A lengthy commitee of the whole agenda sets the pace for today's Wake County school board meeting.

The COW meeting is starting an hour earlier than normal at noon to open up with the discussion of last week's facilities committee recommendation to scrap the Forest Ridge High site. Staff has warned it could cost $15.5 million more to go with an alternative site but new board members are skeptical.

Next will come capital plan funding and schedule changes to Plan 2000, Plan 2004 and the current program, CIP 2006. Among the topics will be using federal stimulus dollars to speed up the construction of Rolesville MIddle by a year.

You could soon see some major shakeups in the membership of the Wake County school board advisory councils.

The policy committee recommended on Wednesday a policy change that says members of the board advisory councils need to be reinstated after new school board members take office. It's a major change from current policy in which BAC members serve until their terms expire, which can run for up to three years.

The change is important considering the differences in opinions between most new school board members and their predecessors.

Some of the school board advisory council chairs are unhappy with the new Wake County school board majority.

BAC chairs have complained that school board chairman Ron Margiotta cancelled a meeting between them and the school board. They've also questioned why the new board members have cancelled individual BAC meetings.

But Margiotta says that nothing should be read into the cancellations.