So which groups got invitations to meet with McPherson & Jacboson, the firm that will hold meetings the next three days to get feedback on the Wake County school superintendent search?

The groups are broadly defined as the "business community, elected officials, parent leaders, African-American community, multicultural community, employee leadership and student leaders."

This list from the school system reveals some interesting names. These are the groups that the school system suggested should receive invites.

Pencil in Dec. 4 for what could be a lively discussion about whether the Wake County school system should hold early release days on Wednesday or Fridays.

As noted in today's article, the school board's executive committee has put the early release issue on the agenda for the Dec. 4 board work session. The board's Democratic majority has the votes to push through a change but whether they want to risk any appearance of a scaled-back return to Wacky Wednesdays/Wake Wednesdays remains to be seen.

Aside from the argument from supporters that Wednesdays would be better for promoting student achievement, you're also likely to hear that they're only talking about six Wednesdays per student and not every week.

Wake NCAE members plan to show up at today's school board meeting "to emphasize the dire need to invest in one of Wake County’s most valuable assets – public school employees."

NCAE members will wear green during the Wake County school board's public hearing on Superintendent Tony Tata's budget proposal, which calls for a 1 percent pay raise for teachers, a $500 one-time bonus for other employees and a $8.8 million funding increase from county commissioners. It's unclear from the NCAE media advisory whether they're supporting Tata's budget or think he's not asking for enough.

The NCAE media advisory is also pointing the recently released Carolina Issues Poll, where 67 percent of respondents said that teachers deserve more pay.

"Educators are counting on the public’s support as they urge the Wake County School Board and County Commission to invest in WCPSS staff with a raise in supplement pay for teachers and bonuses for all other employees," according to the advisory.

UPDATE

NCAE says it supports Tata's budget proposal. But the group would like a larger pay raise and a larger funding increase from the county.

BigggerPicture4Wake announced tonight which Wake County school board candidates it prefers this year.

In the press release, the group says they're supporting Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8. It's the same list being backed by the Wake County Democratic Party, Wake NCAE and The Independent weekly.

BiggerPicture says it believes those four candidates "will foster an atmosphere of productive debate and sound decisions for Wake County schools." They have questionnaires from several of the candidates on their website.

It shouldn't be a surprise who the Independent is endorsing for the Wake County school board.

In the latest issue of the liberal weekly out today, the Indy is backing Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8. It matches the endorsements made by the Wake County Democratic Party and Wake NCAE.

"If all five win, the 5-4 conservative majority on the board will be ousted, replaced by a new 5-4 majority of moderate candidates," the Indy writes. "It can happen if the voters who believe in public education and want every child in the county to get a good one take time to vote. Two years ago, they stayed away in droves, and they let the tea party win. We've seen what followed."

Wake County school board candidates Susan Evans and Christine Kushner have both released statements today trumpeting the endorsements they've received from Wake NCAE.

In Evans' press release, she says she's "proud to have earned the endorsement of the Wake NCAE, a group that truly has the best interests of students and teachers at heart." The group represents nearly 5,000 Wake school employees.

In Evans' press release, Wake NCAE Vice President Larry Nilles also takes a shot at the school board majority to explain the endorsement.

Wake NCAE, which represents 5,000 Wake County's school employees, is citing school funding in announcing its reasons for its school board candidate endorsements.

In a press release today, Wake NCAE announced it was endorsing Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8.

In the release, Wake NCAE faulted the current school board majority for not having backed a motion to ask county commissioners for enough funding "that could have prevented" cuts this year such as laying off custodians and cutting pay for teacher assistants.

Both political parties have now officially weighed in with their endorsements for this fall's Wake County school board and municipal elections.

As expected, the Wake County Democratic Party announced Tuesday that it was endorsing Kevin Hill in District 3, Keith Sutton in District 4, Jim Martin in District 5, Christine Kushner in District 6 and Susan Evans in District 8.

In the announcement, the Democrats accused the Republican school board majority of having "made a number of empty promises to voters (in 2009) that they have not met."

The next step in Wake County's middle-school math placement debate will take place Thursday at the school board's economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting.

As noted in Saturday's article, staff is working on a new board policy on math placement following school board vice chairman John Tedesco's concerns that too many students were still being kept out of Algebra I even though EVAAS deemed them ready. Tedesco said the ED task force will review the draft policy at Thursday's specially called ED task force meeting.

Traditional-calendar schools will start before the board is expected to vote on the policy. So for the 2011-12 school year, Tedesco has asked staff to take additional steps to increase Algebra I placement.

In theory, school leaders think it's a good idea for students to have a longer school year.

But as noted in today's article, Triangle school administrators are looking for ways not to implement the new requirement mandated by state legislators to expand the school year by five days and with 25 more hours of instruction.

Wake's approach is to add the hours without adding the additional days. Wake Superintendent Tony Tata has said this change, having the 25 hours spread out over 180 days, "accomplishes the intent" legislators had by putting the 25 hours over five more days.