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."

There's apparently enough justification in the charges leveled by the Wake County Taxpayers Association to keep the Wake County school system's high school from regaining full accreditation.

As noted in today's article, Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, said that they haven't officially made a determination as to whether the WCTA complaint is valid. However, he said, if the agency had already found it to be invalid it would have given Wake’s high schools full accreditation.

“We’re not picking sides in the complaint,” Elgart said. “But there’s clearly a lack of confidence in the community.”

The Wake County Taxpayers Association is urging AdvancED to do an on-site review of the complaint it filed against the Wake County school system.

WCTA says an onsite review is needed because the school system's Dec. 17 response letter to AdvancED was "elusive, misleading, and treats the concerns of many in this county with frivolity.”

To support the case for the site visit, the WCTA points to actions such as Keith Sutton's statements during the September closed-session firing of Superintendent Tata and the Nov. 28 yanking of the microphone from Deborah Prickett's hands by Susan Evans.

UPDATE

Click here to view the new WCTA letter to AdvancED and a press release.

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."

The Wake County school system is denying that members of the school board's Democratic majority are being unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

As noted in today's article, Wake's school board attorneys are telling AdvancED that majority members are making decisions based on their independent judgment and not because of the influence of Great Schools or any other advocacy group. The Wake County Taxpayers Association had charged GSIW had "extreme influence" on the majority, particularly the new board members.

"The allegation that the Board members who voted in favor of the June 19 student assignment directive did so because of 'extreme influence' from GSIW is suppositional and wrong," says this report.

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.

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.

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