Does it make sense for the Wake County school system to hold a public hearing in a part of the district where students aren't being reassigned?

Wake County school staff had proposed holding a few public hearings on the new reassignment plan in northeastern Wake, where the bulk of the moves would occur.

But at last week's work session, school board members told staff to schedule at least one hearing outside that part of the county for families who might have other questions about the plan, such as how the base declaration period will work.

Wake County school administrators highlighted Thursday the various programs that are in place to provide unique academic offerings to the district's schools.

Historically, the magnet schools program has been the way that Wake schools have been beefed up academically. But during Thursday's school board student achievement committee meeting, staff highlighted the STEM schools, the Global Schools, early colleges, Renaissance Schools, K-8 academy, career academies and Title I program.

In a perhaps symbolic decision, the magnet programs office has been renamed magnet and curriculum enhancement.

Sanderson High has named former boys  basketball assistant coach Glenn Frazier as its  new head women's basketball coach.

Sanderson High School and the Sanderson Athletic Club will induct the second class of the Sanderson Athletics Hall of Fame in festivities to be held in September 2012.  The class includes nine individual athletes, one family, a set of three brothers, and one team.

The Four Oaks Bank Tri-Nine Challenge is back for another season, and this year it features six teams in the round-robin field.

Apex, Holly Springs and Panther Creek are this year's representatives from the Tri-Nine Conference.

*Update: due to the death of a student at Western Harnett High School Friday morning, the Eagles will not play any more tournament games this weekend. Below is the new schedule*

You may not actually live in the walk zone after all for the Wake County school you're now in or hope to attend.

As noted in today's article, Wake is using different mapping data for student assignment that what's currently used by transportation, Chief Transformation Officer Judy Peppler says they're using the most up-to-date data to determine how far students live from a school in the student assignment plan.

The new data means that some students who thought they'd get the walk-zone priority in the assignment plan are not now. That's a big deal because families who live within the 1.5-mile walk zone had a lot more success getting into a school than other applicants.

During Sanderson’s playoff run, the team hasn’t run away from using superstition as part of its success. In fact, the Spartans have been adamant about keeping their new superstition going.

Assistant coach Raymond Hammond said it all started with the bus the team has used during the postseason.

“All coaches have superstitions,” Hammond said. “Every time we’ve got on the bus we’ve been successful.”

The Spartans described their bus as the ugliest one the school has. That’s because it is more than 20 years old, making it the oldest one at Sanderson. And yes, it takes a few times for the engine to get started.

“It’s really old,” said Dashawna Smith, a senior guard who laughed at the situation.

The Spartans (20-8) stared using the bus two weeks ago for the Cap Eight conference tournament because it was large enough to transport both the varsity team and JV players who wanted to attend the postseason games.

Sanderson is 4-1 since using the bus. The only loss was to Millbrook, the team the Spartans will play tonight at the Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

Girls basketball teams play this Friday with a chance to advance to next week's regionals. Two area Cinderellas are still alive: 12-seed Cary and 11-seed Sanderson, who play at 1-Millbrook and 7-Southern Durham, respectively.

Hillside at Green Hope, a rematch from a second-round thriller from last year, highlights the area games as the two sides are a combined 49-5 this year.

Chapel Hill, Northwood, Jordan-Matthews and Goldsboro are at home in their quests to make regionals, while Bunn and Southern Lee are on the road.

All game times are 7 p.m.

The Cap Eight conference tournament finals featured two Broughton vs. Millbrook matches.

While the top-seeded Millbrook girls handed the Caps a loss, the 2-seed Broughton boys defeated the Wildcats.

Here is the story from both championship games.

Here is a photo gallery from the boys championship.

Here is a photo gallery from the girls championship.

The Cap Eigth 4-A conference season resumed this week after a number of teams participated, and performed well, in holiday tournaments. As we begin the new year, here are my power rankings for the boys side:

Millbrook (10-4): The Wildcats have played the toughest schedule of anyone in the Cap Eight. That should led Millbrook to succeeding in the conference season where the Wildcats will be the team everyone is gunning for. Shi’Chee Moore (pictured left) has proved to be the best point guard in the conference. If the Wildcats can continue to turn teams over, they’ll win a lot of games.

Wake Forest-Rolesville (10-2): Give a lot of credit to first-year coach Mickey Bissette. He has the Cougars believing in his system and themselves. The Cougars gave Garner its first loss – and this is the same Trojan team that won the premier Holiday Invitational tournament. The Cougars rolled off eight straight wins after a 66-61 win over Wakefield. Will Perry and Jordan Ayscue are making WF-R a real contender.