Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

More to come later, but Wake County Commissioners voted 4-3 today to make a $775,000 counter offer to purchase the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for use as a school.

The offer is $50,000 less than what the school board agreed to pay for the property on Hargett Street. It was a compromise on the part of Democratic Commissioner James West that got the support of GOP Commissioners Chairman Joe Bryan after the other Republican commissioners balked at paying $825,000.

Whether the YWCA bankruptcy trustee will take the new deal remains to be seen. The trustee wrote a letter saying that another group, with a much longer closing date than the school system, had offered to pay $875,000.

Commissioners unanimously approved purchasing the M-13 site. Also, Great Schools in Wake Coalition members came to the meeting to criticize GOP commissioners for balking at the YWCA deal and passing their proposed state legislative school changes.

CORRECTION

Corrected to say that the price the school system offered was $825,000.

We'll see whether there's more fuel added to the fire today in the fight between the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

At today's meeting, the commissioners are scheduled to have the second and final reading on purchasing the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for a school. There's also a second reading scheduled for purchasing land for M-13, a new middle school that would be built in northeast Raleigh.

GOP commissioners were pretty critical at the Feb. 4 meeting about the YWCA purchase. They gave no reasons for delaying the M-13 vote.

If the state legislative changes go through as commissioners envision, control of school facilities would include the county taking over the purchase of school sites. The county would work off the target circles drawn up by the school system.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley will have to wait awhile if he wants to see the minutes of the Jan. 22 closed-session meeting in which the school board agreed to purchase the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

Commissioners rejected a prior YWCA offer on Jan. 7, leading to the school board approving a revised deal on Jan. 22. Gurley said Monday he wants to review the minutes because he believes the school board was buying the property for “political reasons” and had “misused its rules seriously” during the closed session.

School board chairman Keith Sutton and school board attorney Jonathan Blumberg said the closed session was valid. But Blumberg said the minutes can’t be released yet because they’ve haven’t been approved by the board.

The Wake County school board is going to fight it out in the General Assembly against the county commissioners over proposed legislative changes.

As noted in today's article, members of the school board's Democratic majority objected to the legislative changes backed by the GOP majority on the county commissioners. The school board will fight letting commissioners take over ownership of schools, give money to help charter schools build facilities and their support for adding at-large school board seats.

Democratic board members said they were defending the school system by hiring a lobbyist to oppose the commissioners' 2013 state legislative agenda.

The bad blood continues to flow between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the school board.

As noted in today's article by Martha Quillin, Republican commissioners accused the school system of misleading taxpayers about its fund balance. The GOP majority also tabled approval of a land purchase for a northeast Raleigh middle school and accused the school board of engaging in politics in wanting them to approve buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

GOP commissioners said they were speaking for the taxpayers. But Democratic commissioners said Republicans were endangering development of the next school bond issue and harming relations with the school board.

The Wake County school board is making another effort to purchase the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh.

The school board voted 4-2 tonight to pay $825,000 to purchase two of the three parcels that the YWCA owns on East Hargett Street. Joe Desormeaux, the assistant superintendent for facilities, said the two parcels are big enough to house a school.

The school board had agreed to pay $1 million to purchase all three parcels. But county commissioners rejected the deal Jan. 7 over concerns about the title for one of the parcels.

The Wake County school board will look at how to improve school security and school transportation today and also take another crack at buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

During the board work session, school security staff will present an update on the review that was launched following last month's Connecticut school shooting. One byproduct is today's vote on hiring an unarmed security guard for every elementary school.

Also during the work session, the board will hear the results of the transportation review that was launched because of the bus problems at the start of the school year. Transportation staff will make recommendations on changes.

At the end of the regular meeting, the board will take another vote on buying the YWCA building. County commissioners rejected a revised deal earlier this month but said the school board could try again.

The purchase of the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for a future Wake County school is now dead.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners had agreed Nov. 19 to purchase the property, but title problems were later discovered with one of the three tracts in the deal. The school system asked commissioners to approve today this amended deall allowing it to split up the purchase into two parts.

But in a departure from the 4-3 vote in November, the commissioners unanimously voted today for Commissioner Tony Gurley's motion to reject the new request and to declare the prior approval dead.

The former YWCA building could turn into a new Wake County elementary school as opposed to future expansion space for the Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted this afternoon to approve the $1 million purchase of the YWCA building that had been requested by the school board. The commissioners also approved reallocating money for renovations for the Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy and the Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy and to modify the MOU for the CTE high school.

But it was the vote over the YWCA building that was the most contentious decision. Approval came on a 4-3 vote when Republican Commissioner Joe Bryan joined the Democrats in voting yes.