the District 8 seat held by Ron Margiotta.

While some of you guys want the new school board majority to get rid of Supt. Del Burns, it wouldn't be cheap or easy.

As noted in today's article, buying out Burns' contract would mean paying him 18 months of salary, or $409,500. The alternative is firing him with cause, which is essentially a trial that would be expensive as well.

School board member Ron Margiotta said he hopes Burns will stay on to implement the changes that will be made. He said he personally likes Burns.

School board member Ron Margiotta is talking about a more gentle move to neighborhood schools in 2010-11.

As noted in today's article, Margiotta wants to see if they could make it possible for parents to request seats at neighborhood schools in 2010. This would be done in lieu of a forced shift back.

It looks like the school board will hear from both sides after all about the SAS report.

Today's presentation comparing the SAS EVAAS model and the school system's Effectiveness Index was originally only going to be presented by staff, including Asst. Supt. David Holdzkom.

School board member Ron Margiotta said he sent a letter to Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens complaining about no one from SAS being invited to attend.

The conspiracy theories are flying about Cathy Truitt's announcement today that she's conceding the school board race.

Some people think it's a ploy designed to discourage John Tedesco's supporters from coming out on Nov. 3 so that she can win, or at least have the current school board fill the seat. Truitt says those theories are ridiculous.

Here's the background from today's online story: