Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill is trying to ease concerns about the school board's recent vote to change the student assignment plan for the 2013-14 school year.

As noted in today's article, Hill said during a Friday meeting with N&O editors and reporters that he's not expecting the return to an address-based plan to result in large-scale reassignment. He stressed the proposed "stay where you start" policy which would allow students to stay at the school they're attending until they complete the grade span.

But Hill also said they're still going to have to reassign people to fill all the new schools that Wake will need to deal with growth.

Cash Michaels is speculating on whether Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will do as he's publicly stated that he'll carry out the new student assignment directive.

In an article in The Carolinian out today, Michaels notes that Tata "has had several very public nasty fights with" the school board's new Democratic majority. The liberal Michaels also calls Tata "a conservative Tea Party sympathizer who sources say has US senatorial aspirations in a few years."

"With his heart really not into establishing a base school model with aspects of choice, and elements of stability, proximity, student achievement and diversity, will Tata drag his feet in meeting the 2013-14 school year deadline, or will the retired US Army brigadier general be the “good soldier,” and follow the directive?" Michaels writes.

It looks like one consequence of Wake County's controlled-choice student assignment plan is that it's impacting the racial balance at schools

As noted in today's article, an analysis of projected kindergarten enrollment data for this fall indicates kindergarten classes at 23 schools will see their percentages of white students increase by at least 10 percentage points over the 2011-12 school year. Meanwhile, the proportion of black students at schools with predominantly minority kindergarten classes will rise as well, but not as sharply.

"There were no diversity guidelines,” said education consultant Michael Alves. “Pretty much what you are looking at is the result of parental preference.”

UPDATE

For those who are having trouble viewing the Excel files, I'm adding PDF links. Click here for the 2012-13 projected white kindergarten enrollments. Click here for the 2012-13 projected black kindergarten enrollments.

Funding for Wake County magnet schools is a volatile topic.

Supporters of the magnet program say the $12 million spent annually, which doesn't include transportation costs, is only 1 percent of the district's budget. Critics say that money could be used to help the non-magnet schools.

The issue flared up during the school board's magnet review session earlier this month.

The Wake County school board connections in the state House 35 fight between Republican school board member Chris Malone and former Democratic school board member Lori Millberg are becoming even more noticeable.

Millberg announced today that Michael Evans, the Wake County school system's former chief communications officer, will be her campaign manager. While both sides haven't officially talked about the reason for the departure, Superintendent Tony Tata basically forced Evans out of his role as Wake's chief spokesman.

Millberg worked with Evans during her four years on the school board. Evans also worked with Malone during the first 19 months of his term on the board.

Another one of Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata's top administrators may be leaving for another job.

The Washoe County school system announced today that Judy Peppler, Wake's chief transformation officer and chief of staff, is one of five finalists for the superintendent's position. Located in Nevada, Washoe has 62,000 students.

The Wake school board hired Peppler in September. Like Tata, Peppler is a non-educator who received training at the Broad Superintendents Academy.

Peppler was brought in to oversee the newly created Office of Transformation, which has overseen the controlled-choice student assignment plan that looks to be on the way out. To save money after Terri Cobb left, Peppler was also given the job of chief of staff.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata literally played the good soldier at today's press conference as he didn't criticize the school board's call to develop a base school student assignment plan.

Tata defended the choice plan, repeatedly saying it had produced "high parental satisfaction," pointing to this handout showing that student transfer requests are down this year compared to past years. But Tata said they'll do what the board wants.

“We work at the direction of the board," Tata said when asked if he felt the vote was a "slap in the face" to him. "We are taking the board guidance and we’re going to move forward and we are going to provide the best possible solutions for parents and students. We know that we implemented a plan that provided a high level of parental satisfaction so we’ll try to increase that satisfaction going forward.”

Twenty-five people, consisting mostly of critics of the choice plan, have signed up to speak at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Speakers include familiar names like Sally Wooten, Neil Riemann, Lynn Stellings, Ellen Nightingale, Lee Hogewood, Rhonda Curtright, Amy Lee, Peter Rumsey, Amy Womble and Lettice Rhodes. Jennifer Mansfield could be on the few speakers who object to the board adopting the student assignment directive.

Also on the list is Russell Capps, president of the Wake County Taxpayers Association. He's listed as presenting an appreciation statement to Superintendent Tony Tata.

UPDATE

The turnout is actually fairly mixed with the majority criticizing the choice plan but a large number, such as Rhonda Curtright, who say it shouldn't be discarded for a base plan now.

Is the Wake County school board taking a budget gamble by hopefully only temporarily using up the fund balance to keep a pay raise for teachers?

David Neter, Wake's chief business officer, said that they're expecting to receive enough additional state money to offset getting $4.9 million less than requested from county commissioners. For fiscal purposes, Neter recommended today temporarily pulling a proposed $5.2 million pay raise for teachers and then retroactively restoring it once the state budget with the additional dollars is adopted.

But during the work session, the staff recommendation was rejected 5-4. Board members said it would send the wrong message, even temporarily, to drop the pay raise.

UPDATE

After the motion to use up the fund balance failed at the regular board meeting, the board went back and approved the staff recommendation to temporarily remove the teacher pay raise. Board members reiterated they plan to restore the raise if, as it appears, they get more state funding than expected.

Is it redundant or unfair to make student achievement as part of the guiding principles of Wake County's magnet school program?

As noted in today's article, a bipartisan group of board members rejected Wednesday including student achievement in the guiding principles. Only school board member Keith Sutton voted for its inclusion while board members John Tedesco and Deborah Prickett were absent.

The proposal on the table was to amend the current first guiding principle to say that magnets "reduce high concentrations of poverty, support diverse populations and increase student achievement."