It took a bit of prodding Thursday before Wake County school board members finally agreed to publicly support having a school bond this year.

Following the consensus vote in favor of a $900 million school construction program, Commissioner Tony Gurley noted that commissioners have made a successful school bond their top goal this year.

Gurley asked school board members if it's their goal this year as well to have a successful bond issue. Gurley asked because several school board members have publicly talked about not going with an Oct. 8 bond vote in favor of waiting until spring 2014.

There's a different seating order today following last month's dust-up between Wake County school board member Susan Evans and Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley.

At today's joint meeting, Evans is sitting between school board members Tom Benton and Jim Martin. Gurley is sitting between school board member Kevin Hill and an empty seat set aside for school board member John Tedesco

Evans and Gurley were sitting next to each other at last month's joint meeting. Gurley accused Evans of calling him a jerk while he spoke, which she denies.

So far this morning, they're gotten an overview of the $2.2 billion that Wake County school administrators say is needed in the next few years for school construction. That number will be reduced by school staff to try to get a school bond passed.

Is Senate Bill 325 essentially a second try for Republicans to hold a majority on the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, the stated main purpose of the new legislation is to give individual Wake County voters the ability to elect a second school board member. But the bill also lets state Republican lawmakers rewrite the boundaries for Wake's school board districts.

This comes after the redistricting plan approved by the former Republican school board majority in 2011 didn't turn out as some thought that it would in ensuring GOP control of the state's largest school district.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

The Wake County school system might be in line to get as much as $10 million more from county commissioners this year.

During today's operating budget presentation, it was repeatedly mentioned that county commissioners don't know how much of an increase the school board will request. Interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey is expected to present a budget proposal to the school board in March.

County Manager David Cooke noted that last year, as has sometimes happened in the past, they gave the school system a proportionate share of the growth in the tax base. If that's done again, Cooke said that would mean around an $8 million increase.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley will have to wait awhile if he wants to see the minutes of the Jan. 22 closed-session meeting in which the school board agreed to purchase the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

Commissioners rejected a prior YWCA offer on Jan. 7, leading to the school board approving a revised deal on Jan. 22. Gurley said Monday he wants to review the minutes because he believes the school board was buying the property for “political reasons” and had “misused its rules seriously” during the closed session.

School board chairman Keith Sutton and school board attorney Jonathan Blumberg said the closed session was valid. But Blumberg said the minutes can’t be released yet because they’ve haven’t been approved by the board.

The bad blood continues to flow between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the school board.

As noted in today's article by Martha Quillin, Republican commissioners accused the school system of misleading taxpayers about its fund balance. The GOP majority also tabled approval of a land purchase for a northeast Raleigh middle school and accused the school board of engaging in politics in wanting them to approve buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

GOP commissioners said they were speaking for the taxpayers. But Democratic commissioners said Republicans were endangering development of the next school bond issue and harming relations with the school board.

It looks like the Wake County school board should be prepared to see the General Assembly pass the legislative changes requested by county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, State Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, House Speaker pro tempore, said Wednesday he expects the GOP-led legislature to pass this year new laws that would allow Wake County commissioners to take over ownership of schools and to require that some Wake school board seats be elected on a countywide basis.

Stam also said he’s expecting a bill to pass this year that would allow all counties to help charter schools build their facilities.

You might have been wondering whose meeting you were attending on Tuesday as school issues came up at the meetings of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, commissioners voiced their concerns about the school system proposal's to add unarmed private security officers to every elementary school. As noted in today's article by Josh Shaffer, school board members reacted to the school issues that the commissioners were voting on as part of their 2013 State Legislative Agenda.

All this suggests a rocky road ahead as they work together on the bond issue and school funding.

Two meetings involving the future of the Wake County school system will be held today.

At 8 a.m., the school board and county commissioners will hold the first of a series of joint meetings to discuss plans for a fall school bond issue. The meeting will be held at the offices of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the group that would organize efforts to urge voters to back the bond issue.

The last time both boards met in March, Commissioner Tony Gurley and school board member Jim Martin had a heated exchange over the school district's fund balance.

Later on at 7 p.m., WakeUP Wake County will hold its 2013 Annual Meeting. Organizers say that "WakeUP’s 2012 accomplishments will be reviewed and policy challenges for 2013 will be discussed, including the Wake Transit Plan, Raleigh’s UDO, Wake’s school assignment plan and more."