Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, is mobilizing people to participate in the magnet school survey and to urge the Wake County school board to scrap the new student assignment plan.

In a Sunday blog post, Allison Backhouse posts a copy of a Saturday email that she obtained in which Brannon writes that they "NEED a lot of push as the next school board meeting (JUNE 5) to MAKE A NEW PLAN for 2013." Brannon suggests writing "a lot of" letters to the editor "asking for a directive that stops using the CHOICE proximity model and starts using a RESIDENCEY based assignment plan."

Brannon lists the names of other Great Schools leaders, Patty Williams, Amy Womble and Lynn Edmonds, whom she says can help edit the letters and try to get them published.

UPDATE

Backhouse had obtained the email after it was forwarded Sunday to the Coalition of  Concerned Citizens for African American Children. Here is the email that CCCAAC President Calla Wright sent today, Monday, saying they'll stop forwarding messages:

From: Calla Wright <ccaac_aacca@yahoo.com>
Subject: [CoalitionofConcernedCitizensforAfricanAmericanChildren] Sharing Email Stopped because of the confidential message
Date: May 21, 2012 5:23:34 PM EDT
To: coalitionofconcernedcitizensforafricanamericanchildren@yahoogroups.com
Cc: parentsfordiversity@yahoogroups.com, ybrannon@gmail.com

We have decided to limit the number of emails forwarded to this group because of the confidentail messages that are shared with others who support segregated/neighborhood schools.  It is necessary for us to reduce the number of emails sent and we have decided to only share public information.
Please share this message that all confidential emails will stop.

Is the key to meeting downtown Raleigh's school capacity needs to look to its past?

As noted in today's article, the Wake County school system is in preliminary talks about reacquiring and reopening the Thompson School and Crosby-Garfield School. Both schools, located in Southeast Raleigh near downtown, were declared surplus and turned over to the county a long time ago.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata said the new student assignment plan showed that they need to increase school capacity in and near downtown Raleigh.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata will attempt to turn the focus today  to the school district's STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) program.

Tata is holding his weekly press briefing this morning at Southeast Raleigh High School, where it's expected that most of the questions from the media will be about the new student assignment plan and Peace University backing out of the leadership academies. But Tata is holding the event at Southeast Raleigh to highlight Saturday's first ever countywide STEM expo.

After the press conference, school administrators are encouraging reporters to remain at the school "for interviews and video/photo opportunities of STEM programs at work in the classroom."

Has the new Wake County student assignment plan discouraged businesses from coming to the area?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane caused a stir when she raised the issue during the joint meeting of the Wake County Mayors Association and the school board. McFarlane said she is starting to hear that some businesses have second thoughts about coming here.

Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and a backer of the new choice plan, said he was not aware of any company that has chosen not to relocate to Raleigh because of the school system. Schmitt said that McFarlane was, understandably, reacting to anxiety expressed by constituents in pockets of town where schools are in high demand and overcrowded.

The spin from both supporters and critics of Wake County's new student assignment plan is well in progress.

As noted in today's article, critics like the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and some parents dispute Superintendent Tony Tata's assertions that the first round of the selection process was a success.

But Michael Alves, who is being paid by Wake to consult on the plan's implementation, and Wake Education Partnership Vice President Tim Simmons say the results are encouraging.

As you guys may have seen in today's article by Martha Quillin and Amanda James, the YWCA of the Greater Triangle abruptly closed Wednesday because of budget woes.

The YWCA was known for various social service programs. But those involved in the Wake County school diversity fight also know the group as having played an active role in that issue in the past two years.

The YWCA was involved with groups such as N.C. HEAT and the Wake Youth Organizing Institute. It sponsored marches protesting the end of the diversity policy. It worked with federal investigators probing the school system.

The YWCA criticized the single-sex leadership academies. It honored Yevonne Brannon.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition's latest attempt to derail the new Wake County student assignment plan is to criticize it by attacking the proposed bell schedule changes unveiled by Superintendent Tony Tata.

In a press release today, GSIW writes that the "the latest proposal tied to the new assignment plan — a new busing system that significantly affects bell schedules—boasts a theoretical cost savings based on the old assignment plan, without demonstrating how it will offset the undocumented costs of the new." Tata has denied that the bell schedule changes are being caused by the assignment plan, something that GSIW evidently disbelieves.

"Superintendent Tata's actions continue to erode the public's trust," says GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon in the release. "The plan he rushed through is starting to show signs of real inadequacy, but rather than responding to the community's concerns in a comprehensive way, he is forging ahead. He presented the new transportation plan to the public as if it were a 'done deal' — despite the fact that the Board has yet to vote on it."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Here's a recap of today's press conference in which speakers urged the Wake County school board and DA's office to use mediation instead of trials for the protestors arrested at board meetings in 2010.
 
Speakers said seeking mediation would heal the community, save taxpayer money and not tie up court dockets. You also had speakers from the Great Schools in Wake Coalition who both called for mediation while simultaneously defending the new Democratic board majority.

“I’m here to encourage the school board to take up mediation instead of ripping us apart,” said the Rev. Duane Beck, co-chair of Congregations for Social Justice and pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church.

The liberal/progressive Great Schools in Wake Coalition is being praised for helping oust the Republican majority on the Wake County school board.

In this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, GSIW received one of the publication's 2012 Citizen Awards. The article cites Great Schools' various efforts over the past two years such as its white papers, community forums and having members speak at school board meetings.

"When the 2011 elections in Wake County resulted in a stunning defeat for the Republicans, with all five school board seats on the ballot won by pro-diversity candidates, GSIW was the major factor in the outcome," according to the article by Bob Geary.

WakeUP Wake County is citing the "success" of electing a new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board as one reason to give money to the organization.

In an e-mail message sent today, Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the board of directors for WakeUP Wake, writes that "success in 2011 has been real." She continues by writing that "Wake County elected a new majority for the Board of Education, which means a better managed school system supporting all our children as Wake grows."

"WakeUP played a vital role in this progress through public education and advocacy," Brannon writes. "We attended school board meetings, wrote letters-to-the-editor, held community issue forums and non-partisan candidate forums, talked to elected officials, registered voters, communicated in the media, and let you know when you needed to act!"