The word inconsistent was said more than a few times Thursday by members of the Wake County school system's new school safety task force after getting an overview of the current security practices.

As noted in today's article, task force members were surprised to hear about the lack of a uniform standard of security measures at the 169 schools. For instance, the majority of schools don't have a security officer or computer system for managing visitors and a large minority have few or no surveillance cameras and outdated locking systems.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, co-chair of the task force. “We’ve got a lot of inconsistencies.”

The issue of Wake County school security will continue to be on the agenda as the district's task force on school safety holds its first meeting this afternoon.

The group, chaired by Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison and retired Raleigh Police Capt. Al White, is supposed to review Wake school safety policies to come up with recommended changes. The meeting, starting at 4:30 p.m. at Crossroad II, 110 Corning Road in Cary, is open to the public.

Security was also an issue for Wake County school board members during Wednesday's facilities committee meeting.

Does the Wake County school system need to have a policy for how law enforcement interviews and arrests students on campus?

The school board was scheduled to vote on giving this new policy approval on first reading on Oct. 30 until board member Jim Martin interceded. As a result, the policy was tabled for up to 90 days for further review by the policy committee.

Martin, chairman of the policy committee, had given the policy his approval at the Sept. 25 committee meeting. But he raised concerns after getting in contact with Jason Langberg, an attorney for Advocates for Children's Services, which works with students who are suspended and who are arrested.

Wake County school board members are preparing for a hasty departure today if the tornado watch turns into an actual tornado.

School board chairman Kevin Hill said that if Russ Smith, senior director of security, tells them they need to go then they will go. He said he won't take the time to request an adjournment.

"We’re doing what they’re telling us to do," Hill said at the start of today's board work session.

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.