The Wake County school board approved new contracts tonight for school resource officers after staff said that they would seek to review this memorandum of understanding with law enforcement.

Russ Smith, Wake's senior director of security, said it was time to review the MOU because some of the police chiefs and Superintendent Tony Tata weren't here when it was previously adopted. Among the items Smith said would be reviewed are use of force and when SROs can file court petitions.

After his assurances, the deals with the Raleigh and Cary to provide officers for the 2012-13 school year were adopted.

During the discussion, board member Deborah Prickett said she was opposed to North Carolina being one of only two states that tried 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Other board members agreed with her.

Here's an abbreviated recap of today's Wake County school board meeting with more to come later.

A decision on the grading practices was delayed until Aug. 16 to give more time for public comment and to allow staff to report back on additional information on the rationale for going back to letter grades in grades 3-5 and to learn more about how behaviors would be incorporated into the policy.

But the signs are that the new grading policy will pass with school board vice chairman John Tedesco strongly advocating for the revision. But you could still see some revisions made to the R&P.

Is Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta now singing a different tune on the issue of reviewing the school resource officer program?

In an interview Wednesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Margiotta was effusive in this praise of the school resource officer program as being necessary now that society has changed. He said he's hoping Superintendent Tony Tata's review will not result in any change of the program.

"I have some serious concerns with the fact that we're even considering making any changes," Margiotta said. "That's my personal feeling."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

It looks like, for now, high schools in Cary and Raleigh will still have police officers assigned to them for the 2011-12 school year

After a lengthy debate, the Wake County school board unanimously agreed tonight to continue their contracts with the Raleigh and Cary police departments for school resource officers for the high schools. As part of the vote, Superintendent Tony Tata was directed to come back in three months with a review of the SRO program.

But before the vote, some board members talked about delaying the vote and what would be necessary should they terminate the deals.

An overhaul of Wake County student discipline policies that largely eliminates zero-tolerance punishments could be adopted as soon as this week.

As noted in today's article, the Wake school board will vote Tuesday on a series of changes to the discipline policy with the biggest change being how suspensions would now be issued. School leaders expect the changes will reduce how often and how long students are suspended from school.

The changes appear to enjoy broad board support. Even critics of Wake's current discipline policies acknowledge it's a major change.

Raleigh Police escorted out of today's Wake County school board meeting a high school student who was barred from attending because of a previous arrest for disrupting a board meeting.

Seth Keel, 16, a Middle Creek High School student and member of the youth group, N.C. HEAT, demanded the right to speak at the board meeting. But he was escorted out because he had been arrested on second-degree trespassing charges for refusing to give up the podium at an August school board meeting.

Keel, along with the nearly 30 people who've been arrested for disrupting school board meetings to protest the elimination of the use of socioeconomic diversity in student assignment, has been barred from attending school board meetings. The people who've been arrested can only attend board meetings if they request permission in advance and agree not to be disruptive.

Citing financial costs, the Wake County school board has rejected today going with a new design for the board meeting room that will be built in Cary.

Staff had presented last week a design that drew concerns from some board members, notably Debra Goldman, because it would result in some audience members facing the backs of board members. The board table was closer to the middle of the room.

Staff presented a new plan today that would put the board table at the back of the room so that everyone in the audience would face the board. It would also have provided 260 seats, 30 more than the one presented last week.

Would you be offended if Wake County school board members sat with their backs to you during board meetings?

That's what the blueprints now have in place for the school board room that will be located at the Crossroads complex in Cary that will be the new home for Central Administration. That design can be changed but it would cost money and further delay the move from Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

But the changes could occur because some board members don't like the design of the new board room.

UPDATE

The discussion of the board room layout has been added to Tuesday's work session agenda before the discussion of the student reassignment plan.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is talking about threats made against his life in light of this week's shooting at a Florida school board meeting.

As noted today in this Garner Citizen article, Tedesco says he has received multiple threats against his life during the past year. But he said he does not fear for his own safety.

“We’ve already seen it get heated. We had to step up our security measures here a long time ago,” Tedesco said.

Without explicitly saying so, the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, seems to be hinting he'll defy the Wake County school board's decision this week to bar him from school property.

In a press release this morning, Barber challenges the trespass letters issued against him and the three other people arrested for disrupting the June 15 meeting. He points out that no court has banned them from being on school property while saying that school board chairman Ron Margiotta is "not the judicial system" and "not a judge."

"We will let the lawyers handle his (Margiotta) threats and letters while we will keep speaking the truth in love and standing in our faith for justice," Barber writes.