The Wake County school board is facing a lengthy agenda on Tuesday, including extending school waiting lists, changing the bell schedule for Middle Creek Elementary and votes on the Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy and the career and technical education high school.

Staff is recommending extending the waiting lists for students who didn't get into their first-choice school from June 29 to July 18. Any later could result in a student withdrawing after the 10th day of classes in a year-round school and thus not being counted at the new school.

The board will also vote on moving Middle Creek Elementary from a 9:15 a.m. start time to 8:30 a.m. According to the board agenda, it's being done to treat Middle Creek Elementary, West Lake Elementary and West Lake Middle as  a single campus because of their close proximity.

Is the new common core math curriculum too rigorous for elementary school students to be accelerated to take middle-school math?

As noted in today's article, most of the Triangle High 5 school districts are reacting to the transition to the common core by holding off on math compacting until middle school. In the Wake County school system, this means no replacement for the eliminated 5th/6th-grade compacted math class and no longer allowing elementary school students to go to a middle school to take math.

It created a mini-stir on PAGE of Wake County's Facebook page last week about rumors of Wake suspending acceleration. Wake is clarifying that this only applies to single-subject acceleration under the new math placement policy.

The Wake County school board appointed four principals on Tuesday.

Ritchie (Malik) Bazzell was named principal of the East Wake School of Integrated Technology in Wendell, with a salary of $82,565. The former Wake County teacher an assistant principal has been principal of the Anacostia High School Turnaround Project in Washington D.C. since 2009.

Dell Edwards was named principal of West Lake Middle School in Apex, with a salary of $104,438. He has been an assistant principal at Lufkin Road Middle School since 2005.

The Wake County school board tapped principals tonight to run three schools.

Therman L. Flowers was named principal of Reedy Creek Middle School in Cary, with a salary of $88,545. Flowers is currently principal of Pearsontown Elementary in Durham but had run Millbrook Elementary in Raleigh until 2007.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE BIO SHEETS AT END OF POST

Wake County science teacher Melissa Hussain is speaking out on the recent controversy over Facebook comments about her students, the South and Christianty that created a national controversy.

In an op-ed column today, Hussain, writes that she had been reacting to the "disrepectful behavior" of her West Lake Middle students because of her desire to keep religion out of a discussion on evolution. Hussain, who previously declined to comment, said she's a Christian but her students began to spread rumors that she's Muslim or an atheist.

Hussain writes that she hadn't realized that Facebook had changed her privacy settings to make her account public, allowing her students to see the caustic comments that parents had complained about.

Melissa Hussain, the teacher who got in trouble over comments on her Facebook page, has been moved out of the classroom and into the Wake County school system's central office.

As noted in today's article, Hussain was reassigned late last month to be the district's coordinating teacher for middle school science. The reassignment comes after Hussain had been suspended with pay for more than a month while the school district investigated complaints from parents.

Hussain had been an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School until February. Parents had complained about comments such as her calling it a "hate crime" that students had left a Bible on her desk and that she wouldn't let the incident "go unpunished."

There's been a development in the case of Melissa Hussain, the eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School who was suspended over comments about her students, Christianity and the South on her Facebook page.

As noted in today's paper, the Wake County school system assigned a permanent teacher on Monday to cover her classes while the district continues its investigation. Subs had been covering for Hussain, who has been suspended with pay since Feb. 12.

It's uncertain how miuch longer the investigation will continue.

CORRECTED FACEBOOK LINK FOR HUSSAIN SUPPORT PAGE

Did an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School go too far in the comments she and her friends made on a public section of her Facebook page?

As noted in today's article, Melissa Hussain has been suspended with pay during an investigation into complaints from parents and students about the Facebook comments. Copies of comments provided by parents before Hussain restricted access on her Facebook page show that it was a pretty tense environment.

"Today a student left a brand new bible on my desk with an anonymous card that said 'Merry Christmas; with 'Christ' underlined and bolded," Hussain wrote. "I can't believe the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes."

I'll go into a lot more detail tomorrow but here's a story that might catch your interest.

Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade teacher at West Lake Middle School in Apex, was suspended with pay Friday following complaints about disparaging comments she and her friends made about her class, Southern culture and Christianity on her Facebook page.

We've got new principals tonight for the East Wake School of Integrated Technology, West Lake Middle School and Lake Myra Elementary.

Jamee O. Lynch will now run the East Wake School of Integrated Technology in Wendell, replacing the departing Kristin Cuilla. It's one of four small schools on the East Wake High campus.

Lynch has been principal of Sanford Creek Elementary in Rolesville since 2007. Before then, she was Wake's principal of the year when she was at Hodge Road Elementary in Knightdale.

UPDATE

See bio sheets at end of post.