Tempers flared and words were shouted Tuesday over the possibility of reassigning thousands of Southeast Raleigh students to schools closer to where they live.

The most friction came during an exchange between school board member John Tedesco and one of the community members of his student assignment committee, Anne Sherron. She accused him of misrepresenting her words during a debate about whether there's academic benefits of going to a school closer to where you live.

But before we get there, you need some background.

School board members Chris Malone and John Tedesco are trying put the blame on vice chairwoman Debra Goldman and the Democrats for the consequences of killing the zone plan.

As noted in today's article, Malone and Tedesco say the Southeast Raleigh moves proposed Tuesday are only logical given the Oct. 5 vote killing the zone plan. What's left they say now is implementing moves for next year based on proximity from the new assignment policy.

"We're going to turn the system into a true neighborhood system," Malone said. "By taking away the zones, they took away a lot of flexibility."

I'll go into more detail later, but the main thing out of today's Wake County school board student assignment committee is that staff was asked to look at moving thousands of Southeast Raleigh kids back to their neighborhood schools next year.

Committee members Tracey Noble, David William and Ann Rouleau came to today's meeting with a long list of changes, many of them involving reassigning Southeast Raleigh kids back home next year in line with the proximity guideline in the new student assignment policy.

Board member John Tedesco, chairman of the committee, cheered them on even as he pointed out that those were only suggestions at this point.

The Wake County school board student assignment committee spent time Tuesday reviewing equity and program offering in the district.

Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens used the cupcake analogy in which she said that all schools should have the same basic foundations, or "cake." She said magnet schools have the "icing" such as arts programs.

For Advanced Placement programs, Hargens said they try to give high school students equal access to those courses. She pointed to how students travel physically or electronically to take AP courses not offered by their school.

Eric Blau will be stepping down from the Wake County school board's student assignment committee.

Blau said he's resigning because he's going to grad school in August and his wife will give birth in September. School board member Deborah Prickett said she nominated Blau to represent District 7 on the committee knowing he'd only be able to stay on for a short period.

Prickett has nominated Tracey Noble to replace Blau. Noble is a Brier Creek area parent who was actively involved in last winter's community engagement meetings that helped lead to the reassignment changes that impacted that part of northwest Raleigh.