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.

Some Wake County school board members back barring the Rev. William Barber from being on school property following his arrest at the June 15 board meeting.

School staff have placed trespassing notices on the three activists who were arrested for disrupting the March 23 board meeting. But the case of Barber and the other three people who were arrested for disrupting the June 15 meeting is still under review.

School board member Chris Malone said Barber, head of the state NAACP, should be trespassed for his actions on June 15. The four activists refused to give up the podium and then occupied the seats of the board members when they left the room.

Contrary to some reports you may have heard, the Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, has not been barred from going on Wake County school system property as a result of last week's arrest.

Greg Thomas, a Wake schools' spokesman, said people are not automatically banned from school property if they're arrested on trespassing charges. He said today no decision had been made yet on whether to bar Barber or any of the other three people who were arrested at last week's school board meeting.

It wouldn't be unprecedented to issue those trespassing notices.