Wake County school board member Susan Evans has turned to a leader of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition to be one of her District 8 Board Advisory Council chairs.

Evans nominated Patty Williams, the communications director for Great Schools, on Monday to be one of the two BAC co-chairs. Williams was appointed in December to the BAC, which acts as sounding boards for board members.

The appointment comes after the controversy last week about the involvement of Evans and fellow board member Christine Kushner with Great Schools.

Some familiar names are on the list of people being nominated Tuesday for placement on Wake County school board advisory councils.

The nominees for school board member Jim Martin's BAC include former Assistant Superintendent Mike Burriss and Ann Overton. Diana Bader has been nominated to serve on school board member Debra Goldman's BAC. Karey Harwood has been nominated for board vice chairman Keith Sutton's BAC.

Some of the new BAC members were nominated by other people.

CORRECTION

Harwood was nominated to school board vice chairman Keith Sutton's BAC.

The new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board may adopt a tougher line on handling public records requests.

Members of the former Republican board majority were subject to many public records requests for their personal and school district emails from their critics. Now the Democratic members are finding themselves subject to the same kinds of requests.

People who make requests now get the first 100 pages of copies free. They pay 10 centers for each additional page. But now they may also have to pay for the cost of staff time to handle the requests.

The revamping of the Wake County school board District 8 board advisory council continued tonight with the appointment of three new at-large members.

New District 8 school board member Susan Evans nominated Patty Williams, communications director for the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. Williams is the parent of a student at Athens Drive High.

Evans also nominated Hardin Engelhardt, a magnet parent and former teacher. Like Williams, Engelhardt spoke out at board meetings against the change in the diversity policy.

Carolyn Morrison and Christine Kushner are swapping duties on the Wake County school board in more ways than one.

We all know that Kushner took Morrison's seat on the school board. But now Morrison will take Kushner's seat on the District 6 board advisory council.

Kushner said she asked Morrison to serve on the advisory council so that the veteran educator could continue to serve the school system. School board members use their advisory councils as sounding boards and to relay concerns from the individual schools.

Speaking of Wake County school board advisory councils, don't be surprised if you see some turnover, especially in District 8.

Hank Dickson submitted his resignation letter last week as District 8 BAC co-chair and representative for Holly Springs High. In the letter to new school board member Susan Evans, Dickson alludes to Evans' involvement with protesters who disrupted school board meetings.

"My appreciation of proper conduct and decorum during open meetings makes my continued service on your BAC very difficult," Dickson, a former Holly Springs Town Councilman, writes in the letter. "I regret that I must submit my resignation for both positions."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Wake County school board voted 5-4 tonight to give final approval to policy changes that cut back on the role of PTAs on board advisory councils.

Among the changes, board members no longer have to consult with the PTAs before nominating BAC members for each school. The policy also no longer says that BAC members should be placed on the boards of their local PTA.

Before the vote, some speakers urged the board to consider a compromise.

CORRECTED TO REMOVE REFERENCE THAT DULANEY WAS ON OLD STUDENT ASSIGNMENT COMMITTEE

It looks like the PTA won't officially have to be consulted when members are nominated to serve on Wake County school board advisory councils.

At the recommendation of school board member Deborah Prickett, the board agreed during today's work session to strike the language from the BAC policy saying that board members must consult with the principal and PTA before nominating members.

Prickett had initially wanted to remove the language about consulting with the principal too but agreed to only drop the section on PTA consultation.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Click here to view what was approved on first reading.

Year-round schools, student discipline and the budget aren't the only issues on today's Wake County school board agenda.

The work session that begins at 3 p.m. will include Superintendent Tony Tata giving school-by-school recommendations whether the 14 underutilized multi-track year-round schools should move to a single track for 2011-12. The formal vote will take place during the regular meeting that begins at 5:30 p.m.

You also have the interesting situation in which during the work session Tata will talk about proposed changes to the student transfer policy as a result of the probe into school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's case.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

I meant to blog about this much sooner. but it's worth noting that two Wake County school board members have taken advantage of the change in policy to revamp their board advisory councils.

Board members Debra Goldman and Deborah Prickett have removed some BAC members before the expiration of their terms in order to replace them with new people. In May, the board changed the policy that had previously meant that BAC members served until the end of their terms, which could run up to three years.

Under the new policy, all BAC members require reinstatement once new board members are sworn into office.