The question now is whether the Wake County school board will vote tonight on the NCSBA resolution opposing transferring school ownership to county commissioners.

During the work session, Democrats said they need to respond to the Wake commissioners making it a statewide issue over who should own, build and maintain schools. But Republican board members argued that passing the resolution would only add more fuel to the fire.

School board chairman Keith Sutton said he will decide whether to remove the resolution from the meeting agenda and instead discuss the issue at Thursday's joint meeting of both boards.

UPDATE

Sutton said he will leave the resolution on the agenda because it's a statewide issue that the N.C. School Boards Association wants districts to vote on.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

A swearing-in ceremony, the jumpstarting of a new middle school in northwest Raleigh and more criticism of the Wake County Commissioners is likely in store at today's Wake County school board meeting.

The school board will vote on approving the N.C. School Boards Association's 2013-14 legislative agenda and on approving the NCSBA resolution opposing allowing counties to take over ownership of school facilities.

During the discussion at the work session and the vote in the regular meeting, you'll probably hear more complaints about the Wake commissioners having requested the state legislative changes.

UPDATE

Click here to view the NCSBA 2013-14 legislative agenda.

Click here to view the NCSBA resolution opposing transfer of school ownership to county governments.

More to come later, but Wake County Commissioners voted 4-3 today to make a $775,000 counter offer to purchase the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for use as a school.

The offer is $50,000 less than what the school board agreed to pay for the property on Hargett Street. It was a compromise on the part of Democratic Commissioner James West that got the support of GOP Commissioners Chairman Joe Bryan after the other Republican commissioners balked at paying $825,000.

Whether the YWCA bankruptcy trustee will take the new deal remains to be seen. The trustee wrote a letter saying that another group, with a much longer closing date than the school system, had offered to pay $875,000.

Commissioners unanimously approved purchasing the M-13 site. Also, Great Schools in Wake Coalition members came to the meeting to criticize GOP commissioners for balking at the YWCA deal and passing their proposed state legislative school changes.

CORRECTION

Corrected to say that the price the school system offered was $825,000.

We'll see whether there's more fuel added to the fire today in the fight between the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

At today's meeting, the commissioners are scheduled to have the second and final reading on purchasing the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for a school. There's also a second reading scheduled for purchasing land for M-13, a new middle school that would be built in northeast Raleigh.

GOP commissioners were pretty critical at the Feb. 4 meeting about the YWCA purchase. They gave no reasons for delaying the M-13 vote.

If the state legislative changes go through as commissioners envision, control of school facilities would include the county taking over the purchase of school sites. The county would work off the target circles drawn up by the school system.

How does the idea sound of having a mass election for all Wake County school board seats in 2014?

As noted in today's article, state Rep. Chris Malone said legislators are considering various options for changing the way Wake school board members are elected in response to the request from the board of commissioners.

Ideas on the table include making some or all the seats at-large and changing the elections to even-numbered years. One of the more intriguing ideas would involve extending by a year the board members elected in 2009 and shortening by a year those elected in 2011.

The Wake County school system might be in line to get as much as $10 million more from county commissioners this year.

During today's operating budget presentation, it was repeatedly mentioned that county commissioners don't know how much of an increase the school board will request. Interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey is expected to present a budget proposal to the school board in March.

County Manager David Cooke noted that last year, as has sometimes happened in the past, they gave the school system a proportionate share of the growth in the tax base. If that's done again, Cooke said that would mean around an $8 million increase.

How much can the Wake County school system expect to get out of a projected increase of nearly $28 million in county tax revenues for the coming fiscal year?

During today's Wake County Board of Commissions retreat, county staff will give this operating budget presentation showing that revenues for the 2013-14 Fiscal Year are projected to be at $966.4 million.

That's an increase of $27.9 million from revenues from the 2012-13 adopted fiscal year budget.

The Wake County school board is going for full transparency in its search for a lobbyist to represent its interests against the state legislative changes being proposed by commissioners.

The school board will vote on which firm will be hired. This is a followup to the Feb. 5 vote authorizing interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey to hire a lobbyist.

School administrators say the board wants to publicly vote on naming the lobbyist Instead of leaving it up to Gainey. School board policy would have allowed Gainey to hire the lobbyist without any board vote because the contract would be for up to $100,000.

That's how the county handled the hiring of its lobbyist where no public vote was held. As this memo from County Manager David Cooke and County Attorney Scott Warren shows, county staff hired Tom Fetzer as the lobbyist and notified the commissioners after the fact.

CORRECTION

The board will vote on hiring the lobbyist but, at least as of now, it's not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association is backing the state legislative changes proposed by county commissioners to allow them to take over ownership of schools and to change the way school board members are elected.

In a message dated Monday to members of the Wake County legislative delegation, WCTA president Russell Capps argues having at-large school board seats "would allow far better representation and grant voters greater than one voice to represent them on the Board."

Capps also writes that the county should control school acquisition, construction and maintenance because "the Board of Commissioners can do a far better job of properly spending taxpayer dollars than has the School Board."