Candidate and school board chairman Ron Margiotta held firm to his opposition to the use of achievement schools as he touched on student assignment and other matters today.

In an interview today with conservative WPTF talk show host Bill LuMaye, Margiotta said parents all across the county, including those in Southeast Raleigh, have indicated they want neighborhood schools. He pointed to how parents on the online test drive overwhelmingly chose their closest school.

"Parents want to be close to home and as far as I'm concerned every school in this county should be a high-achieving school," Margiotta said. "And I think that's what our goal should be: to make every school high achieving, not just ones in the suburbs. or not just our magnet schools within the cities, wherever they may be."

The leadership of the Wake County Democratic Party voted tonight for Cary Town Councilman Erv Portman to replace Stan Norwalk on the board of commissioners.

Portman was the lone nominee at the meeting. Portman would take the seat unless the GOP majority on the board of commissioners rejected him and called for a special election this year to fill Norwalk's vacant seat.

Traditionally, the commissioners have deferred to the political party of the commissioner who resigned. This would mean that Portman would fill Norwalk's seat through at least the end of his term in 2012.

How Portman, who is far more pro-development than Norwalk, fits in on the commissioners and on school issues remains to be seen.

UPDATE

Click here for Friday's article by Thomas Goldsmith and Andy Kenney in which County Attorney Scott Warren says that rejecting Portman's appointment would result in a a special election for Democratic voters to fill Norwalk's seat.

Wake County Commissioner Stan Norwalk left with a parting blast today as he announced that today's meeting was his last.

As noted in this online article by Thomas Goldsmith, Norwalk said his departure is "bittersweet" because he hasn't accomplished the full agenda for which he was elected in 2008.

"I'm leaving at a time when when the biggest thing that I advocate for, which is public education, is under attack," he said, laying blame on the "ultra-conservatives" at the state General Assembly.

Will Wake County school board members side with county commissioners or school district staff on the issue of "purpose and function" in school budgeting?

Commissioners had passed a resolution in December to request, but not require, the school board to use purpose and function. If implemented, the school district would divide the $313.5 million it will request from the county into several categories and have to get permission to change any category by more than the 15 percent.

But David Neter, the school district's chief business officer, says he'll ask the school board to request the $313.5 million as a lump sum and not through purpose and function.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley talked today about his bid for lieutenant governor, this year's school budget and the upcoming fall school board elections.

In an interview today on the Rick and Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Gurley said the Wake County Republican Party "is very excited" about this year's school board elections in which five of the nine seats are on the ballot.  Without mentioning Debra Goldman by name, Gurley talked about increasing the GOP board majority in light of how fractured things have gotten.

"I believe that people were a little concerned when Republicans elected a majority during the last election but there was a little fracturing of that alliance and so everyone is seeing that you can't count on a one-person majority always holding together," Gurley said. "People are very excited about the potential of expanding on that majority that we already have."

Stan Norwalk may not be the only Wake County commissioner who gives up his seat early.

Under The Dome reported yesterday that Tony Gurley had announced he had filed organizational papers to run for lieutenant governor in 2012. Gurley's term on the board of commissioners doesn't end until 2014 so he could keep the seat while running for statewide office.

If Gurley wins, the leadership of the Wake County Republican Party would be able to nominate a successor that the commissioners would have to accept. That person would hold the seat through 2014.

Could Yevonne Brannon return to the Wake County board of commissioners as the replacement for Stan Norwalk?

Bob Geary is reporting online today in the liberal Independent weekly that Norwalk is stepping down this year as a county commissioner. Geary reports that Norwalk's home is on the market and that he plans to relocate to Kansas to be near one of his daughters as soon as it sells.

Geary is reporting that Norwalk is telling friends and fellow Democrats "that he wants his replacement to be, as he is, a strong voice for the Wake schools." It means being a supporter of the old diversity policy, among other things.

As expected, the new Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 this evening to rescind the resolution expressing concern about resegregation of the school system.

Paul Coble, newly elected chairman of the board of commissioners, said it was time to remove the "political hammer" that was used by the prior Democratic majority to go after the school board for eliminating the diversity policy.

Coble said that commissioners should have run for the school board if they had wanted to get into student assignment.

UPDATE

By a 4-3 vote, commissioners approved adding lifting or eliminating the cap on charter schools to the board's statewide legislative goals. It was a straight party-line vote after Norwalk unsuccessfully added an amendment saying charter schools should reflect the diversity of the community.

Click here for today's article of the meeting by Thomas Goldsmith.

The new Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners is planning on making a major splash at their first meeting on Monday.

As noted in today's article, commissioners are planning on reversing some decisions made by the prior Democratic majority. Two revotes that affect the school system will be rescinding the resolution on school resegregation and restoring greater oversight over the school budget.

Tony Gurley, who will likely be replaced by Paul Coble on Monday as the new chairman, said they're correcting the "mistakes" made by Democrats who've been in the majority since 2009.

Year two for the Wake County school board members who took office last December could be even more challenging than their first year.

As noted in today's article, the upcoming year has a wide range of big issues for the school board to face that go beyond student assignment. The board will also have to hire a permanent superintendent, adopt new board member districts, work out the details of the next bond issue, deal with the U.S. Department of Education and AdvancED investigations and prepare for the elections.

But the one thing board members on the various factions can agree upon is that the budget crisis will be the top issue over the next year.