How will the Wake County school system be affected by the changes, those approved and those still to come, from the Republican-led state government?

One of the items on today's school board student achievement committee agenda is an overview and discussion of SB 795 " The Excellent Public Schools Act." Elements of the act that were incorporated into the budget last year were praised by Republicans and criticized by Democrats.

Among the elements that went into effect, over the veto of former Gov. Bev Perdue, are creating an A-to-F grading scale using test scores to evaluate all schools and requiring third-graders to pass the state-end-of-grade reading test to be promoted.

Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is breaking his silence over his firing now that he's the new state Transportation Secretary.

In the first of multiple interviews this week, Tata told David Crabtree in an interview aired Tuesday on WRAL that he was "very proud" of his tenure as superintendent and that he was "heartbroken" about being fired.

A common refrain from Crabtree during the interview is that Tata was never going to last when the school board majority changed, something that Democratic members have denied was the case.

So you don't get to be a general in the United States Army by being incompetent. The Army is an extremely meritocratic organization. So maybe people should give Tony Tata the benefit of the doubt as he prepares to take over the reins at the state Department of Transportation.
When Tata was announced as the new DOT boss, the first reaction in some quarters was surprise, given that he lost his job as Wake schools superintendent in part because of the bus debacle.
I have always wondered how this happened. You would have thought that you could pick some bus routes at random and drive them with a stop watch to see if the new route system would work, or would leave youngsters stranded.
Maybe his military background led him to depend on the chain of command under him too much. Maybe it was his relative lack of experience in the logistics of running a school district.
Your typical school superintendent has had years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, etc. Your typical school superintendent is pretty familiar with what can go wrong when you operate too close to the edge with too few buses.
What I hope Tata took away from his Wake County experience was to recognize that while he had vast experience in the military running big budgets and organizations, he didn't know all he should have known to run a school district, and now he doesn't know much about running a massive transportation department.
So there are two ways he can go.
He can fall back on his chain of command instincts, rely on what people tell him and operate at 30,000 feet. Or he can get out on the ground, probe, ask good questions in the field and find out what's going on. Develop his own sources of reliable information, the chain of command be damned.
Tata, according to his critics, had an autocratic management style as superintendent. Imagine that. An autocratic ex-general. If that's the case, then maybe he needs to dial it back.
The most effective managers I have known were not tough guys. They inspired loyalty because they didn't have to be the smartest people in the room, were considerate, and people followed them because they wanted to, not because they had to.
I do believe that the best lessons are found in failure, not in success. Anyone who doubts that should review the arc of Steve Jobs' history at Apple, the first act consisting of running a successful business into the ground, and Act Two consisting of building the most successful consumer electronics business in the history of mankind.
It is not unreasonable to believe that Tata learned a good deal from his tenure in Wake County, the good, the bad and the ugly. He may do well in his new job precisely because of his experience as superintendent. I hope so.

Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata has been named today the new state Transportation Secretary by Gov.-elect Pat McCrory.

Tata was noted for his logistical skills during his long career in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of brigadier general.

But Tata's critics will also point to the major problems that the school system experienced this school year with the buses. It's one of the factors that the school board's Democratic majority cited when they fired Tata, officially without cause, in September.

How much does AdvancED plan to weigh the firing of former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata when it reviews the complaint filed by the Wake County Taxpayers Association?

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, has been publicly critical of the firing, praising Tata's tenure as superintendent. But AdvancED didn't amend its list of questions to the school system to include Tata's firing after the WCTA incorporated it into its amended complaint.

Jennifer Oliver, a spokeswoman for AdvancED, said they didn't ask for Wake to respond to the firing because they will consider the amended complaint when they review all the documents. Tata's firing wasn't mentioned at all in Wake's response last week.

Is it a case of kumbaya or at least improving relations on the Wake County school board now?

The Wake County Taxpayers Association accused the school board's Democratic majority of worsening the situation with its actions. In response, the school board's attorneys are trying to paint a picture of growing consensus on the board in their response to AdvancED this week.

"Contrary to the unfounded allegations in the Complaint, it has operated openly and transparently and solicited input at every turn from staff and community stakeholders," the report says of the school board. "It has sought consensus whenever possible and decided the lion’s share of the issues it has faced by super-majority votes."

More to come later, but the Wake County school system is defending the decision by the school board's Democratic majority to drop the choice-based student assignment plan in its response to AdvancED.

In this 28-page report sent today, Wake says the board majority's vote was based on “reasonable beliefs that there were demonstrable and substantial problems with the Choice Plan.”

“While four Board members believed that the Choice Plan remained viable and that any problems could be successfully addressed, five members came to the conclusion that a fundamental change in approach was needed,” according to the report.

UPDATE

AdvancED hasn't even reviewed the report yet. It's WRAL misinterpreting that Wake is telling AdvancED that it should find the complaint as being without merit.

Today is the deadline for the Wake County school system to respond to the complaint that the Wake County Taxpayers Associated filed with AdvancED.

The initial WCTA complaint focused on a variety of things, including the private meeting the new school board members had with Michael Alves, the post-midnight vote on the student assignment directive and board member Jim Martin trying to arrange an assignment provision for parents going on sabbaticals. WCTA has also argued that the new board members are unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

The WCTA later amended the complaint to include the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

How Wake's response to the complaint affects AdvancED's review of the accreditation of the district's high schools remains to be seen.

Two years later, the arguments are the same but those who are in control are different as the Wake County school board decides on who will be the next schools superintendent.

As noted in today's article, members of the Democratic board majority say they'd prefer to hire a superintendent with education experience. Republican board members say the search should include looking at non-educators as well, although they can't do much about it being in the minority.

“It’s really going to depend on how much experience they want in the educational field and how much experience in the corporate or military field they can tolerate,” said outgoing Republican board member Chris Malone.

The Wake County school board unanimously voted tonight to name Stephen Gainey the interim superintendent until a permanent hire is made.

Gainey has been acting superintendent since the board majority fired Tony Tata on Sept. 25. Gainey's contract as acting superintendent was set to expire Dec. 31.

Gainey will get paid an additional $5,000 a month in salary, plus $750 a month in travel expenses, starting Jan. 1. This is on top of his $120,000 a year salary as assistant superintendent for human resources. He was getting an additional $3,000 a month in salary and $750 a month in travel expenses as acting superintendent.

School board chairman Keith Sutton said he'll appoint the members of the school board's superintendent search committee in the next seven to 10 days. The goal is to have a permanent superintendent in place by July 1.