There's apparently enough justification in the charges leveled by the Wake County Taxpayers Association to keep the Wake County school system's high school from regaining full accreditation.

As noted in today's article, Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, said that they haven't officially made a determination as to whether the WCTA complaint is valid. However, he said, if the agency had already found it to be invalid it would have given Wake’s high schools full accreditation.

“We’re not picking sides in the complaint,” Elgart said. “But there’s clearly a lack of confidence in the community.”

This arguably could be classified as being a glass is half full or half empty situation.

In this Jan. 9 letter, AdvancED is telling the Wake County school system that the high schools will remain on "accredited under advisement" status through June 30. It's not full accreditation, which is one step up, but it's not being dropped down a step to "accreditation warned."

AdvancED wants Wake to report back by May 31 on how its conducting the superintendent search, implementing a new student assignment plan and reviewing its policies. They also want to hear if relations on the board are improving.

“The school system is asked to share continued efforts being made by its Board of Education to move beyond the conflicts of the immediate past and the ability of the Board to focus on the needs and best interests of the students of Wake County,” wrote Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, to the school system in the Jan. 9 letter.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association is urging AdvancED to do an on-site review of the complaint it filed against the Wake County school system.

WCTA says an onsite review is needed because the school system's Dec. 17 response letter to AdvancED was "elusive, misleading, and treats the concerns of many in this county with frivolity.”

To support the case for the site visit, the WCTA points to actions such as Keith Sutton's statements during the September closed-session firing of Superintendent Tata and the Nov. 28 yanking of the microphone from Deborah Prickett's hands by Susan Evans.

UPDATE

Click here to view the new WCTA letter to AdvancED and a press release.

More to come later, but the Wake County school system is defending the decision by the school board's Democratic majority to drop the choice-based student assignment plan in its response to AdvancED.

In this 28-page report sent today, Wake says the board majority's vote was based on “reasonable beliefs that there were demonstrable and substantial problems with the Choice Plan.”

“While four Board members believed that the Choice Plan remained viable and that any problems could be successfully addressed, five members came to the conclusion that a fundamental change in approach was needed,” according to the report.

UPDATE

AdvancED hasn't even reviewed the report yet. It's WRAL misinterpreting that Wake is telling AdvancED that it should find the complaint as being without merit.

Today is the deadline for the Wake County school system to respond to the complaint that the Wake County Taxpayers Associated filed with AdvancED.

The initial WCTA complaint focused on a variety of things, including the private meeting the new school board members had with Michael Alves, the post-midnight vote on the student assignment directive and board member Jim Martin trying to arrange an assignment provision for parents going on sabbaticals. WCTA has also argued that the new board members are unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

The WCTA later amended the complaint to include the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

How Wake's response to the complaint affects AdvancED's review of the accreditation of the district's high schools remains to be seen.

The Wake County school system is telling AdvancED that it's on its way toward completing all seven of the action steps requested by the accrediting organization.

When AdvancED raised the accreditation of the high schools in January to advised status, Wake still had two of the seven steps to complete. In this new update released this morning, Wake says it's completed one of those action steps and will soon get the other one done.

Wake is pointing to the board passing the strategic plan in August and the policy committee recommending passage of a policy on defining the role of resolutions.

Wake's update doesn't get into the complaint filed by the Wake County Taxpayers Association over the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata since that response isn't required until Dec. 18. The update also doesn't get into the recent controversy involving school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone.

We'll find out today how the Wake County school system says it's doing addressing the concerns raised by AdvancED.

Today is the deadline for Wake to give an update from when AdvancED upgraded the status of the district's high schools to accreditation warned in January. School leaders are hoping that they can regain full accreditation for the high schools.

What you won't see today is Wake's response to the complaint that the Wake County Taxpayers Association lodged about the Democratic school board majority and the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata. Wake has until Nov. 15 to respond to those issues.

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION

Wake says it has until Dec. 18 now to respond to the WCTA allegations.

As of 7 p.m. (Thursday), the report isn't in yet (to the media). Wake says the report was sent to AdvancED at 4:52 p.m. Thursday to meet the deadline

Could the flap involving Wake County school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone affect the accreditation status of the district's high schools?

In a blog post Tuesday for the Progressive Pulse, which is maintained by the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Lucy Hood points to the speculation from former school board chairman Ron Margiotta that Goldman might have voted against the zone plan in October 2010 to get back at Malone. The publicity about the 2010 police report comes as AdvancED is waiting for an update from Wake on how it's handling the concerns the group previously made.

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, has recently voiced his concerns about the new school board majority firing Superintendent Tony Tata and dropping the choice plan.

"Already displeased with the school board’s penchant for partisan voting, it will be very interesting to see what Elgart has to say about this new brand of partisan, or 'anti-partisan,' voting," Hood writes about Goldman's 2010 vote.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association now wants AdvancED to investigate the firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

WCTA announced today it had amended its original complaint against the school system to include the firing of Tata, which it says has left Wake "leaderless." The complaint also faults the board's Democratic majority for holding the discussion in closed session and not allowing a public hearing before the vote.

"This firing was shocking and has had an extremely negative impact on our community and our schools," said WCTA in the amended complaint. "It has become even more clear since the filing of our original complaint, that the majority members of the Wake County Board of Education are under undue influence of the partisan group, Great Schools in Wake (GSIW)."

For all those who were upset that AdvancED acted on the complaint filed by the state NAACP, how do you feel about the group possibly acting on the allegations filed by the Wake County Taxpayers Association?

As noted in today's article, the WCTA filed a complaint Wednesday accusing the Wake County's Democratic school board majority of creating "a climate of fear and intimidation." The WCTA argues the board majority has undermined the progress that Wake was making to comply with AdvancED's earlier findings.

Wake County school board member Chris Malone said that if AdvancED doesn't act on the complaint that it will show the group is unfair.