Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is getting some backlash over having secretly recorded an October 2010 meeting at her home between her and board members John Tedesco and Ron Margiotta.

Tedesco and Margiotta, the board chairman at the time, were trying to keep Goldman's support for the zone plan. A few days later, Goldman would join with the Democratic minority to kill the zone plan.

"I was shocked that she recorded it without telling us,” Margiotta said Monday. “It shows you just how unstable she is that she would tape her conversations.”

The Wake County school system is telling AdvancED that it's on its way toward completing all seven of the action steps requested by the accrediting organization.

When AdvancED raised the accreditation of the high schools in January to advised status, Wake still had two of the seven steps to complete. In this new update released this morning, Wake says it's completed one of those action steps and will soon get the other one done.

Wake is pointing to the board passing the strategic plan in August and the policy committee recommending passage of a policy on defining the role of resolutions.

Wake's update doesn't get into the complaint filed by the Wake County Taxpayers Association over the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata since that response isn't required until Dec. 18. The update also doesn't get into the recent controversy involving school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone.

Would Guilford County Schools Superintendent Maurice "Mo" Green be a good choice for Wake County's next schools chief?

In a blog post Wednesday in the Greensboro News & Record, editorial writer Doug Clark writes that Green says he has not "officially" been contacted about the Wake County job. That would make sense as Wake is holding off until after next week's election results, where three board members are running for state office, before beginning the superintendent's search.

"I would be surprised if there weren't at least unofficial feelers from Wake County," Clark writes. "Green would be high on any larger system's wish list. He's provided steady leadership here since his arrival four years ago, earning consistent support from his board as well as community respect."

Could the next job for former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata be chairman of the state Board of Education?

With Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory leading in all the polls, it's expected that he'll dump Bill Harrison as board chairman. In an op-ed piece Wednesday, conservative columnist Rick Martinez writes that "among the more tantalizing rumors on a possible replacement is — you guessed it – former Wake County school superintendent and (and retired Army general) Tony Tata."

"Even though he was fired after only two years on the job, he oversaw some remarkable academic gains in the classroom," Martinez writes. "Wouldn’t that be sweet?"

Martinez happily speculates on the changes that could take place in education policy with McCrory making six of the state board's 13 appointments by 2013 and Wake County school board member John Tedesco potentially being elected state schools superintendent.

Amy Lee, one of the most outspoken members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, was appointed to a Wake County school board advisory council on Tuesday.

Lee, a North Raleigh magnet school parent, was appointed to school board vice chairman Keith Sutton's District 4 BAC. She's listed as the representative from Hunter Elementary School and also is a parent at Ligon Middle School.

Lee has provided some of the most memorable GSIW comments at school board meetings and other venues over the past few years. Here are some of them:

We'll find out today how the Wake County school system says it's doing addressing the concerns raised by AdvancED.

Today is the deadline for Wake to give an update from when AdvancED upgraded the status of the district's high schools to accreditation warned in January. School leaders are hoping that they can regain full accreditation for the high schools.

What you won't see today is Wake's response to the complaint that the Wake County Taxpayers Association lodged about the Democratic school board majority and the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata. Wake has until Nov. 15 to respond to those issues.

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION

Wake says it has until Dec. 18 now to respond to the WCTA allegations.

As of 7 p.m. (Thursday), the report isn't in yet (to the media). Wake says the report was sent to AdvancED at 4:52 p.m. Thursday to meet the deadline

The Wake County student assignment fight is becoming part of the last-minute fight in the battle over state schools superintendent

As noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, Wake County school board member John Tedesco sent out this controversial email Monday to supporters that includes some claims that incumbent June Atkinson says are false. The most contentious is Tedesco's charge, which Atkinson denies, that she's "using your public funds to pay groups like Rev. Barber's NAACP to work for her campaign."

But this post will focus more on the student assignment fight, including referencing back to the Oct. 15 candidate forum sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County.

It looks like Wake County school board member Debra Goldman may have filed a police complaint against school board vice chairman Keith Sutton following a heated exchange over the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Goldman contacted a Cary police officer assigned to the school board meeting on Sept. 25 to lodge a complaint of communicating threats. The report shows the location where the threat was communicated was the school board offices and that the person who made the alleged threat was an "acquaintance."

While the report doesn't list the acquaintance's name and police won't say it either, the time listed on the report is 4 p.m. between the end of the recently completed closed session and the start of the open session vote on firing Tata.

The report of a burglary in her home in June 2010 was far from the only time that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman and her family have called police over the last few years.

As noted in today's article by Anne Blythe, Goldman and her family were involved in at least three dozen incidents since January 2010 that have required assistance from or investigation by Cary police. Their reports have involved fears of theft, intruders and domestic disputes.

Pat Bazemore, chief of the Cary police department, said Sunday that it is her philosophy that public officials in her bailiwick are treated the same as others. Bazemore could not say whether the number of encounters with the Goldmans was large, average or small.

How much political fallout will there be over the publicity about Wake County school board member Debra Goldman naming board member Chris Malone as a suspect in a burglary she reported in 2010 and the conflicting statements they gave about their relationship?

As noted in today's article, the two face consequences in how it will affect their campaigns for state office. They also face consequences about how the controversy will affect them on the school board, especially if they don't win their elections next month.

As Andy Taylor, an N.C. State University political professor noted, people aren't talking now about the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.