A coalition of liberal groups is urging the Wake County school system to halt plans to open a pair of single-sex leadership academies next year.

In this memorandum sent Thursday to Wake Superintendent Tony Tata and school board members, the groups argue that approval of the academies was rushed through without enough input or review. The groups also oppose having single-sex schools and the requirement that students at the academies participate in the Junior ROTC program.

“Instead of spending precious funds on the proposed single-sex academies, spend them on improving and expanding alternative educational programs for struggling students,” says the memo.

The memo was signed by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, Advocates for Children’s Services, the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children, the North Carolina chapter of the ACLU and CHOICES — a group that’s criticized JROTC programs.

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, was inducted last week into the YWCA of the Greater Triangle's 2011 Class of the Academy of Women.

Brannon was inducted in the government category, which the YWCA says is for civil service or public policy that enhances the quality of life for area residents. The bio from the YWCA says that "Yevonne courageously works for social justice in our community as chair of the WakeUP Wake County organization’s Great Schools in Wake coalition."

"She is considered the foremost spokesperson on the importance of diversity in relation to student assignment," according to the YWCA. "Great Schools in Wake has partnered on numerous initiatives with the YWCA to advocate for the constitutional rights of children across the county so that they, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, or residence, have the highest quality education possible. She has developed many of her closest friendships through her advocacy work."

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton has raised nearly $24,000 in his bid to retain the District 4 seat.

A new campaign report filed this week shows Sutton had raised $23,872 as of Sept. 26 with $15,386.04 on hand. Venita Peyton's new report isn't up yet but she was at under $1,000 raised at the end of August.

The largest donors for Sutton in the new report are the $2,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $500 from Wake Citizens for Good Government.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton took some heat Thursday night on his position on the math placement policy from a person who's normally one of his supporters.

During the District 4 candidate forum, Bridgette Burge of the YWCA of the Greater Triangle criticized Sutton for wanting to use a higher that 70 percent EVAAS probability of success for placing students in  Algebra I in eighth-grade. This came after Cash Michaels of The Carolinian asked Sutton "to give clarity" on why board majority was being "political" in trying to pass the new math policy and saying teachers systemwide excluded qualified minority students.

"You know I love you both," Burge said to Sutton and Michaels. "I'm on a different side around this on placement. We're gong to bicker about 5 percent here and there when kids of color and low-income kids have been pushed out and not given the chance to go into the high-achieving classes just because they're kids of color and because they're low-income kids?

It looks like the Wake County school system will be in the spotlight tonight at a YWCA community forum on racism in the schools.

According to this press release, organizers say they will "take an in-depth look at how racism impacts area public schools." The press release cites the suspension rates for minority and low-income students in Wake.

"Education is intertwined with other social and economic justice issues because they share the same systemic roots with racism and classicism," said YWCA of the Greater Triangle Executive Director Folami Bandele in the press release. "We can and must do better for the futures of our youth, and we will continue to forge conversations in our community challenging these divides."

An overhaul of Wake County student discipline policies that largely eliminates zero-tolerance punishments could be adopted as soon as this week.

As noted in today's article, the Wake school board will vote Tuesday on a series of changes to the discipline policy with the biggest change being how suspensions would now be issued. School leaders expect the changes will reduce how often and how long students are suspended from school.

The changes appear to enjoy broad board support. Even critics of Wake's current discipline policies acknowledge it's a major change.

Supporters of the old Wake County diversity policy are making no bones about the fact that they're going after the school system at Friday's Stand Against Racism event at noon in Moore Square in downtown Raleigh.

Before last year's event, sponsors from the YWCA of the Greater Triangle event downplayed ahead of time that they'd be discussing the Wake school system. But it turned into a heated attack of the school board majority.

This time, organizers say they're targeting "systemic racism embedded in policies of the Wake County Public School System," namely the student suspension and discipline polices. It's one of the arguments that was used in the NAACP complaint of Wake that's being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

UPDATE

After having sent out another release this morning promoting the event, organizers just sent out a message this afternoon saying it's been postponed until August.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata could face his roughest grilling yet when he meets Thursday night with the teenagers from NC HEAT.

Tata had agreed to meet with NC HEAT when several members protested outside his appearance at the Wake County Taxpayers Association meeting in January. NC HEAT has been hardcore in its protests against the end of the diversity policy, with some of its members being arrested at board meetings.

"It was disappointing to us that Mr. Tata decided his first visit with the community would be with the Wake County Taxpayers Association, we felt this sent a very unfortunate and partisan message," said Monserrat Alvarez, co-chair of NC HEAT, in a press release posted today by Bob Geary on his blog for the Independent. "We asked Tata to meet with us as well, and he agreed so we are looking forward to hearing his responses to our concerns, not just the concerns of the wealthy members of our community."

UPDATE

Fliers promoting Saturday's NC HEAT protest are being handed out by audience members at Tuesday's school board meeting.

Supporters of Wake County's old school diversity policy took over Wednesday night's reassignment public hearing at Southeast Raleigh.

As noted in today's article by Ray Martin, most of the speakers focused on criticizing the board for eliminating the diversity policy instead of on the specifics of the 2011-12 student reassignment plan.

Speakers included some familiar names from school board meetings and a group of people organized by the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, one of the major backers of the Wake Education Advocates and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

Mary D. Williams, one of the four people arrested for taking over the June 15 Wake County school board meeting, has received an award from the YWCA of the Greater Triangle.

In this case, the award is for Williams' artistic skills and not her political activism. Williams was inducted Wednesday into the 2010 Class of the Academy of Women honorary society for the arts and entertainment category.

The YWCA has been an active supporter and organizer for groups that support the old diversity policy.