A Wake County middle school teacher did a no-no when he handed out this extra-credit assignment which gave students the option to write about creationism.

As noted in today's article, Wakefield Middle School science teacher Adam Dembrow gave his eighth-grade students an extra-credit opportunity last month to do a poster and paper either on “your interpretation of a religions (sic) Creation” or on “any evidence on the theory of evolution, which can be used to support the theory of evolution.”

Dembrow suggested three websites that students could go to: Answers in Genesis, the Creation Research Society and the Institute for Creation Research.

This is the "stonewall" campaign mailer from Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo that has generated some controversy in District 3.

The mailer says that incumbent school board member "Kevin Hill says he will 'Stonewall' Concerned Parents." She got the year wrong in the mailer but it references a March 30, 2010 email that was released last year by the Bedford Homeowners Association.

"Some 300 Bedford area parents signed a petition to the School Board asking to be heard about the reassignment of their children from nearby Wakefield High School to Heritage High," says the mailer. "Kevin Hill refused to meet with us and emailed the principal at Heritage that he intended to 'stonewall' them and their petition. Heather Lousrdo will listen to her constituents and advocate for their needs. Is that any way for a Representative to treat his constituents?"

Most of the 28 speakers at Thursday's public hearing wanted the Wake County school board to make changes and/or delay a vote on adoption of the new student assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, several speakers referenced Tuesday's election results that brought in three new school board members and could result in a new Democratic majority taking office Dec. 6. Speakers asked for a delay until November or December.

"If the board is willing to wait one month until after we see what the results of the next election are, Mr. Hill’s seat, I believe that the board will begin to come together in a much more dignified way and that the decision that is made will reflect the will of the entire community and not just a narrow majority," said the Rev. Tom Rhodes.

Amid all the tumult tonight, the Wake County school board announced two principal changes.

James Sposato was named the new principal of Wakefield Middle School in North Raleigh. Sposato has been principal of Powell Elementary School since 2003. His salary will be $83,270.

Craig Matthews was named interim principal of Rolesville Elementary. Before his retirement, Matthews had been principal of Jones Dairy and Wake Forest elementary schools. His salary is $99,980 will be prorated to cover the rest of the school year.

UPDATE

Click here for the bio sheets.

New Wake County principals were announced tonight at Wakefield High, Farmington Woods Elementary and Durant Road Middle.

Tripp Crayton will go from being principal of Wakefield Middle to principal of Wakefield High in North Raleigh. Before moving to Wakefield Middle in 2007, he had been an assistant principal at Wakefield High.

Crayton will receive a salary of $96,487. (He replaces Mark Savage, who is now principal of the new Heritage High.)

BIO SHEETS NOW AT END OF POST 

Get ready for some overcrowding in parts of the county now that assignments to Forest Ridge High, Rolesville Middle and Walnut Creek Elementary have been put on hold.

As noted in today's article, the school board voted Tuesday to delay the assignments to those three schools by two years because the recession has delayed when they'll open. There will be consequences.

Not assigning students to Forest Ridge High until 2012 means that Wake Forest-Rolesville and Wakefield high schools will need to keep their off campus ninth-grade centers until at least then.

Here's a bit more discussion on how the Lost Colony deal came to an end at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.

Heading into the meeting, it looked like some school board members were all set to continue the relationship with Granville County schools to pay the $1,443 per student tuition for the Lost Colony students.

But things changed when the school board found out that bus service was already being provided to the Lost Colony area. This means service wouldn't have to be added if Wake kept the 51 students now going to Granville.

The Node 325 people have been more successsful, it seems, at getting dropped from the reassigment plan than other bigger groups.

At the urging of Kevin Hill, the school board agreed to not reassign Node 325 from Wakefield middle and high schools over to Wake Forest-Rolesville. The people in that node had been concerned they'd be overlooked because of the larger groups pushing for change in the area.

In contrast, the Bedford folks are still slated to go from Wakefield to Heritage High.

UPDATE

The board has finished reviewing the reassignment plan. Thursday's work session has been cancelled. Next up is the final vote on Tuesday.