The review team from AdvancED will begin today the interviews that will help determine whether Wake County's high schools remain accredited.

The interview schedule for today includes seven current school board members and the three newly elected board members. Also on tap today are Superintendent Tony Tata, teachers and high school principals.

Wednesday's interview schedule includes two school board members, Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore, the chief officers, area superintendents, the student assignment task force and the student body presidents.

Tomorrow's interview schedule also includes several community members and groups, including the state NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the Wake Schools Community Alliance, the Wake PTA Council, the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill is pitching his experience in District 3 as an educator in this new campaign mailer that calls himself "the principled principal."

Hill's flier notes his 35 years with the Wake school system, including 14 years as a teacher and 14 years as an assistant principal and principal. He also mentions he was the Wake County PTA Council Co-Principal o the Year in 2005.

"Listening and relationships are vital to leadership," Hill says in the mailer. "My 28 years as a teacher and a principal in Wake County schools gives me a unique and much needed perspective on the Board of Education."

Also, Hill emulates Susan Evans' mailer with its "students first, politics last" line. He criticizes "the introduction of partisan politics" and promises "I am never seeking another office, and my commitment has always been and will always be to put all students first."

The Wake County school board voted 5-4 tonight to give final approval to policy changes that cut back on the role of PTAs on board advisory councils.

Among the changes, board members no longer have to consult with the PTAs before nominating BAC members for each school. The policy also no longer says that BAC members should be placed on the boards of their local PTA.

Before the vote, some speakers urged the board to consider a compromise.

CORRECTED TO REMOVE REFERENCE THAT DULANEY WAS ON OLD STUDENT ASSIGNMENT COMMITTEE

AdvancED has got a lengthy list of people to interview over the next two days as part of the accreditation review of the Wake County school system.

The interviews, arranged by school administrators at the request of AdvancED, is largely similar to the list arranged when the review was to take place last month.

Today's interviews include several school board members, the chief officers, high school students, Growth and Planning Staff, the Wake Schools Community Alliance, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the Wake County PTA Council and the student assignment committee.

Heidrick & Struggles will have to deal with skepticism from critics of the Wake County school board majority as it recruits candidates for superintendent.

Most of the dozen people at tonight's input session opposed elimination of the diversity policy and dropping the requirement that the superintendent be an educator. This skepticism of the board majority extended to the search process for superintendent.

Willa Allen, a parent of two students, pointed out tonight that Heidrick was only hired by a 5-4 vote to be the search firm.

Speaking of the weekly Wednesday early dismissals, Wake NCAE is holding a press conference today on how professional learning teams are helping improve student performance

At the press conference, Wake NCAE "will invite invite parents, community leaders and school board members to celebrate American Education Week by joining educators at local schools during a PLT Wednesday session."

"Educators want to keep this important time to communicate, cooperate, and help ensure that all children's educational needs are met," according to the press release.

CORRECTED DANA KING'S TITLE TO SAY PRESIDENT OF SCHOOL SYSTEM'S PRINCIPAL'S DIVISION 

Several local community groups announced that they have gotten together to sponsor a school board candidates' forum on Sept. 16.

In addition to the usual opening and closing statements, the candidates will be asked to respond to questions prepared by the sponsoring organizations. Questions will cover a range of issues including: policy, funding & budget, parental involvement, health & physical education and curriculum.

The sponsors are the the League of Women Voters of Wake County, the Junior League of Raleigh, the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, the Wake County PTA Council and El Pueblo.

A new Wake County PTA Council press release goes a bit further than just reminding parents about the new weekly early dismissals.

The stated goal of today's press release is to remind parents that the Wednesday early dismissals start tomorrow. But the press release also goes to praise how creating more time for professional learning communities "will help our schools meet the board’s goal of having all of our children achieve high growth and graduate on time, prepared for the future."

Sarah Martin, president of the Wake County PTA Council, was a member of the time committee that recommended the changes to the school board.

You know a proposal is going to be a hard sell when the school board and staff spends time lecturing the media on how to report an issue.

That was the case on Tuesday when school board members said the media needs to explain why the bell schedule changes are needed for the 2009-10 school year. They stressed the benefits that will come from giving teachers more planning time in professional learning communities.

As noted in today's article, those backing the proposal acknowledge it won't be easy selling parents on earlier starting times, more early release days and regular early dismissals.