The new bill that would change the way Wake County school board members are elected is getting opposition from liberal groups.

In this blog post today, Rob Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch writes that S325 "would change the rules of how school board members are elected in the capital county in a way that is clearly designed to alter the board’s power structure and move things in a conservative direction."

"It’s hard to believe that anyone could advance such a blatant power grab with a straight face," Schofield writes. "...Given their record thus far in the 2013 session, however, it appears that neither shame nor embarrassment are conditions that tend to afflict the conservative ideologues running the show on Jones Street.

One clarification on the comments that Schofield writes about Joe Bryan, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. What Bryan was surprised about Wednesday is that the bill didn't go as far as they wanted to let voters pick a majority of school board seats.

Is S325 the final version of what will be passed legislatively for changes in Wake County school board elections?

As noted in today's article, the bill would only let voters pick two of nine board seats instead of the five out of nine requested by Wake County Commissioners. Voters would pick the one for their district and in the half-county district they'd now also be located in.

But the bill, which was filed Wednesday on the last day for local bills in the Senate, could be revised before things are done.

UPDATE

Census records show that the bill would put John Tedesco in the same district as Tom Benton and Kevin Hill. This means District 1 would include parts of Garner, Zebulon and the watershed area in Northeast Wake

Anticipation is growing on when legislation will be introduced in the General Assembly to turn over school ownership to county commissioners and to change the way the Wake County school board is elected.

Both pending bills hung over Thursday's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners. Joe Bryan, chairman of the commissioners, said the school ownership fight has now become a statewide issue with several other counties also interested in using the legislation.

“This decision will be decided hopefully within the next month or two at the legislature," Bryan said. "They will make the decision whether this model is better than what exists today.”

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."

How does the idea sound of having a mass election for all Wake County school board seats in 2014?

As noted in today's article, state Rep. Chris Malone said legislators are considering various options for changing the way Wake school board members are elected in response to the request from the board of commissioners.

Ideas on the table include making some or all the seats at-large and changing the elections to even-numbered years. One of the more intriguing ideas would involve extending by a year the board members elected in 2009 and shortening by a year those elected in 2011.

The Wake County Taxpayers Association is backing the state legislative changes proposed by county commissioners to allow them to take over ownership of schools and to change the way school board members are elected.

In a message dated Monday to members of the Wake County legislative delegation, WCTA president Russell Capps argues having at-large school board seats "would allow far better representation and grant voters greater than one voice to represent them on the Board."

Capps also writes that the county should control school acquisition, construction and maintenance because "the Board of Commissioners can do a far better job of properly spending taxpayer dollars than has the School Board."

Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton is warning about severe consequences should county commissioners have their way and get their legislative changes approved.

As noted in today's article, Sutton repeatedly characterized the changes commissioners want in school ownership, charter school facilities funding and at-large school board elections as a "power grab." He said there's nothing showing things would improve if commissioners have their way.

“The plan is to decimate the public school system as we know it and build it up in some other way,” Sutton said in a meeting Thursday with News & Observer reporters and editors.

Wake County taxpayers are on the hook for as much as $125,000 for dueling lobbyists representing the school board and commissioners.

The school board voted Tuesday to authorize interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey to pay up to $100,000 to hire a lobbyist to oppose legislative changes commissioners want in school construction, charter school funding and school board elections.

It turns out that county commissioners already hired their own lobbyist this week. Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, said that Tom Fetzer, the former Raleigh mayor and past state Republican Party chairman, will be paid $5,000 a month — for a maximum of $25,000 — to be their lobbyist.

"My reaction is, if we're going to keep score, we're going to win,” Bryan said Wednesday in a meeting with News & Observer reporters and editors.

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.

More to come later, but the Wake County school board picked Tom Benton to be its newest member and hired a lobbyist to oppose the legislative changes backed by the county commissioners.

Benton got four votes from Susan Evans, Kevin Hill, Christine Kushner and Jim Martin. Keith Sutton voted for Don Mial. Deborah Prickett backed Wendy Ford and John Tedesco chose Shinica Thomas.

The board voted 5-2 with Democrats in support and Republicans in opposition to authorize interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey to enter into contracts to get people to lobby the General Assembly not to adopt the legislative goals backed by commissioners.

Commissioners want to change state law to take over from the school board the jobs of locating, constructing and owning schools. They also want authority to give money to help charter schools build facilities and to require that four of the nine school board seats be elected at large.