The Wake County school board approved tonight placing enrollment caps at 17 schools for the 2013-14 school year.

The elementary schools that are affected are Brooks, Cedar Fork, Fuller, Holly Grove, Farmington Woods, Hunter, Joyner, Lacy, Mills Park, Underwood, Walnut Creek and Wiley. Caps would also affect the elementary school grades at Hilburn Drive Academy, and Apex, Garner, Heritage and Holly Springs high schools.

Unless that school is already capped for this school year, newcomers who still move in after this late date can get in for the rest of the school year. But you've got a big problem, unless you already live in the school's attendance area, if you want to begin attending this fall.

The Wake County legislative delegation should expect to hear more today from people opposing bills that would change how Wake County school board members are elected and take away their control of school construction.

WakeUP Wake County is urging people to show up again like they did at the March 25 public hearing. The new hearing takes place before the Wake school board will discuss during Tuesday's work session supporting the current election districts instead of going to the ones in S325, the school board election bill.

With WakeUP Wake, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and the Wake County Democratic Party urging people to show up March 25 to oppose the school bills, you can guess what the turnout was like. Here are some of the comments from the March 25 hearing.

Susan Pullium, one of the senior staffers in the Wake Count school system's student assignment office, has become at least the seventh person from the school district hired by the state Department of Transportation.

State Transportation Secretary Tony Tata announced today that Pullium will be the DOT's director of strategic planning. Pulliam will oversee the Transportation Planning Branch and Performance Metrics Management Office as she works on developing a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan.

“Susan has overseen large-scale planning and community engagement efforts and understands the importance of collaboration,” said Tata, the former Wake school superintendent, in the press release. “She is a talented, innovative individual who will be a tremendous asset as we work with our business and community partners to develop a long-range transportation plan that boosts North Carolina’s economy.”

The level of distrust between members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and Superintendent Tony Tata during his final month on the job was high.

As noted in today's article, the release this week of more than 3,400 pages of emails from Aug. 1 through Sept. 25 showed repeated board allegations that staff was trying to undermine them. Democratic board members also tried to distance themselves from the bus problems and the complaints about the release of the draft student assignment plan.

“I hate to seem suspicious, but at this time I am left with little other than to conclude that some on staff are trying to undermine the Board by creating mass confusion in the community,” school board member Jim Martin wrote in a Sept. 22 reply to Ellen Nightingale on the draft plan. “This is unacceptable.”

The Wake County school board passed the voluntary desegregation resolution it needs as part of it federal magnet grant application, but in the process it led to a discussion about achievement at magnets and the programming options at non-magnets.

At the last meeting on Feb. 5, the board considered this voluntary desegregation resolution. Approval was required as part of the $10 million in federal magnet dollars Wake will request to start up three new magnets and to revamp the themes at two schools.

School board member Deborah Prickett came to the discussion with a long list of notes to raise her concerns about approving the resolution.

The hybrid of the choice plan/address-based plan kicks off today with the start of the new first transfer application period.

As noted in today's article, it carries over how in the choice plan you could request as many as five schools. But there are some big differences, like how you won't get transportation for most of the schools you request now.

You've got the people who will request a calendar-option school, with transportation provided.

Does the recent report examining the Wake County school transportation department show that former Superintendent Tony Tata shouldn't be blamed for this school year's problems?

As noted in today's article, the school board is scheduled to vote today on a $2.25 million plan to reorganize the transportation department. Based on the staff presentation showing that the department's structure is outdated, Republican board members say Tata was made a scapegoat by his critics.

"Superintendent Tata was trying to clean up something that had been happening in years past," said board member Deborah Prickett. "He was trying to do his best to fix it. It's not his fault."

UPDATE

The school board unanimously approved the reorganization plan.

Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata has been named today the new state Transportation Secretary by Gov.-elect Pat McCrory.

Tata was noted for his logistical skills during his long career in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of brigadier general.

But Tata's critics will also point to the major problems that the school system experienced this school year with the buses. It's one of the factors that the school board's Democratic majority cited when they fired Tata, officially without cause, in September.

Is it a case of kumbaya or at least improving relations on the Wake County school board now?

The Wake County Taxpayers Association accused the school board's Democratic majority of worsening the situation with its actions. In response, the school board's attorneys are trying to paint a picture of growing consensus on the board in their response to AdvancED this week.

"Contrary to the unfounded allegations in the Complaint, it has operated openly and transparently and solicited input at every turn from staff and community stakeholders," the report says of the school board. "It has sought consensus whenever possible and decided the lion’s share of the issues it has faced by super-majority votes."

The Wake County school system is denying that members of the school board's Democratic majority are being unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

As noted in today's article, Wake's school board attorneys are telling AdvancED that majority members are making decisions based on their independent judgment and not because of the influence of Great Schools or any other advocacy group. The Wake County Taxpayers Association had charged GSIW had "extreme influence" on the majority, particularly the new board members.

"The allegation that the Board members who voted in favor of the June 19 student assignment directive did so because of 'extreme influence' from GSIW is suppositional and wrong," says this report.