The Wake County school board announced several principal appointments Tuesday night.

Lutashia Dove was promoted from assistant principal to principal of Wilburn Elementary School in North Raleigh with a new salary of $81,412. She's been at the school since 2012.

Kimberly Grant was named principal of Lynn Road Elementary School in North Raleigh with a salary of $89,491. Grant has been an assistant principal at Yates Mill Elementary School since 2007.

Judy Dudley was named interim principal of Leesville Road Elementary School in North Raleigh for the rest of the school year. Dudley has held numerous interim positions since retiring as principal of York Elementary in 2003.

L. Roy Teel was named interim principal of Hunter Elementary School in Raleigh for the month of June. Teel, who retired as principal of Broughton High School in 2009, has held various interim positions since before and after then.

The Wake County school board appointed Darryl Fisher this evening to become the interim principal of Wilburn Elementary School in North Raleigh.

Fisher replaces Mark Tracy, who is leaving to take a job in another district. Fisher will fill in at Wilburn from April 1 through the end of the school year.

Fisher has plenty of first-hand experience at Wilburn, serving as principal from 1985 to 2006 and more recently as interim assistant principal. But losing a principal at this point in the school year probably isn't great considering that Wilburn is a Renaissance School, meaning it's getting additional federal funding because of its test scores.

The Wake County school system is taking some more steps to address the concerns raised by Eastern Wake residents that not enough is being done to help schools in their area.

As noted in this article Wednesday in the Eastern Wake News, the school system will conduct curriculum audits at Hodge Road Elementary, Knightdale Elementary, East Wake Middle and Knightdale High School. The audits, which Wake will hire an outside company to perform, would cost between $15,000 to $20,000 per school.

These audits were proposed by Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore at the Oct. 11 meeting of the school board's student achievement committee.

The Wake County school board announced Tuesday two new high school principals and two interim principals.

Patti Hamler will now be principal of Wake Forest-Rolesville High School with a salary of $124,043. Hamler is a former high school principal who has been principal of Leesville Road Middle School in North Raleigh since 2007.

David Schwenker will be principal of Southeast Raleigh HIgh School with a salary of $109,137. Schwenker has been principal of Carnage Middle School in Raleigh since 2009.

It looks like, at least in the near term, any use of teacher performance pay in the Wake County school system would be on a limited basis.

Wake County school board members debated the use of merit pay when reviewing the draft strategic plan last week. Some school board members support its use while others are adamantly against it or only support using it in limited cases.

Performance pay is already in limited use in Wake.

The Wake County school board appointed five principals tonight while moving four principals to assistant principal posts.

Gregory Butler was named principal of North Garner Middle School with a salary of $92,707.68. He has been an assistant principal at Southeast Raleigh High since 2009.

Carmen Graf was named principal of Banks Road Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina with a salary of $73,803.68. Graf has been an assistant principal at Timber Drive Elementary since October.

UPDATE

Click here to view the bio sheets.

The Wake County school board announced tonight they had replaced three principals who are part of a new program to help struggling schools and had also chosen a new leader for Southeast Raleigh High.

New principals were chosen for Barwell Road, Brentwood and Wilburn elementary schools while the principal of Creech Road Elementary was allowed to keep her job. They’re all part of the Renaissance Schools program, a new effort targeting additional resources at Wake’s four lowest-performing elementary schools.

The principals and teachers at the four Renaissance schools had to reapply if they wanted to keep their jobs, which comes with a hiring bonus and merit pay. Those who aren’t hired back or don’t want to stay are transferred to other schools.

SEE END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS FOR THE PRINCIPALS

Here's some more details about the Renaissance Model being used to turn around the Wake County school system's four lowest performing elementary schools.

The quick description is that additional resources, including new technology, signing bonuses and performance bonuses, will be used at Barwell Road, Brentwood, Creech Road and Wilburn elementary schools. All four schools happen to have high poverty levels but they were chosen because their passing rates were below 60 percent on state exams last year.

The issue has gotten more attention this week because the school board voted Tuesday on a $950,000 a year bonus plan for the schools using federal Race to the Top money.

Today's Wake County school board meeting will be long and touch on a variety of topics, including reassignment, bonuses to work at high-poverty schools, redistricting, bell schedules and the magnet review.

The school board will vote today on the last three potential changes to the 2011-12 student reassignment plan, including moving school board member John Tedesco's neighborhood from Creech Road Elementary to Aversboro Elementary. The plan calls for splitting off the part of the node that includes his subdivision to go to Aversboro.

Also as noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the board will vote on setting aside $950,000 in Race to the Top grant money to provide signing bonuses and merit pay to teachers who will work at the four Renaissance schools: Barwell Road, Brentwood Road, Creech Road and Wilburn elementary schools.

Next year's Wake County student reassignment plan is a work in progress with everything approved by the old school board under review with new suggestions coming in all the time.

During Tuesday's work session, Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, laid out to the board an explanation of the assignments being considered and the direction they're leaning toward. It will help to have your copy of the handout present.

The ensuing discussion showed how the thinking has changed to reflect the new student assignment policy. Multiple times, Evans talked about bringing students home, having them attend their neighborhood schools and moving the least number possible for stability.