Two different pictures are emerging about the situation taking place at the new Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata acknowledged that an enrollment cap is needed at Walnut Creek to deal with overcrowding. But Tata, pointing to the additional resources provided to the school, says that Walnut Creek is "on the right track."

In contrast, Cash Michaels calls the overcrowding situation a "crime." He accuses Tata and the Republican board majority "of literally turning their backs on the growing problem there."

UPDATE

Click here for an updated version of the article in The Carolinian that Cash Michaels wrote about the crowding situation at Walnut Creek.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata said today that he will ask the school board on Tuesday for permission to cap enrollment at the new Walnut Creek Elementary School in Southeast Raleigh.

Instead of just 780 students as planned, Walnut Creek now has more than 930 students. This comes amid all the scrutiny about Walnut Creek, where concerns that it would open as a high-poverty school with many low-performing students led to a mass infusion of additional resources.

"We wanted to make it a high demand school and we did," Tata said at today's press conference.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta is promoting how "a bi-partisan group of Wake County leaders are speaking out in support of (his) leadership of the Wake County Public School System."

In a press release today, Margiotta says the statements show that he "is being recognized and commended for his commitment to Wake County schools as well as his continued focus on raising achievement for each student." Some of the names are who'd you expect, such as Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly, Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears, Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams, Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and County Commissioners, Joe Bryan, Paul Coble and Tony Gurley.

But would you expect a statement from Knightdale Mayor Russell Killen? Killen spoke at the Friends of Diversity press conference just before the 2009 school board elections. He's also a member of the same law firm as Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker.

“Chairman Margiotta has taken an active interest in Knightdale schools, and I appreciate all of the time and effort he has devoted to understanding and improving the schools in our area," Killen says in the press release.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison says she's not endorsing school board chairman Ron Margiotta in his re-election bid even though she appeared at his campaign kickoff event.

Morrison said she attended Margiotta's July 18 event as a sign of respect to the board's longest serving member. She said he respected how he persevered as a member of the board's minority for several years.

But Morrison said she's not planning on endorsing Margiotta, his District 8 opponent Susan Evans or any other candidate in this fall's races. She said she might change her mind if there are run-off contests.

Is the rest of the nation watching this fall's Wake County school board elections?

As noted in today's article, that's an assertion made by state Rep. Paul Stam, the House Majority Leader, in explaining why he's endorsing school board chairman Ron Margiotta in his re-election bid in District 8.

"I support Ron Margiotta because this election represents a national litmus test in education reform," Stam said in an invitation to a July 14 fundraiser for Margiotta. "From the New York Times to the Washington Post, the Wake County School board elections will be analyzed on a national scale."

There's got to be something about "American Idol" fans and the Wake County school board.

In the latest episode, school board member John Tedesco drew boos at Saturday's festivities at Lake Benson Park in Garner for "American Idol" contestant Scotty McCreery. Tedesco was among the elected officials at the event who were announced by Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams.

Tedesco was there because Garner is in his district. McCreery is also a junior at Garner High School, which is in Tedesco's district.

In the school system's prior brush with "American Idol," former finalist Clay Aiken criticized the school board majority for eliminating the diversity policy.

Supporters of community schools had a much better turnout at Thursday's student reassignment hearing at Garner High School.

As noted in today's article, it was sharply different from Wednesday's hearing at Southeast Raleigh High when the biggest group was supporters of the Wake County's old diversity policy. It was a lot more evenly mixed Thursday.

Wake County Commissioner Phil Matthews set the tone as the first speaker.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County mayors are bailing out of Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's proposed committee of lawyers and educators that would review Wake County's developing student assignment plan.

As noted in today's article by Sadia Latifi and Ray Martin, at least three Wake mayors have changed their minds about joining and several more are on the fence. Meeker has only gotten assurances of three of the county's other 11 mayors that they'll stay on the committee.

“After having learned more about it, it’s clear that it’s not going to be a community-based group that’s going to look at the plan,” Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly said. “[To evaluate the plan] is the responsibility of the duly elected Wake County Board of Education.”

Will the reassignment of the Garner High and Stough Elementary students be the Achilles heel for the Wake County school board majority's move to community-based schools?

As noted in today's article, the federal civil rights complaint filed by the NAACP focuses on the Garner and Stough moves to accuse the school board majority of engaging in racial discrimination. The contention is that these moves were racially based as part of an act of "intentional discrimination."

"The Board was implementing the will of a well-organized and vocal set of parents who want to live in racially-isolated neighborhoods and send their children to racially-isolated schools," according to the complaint.

How much of the acrimony over the move to community based schools in Wake County is because of a lack of communication by the school board?

As noted in today's article, the Raleigh City Council passed a resolution in April expressing concern about the move to community based schools and asked for information on how the demographics at area schools would be impacted. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker expressed irritation at Monday's East Raleigh CAC meeting about not having gotten a response to the request.

"They didn't feel they had to respond to us," Meeker said. "A city of 45 percent of the students expressing concern about what they're doing and they didn't bother to send a letter back to us."