Former Wake County school board member Beverley Clark wasn't the only speaker firing bombs at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, critics of the new choice-based student assignment plan and supporters of magnet schools made up much of the turnout for public comment. Several speakers urged the board to make major changes to the new assignment plan.

Speakers also defended the magnet school program, downplaying the data indicating they have larger achievement gaps than non-magnet schools. They also denied that magnets were schools within a school as terms such as "social justice" and "diversity" were often mentioned.

The vote to move the start time for Middle Creek Elementary School to 8:30 a.m. for this fall was approved unanimously and with some melodrama.

During public comment, Middle Creek parents supporting the change thanked Superintendent Tony Tata for bringing it forward. Board member Susan Evans said the credit should go to board member Jim Martin for "pleading their case."

Martin thanked Evans but said that Tata and other people had worked hard on  it too.

The Middle Creek Elementary bell schedule change, the new student assignment plan and the magnet school review make up most of the topics for the 22 speakers at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Former school board member Beverley Clark went right after Superintendent Tony Tata during her three minutes. She charged that teachers and principals say that Tata has created a "culture of fear and intimidation" and is only "paying lip service" to listening to teachers and principals.

Clark also charged that Tata has created an assignment plan that says "let's only teach the ones who mater." She said that group consists of families who apply to "esoteric academies" or who spend hours researching where to go.

Clark also urged the school board not to separate behavior from academic grade.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman announced tonight that she plans to nominate Tony Tata for North Carolina Superintendent of the Year.

The Central Carolina Regional Education Service Alliance is soliciting nominations for regional superintendent of the year with the winner vying for the state recognition. The state award is given annually by the N.C. Association of School Administrators and the N.C. School Boards Association.

Goldman said that Tata, who has been Wake County's superintendent since January 2011, deserves the recognition. Fellow Republican board members Chris Malone and Deborah Prickett joined Goldman after she urged other board members to support the nomination.

Bill McNeal was the last Wake superintendent to win the state title. He went on to become National Superintendent of the Year.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata gave hopeful messages today about the state budget and the magnet school review during his news conference.

Tata said Wake has been "working very hard" with the General Assembly on the budget. Tata said he's hopeful of what he believes will be a good budget discussion over the next several weeks with legislators to hopefully lessen the impact of lost federal stimulus funds.

Tata said he's been talking to state legislators since January to articulate the school district's budget needs.

It looks like, at least in the near term, any use of teacher performance pay in the Wake County school system would be on a limited basis.

Wake County school board members debated the use of merit pay when reviewing the draft strategic plan last week. Some school board members support its use while others are adamantly against it or only support using it in limited cases.

Performance pay is already in limited use in Wake.

It's looking like student achievement will be added as one of the new guiding principles to Wake County's magnet school program.

As noted in today's article, there was a good deal of discussion at Wednesday's Wake County school board meeting about a review of student achievement data at magnet schools. The focus was how at the elementary and middle school level, the magnet schools had wider gaps than the non-magnet schools.

If adopted into the guiding principles, it could impact which schools get magnetized. It could also impact whether some existing magnet schools change their program or are demagnetized.

Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant is praising Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata while rehashing the 2009 Memorial Day school controversy.

In the latest issue of the Elephant Express on Sunday, Bryant writes that "three years ago our Wake County School System made an idiotic decision to have our children go to school on Memorial Day...so the teachers could get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as a holiday."

"Today we are fortunate to have General Tony Tata as our Wake County School Superintendent, a person who understands how important Memorial Day is to focus our remembrances on those whose sacrifice has made the freedom envisioned by the founders of America real for more than two and a quarter centuries," Bryant writes.

How significant, if at all, is it that the gap has narrowed between the Wake County school system's graduation rate and the state average?

It was one of the points of contention during Tuesday's school board retreat as the board reviewed this draft strategic plan. Superintendent Tony Tata talked about how pg. 6 shows the state's graduation rate has risen since 2006 while it's dropped in Wake.

"That’s an alarming trend there where we are flat or marginally decreasing while the state is steadily increasing," Tata told the board.

Jim Huge was mistaken when he said he wasn't trying to make Tuesday's Wake County school board retreat a counseling session.

As noted in today's article, school board members traded heated words with each and with Superintendent Tony Tata. In turn, the superintendent didn't hold back either in his feeling that some board members were trying to undercut staff.

In the end, board members agreed to meet one-one-one with Tata to start things anew. Whether those meetings and the two-hour discussion Tuesday helps remains to be seen.