Wake County commissioners will tackle today the findings of the SAS EVAAS report that raised questioned about the performance of minority students in the school system.

William Sanders, senior director of the EVAAS K-12 division, will discuss the SAS EVAAS report that became a last-minute issue in the school board election. The presentation, which was originally supposed to take place in November, is scheduled to be given at today's work session.

Tony Gurley, the Republican chairman of the commissioners, has been the one pushing for the commissioners to hear the presentation. Some of the Democratic commissioners have complained about why their board is discussing the report.

Wake County school issues and next year's county commissioners' races are about to be inextricably linked.

Joe Ciulla, a leader of the Wake Schools Community Alliance, said the group plans to be involved in next year's election to back commissioners who will help the new school board majority carry out its campaign pledges. The WSCA helped elect all four new school board members this year.

Jack Nichols, chairman of the Wake County Democratic Party, said he's also expecting the school system to be a major part of next year's commissioners' races. 

We're getting partial poll results from Public Policy Polling.

The Democratic polling firm released survey results Thursday indicating the public isn't happy with how Republicans elected Tony Gurley to be the new chairman of the Wake County board of commissioners.

But PPP didn't release results from that same poll about questions they had asked about the Wake County school system.

I hope no one was planning on attending today's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta had rescheduled the meeting after former chairman Kevin Hill had cancelled it. But Margiotta said he cancelled it again because of all the uncertainty on the board of commissioners following last week's vote for chairman.

The potty break that allowed the GOP to elect Tony Gurley as the new chairman came up indirectly during the school board meeting. Margiotta drew laughs from the crowd after he joked that he had called for a recess to avoid a repeat of what happened with the commissioners.

Tony Gurley's election as chairman of the Wake County board of commissioners may not provide as much help to the new school board majority as it seems.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Democrats point out they still hold a majority on the commissioners. Democratic County Commissioner Stan Norwalk said the new school board members should keep in mind that commissioners have to sign off on school funding requests, including any new construction resulting from a neighborhood school policy.

"If they want neighborhood schools, they have nothing to do with that," Norwalk said in the article. "Since the 1970s, we have been building a countywide system. You can't snap your fingers and say you are going to a neighborhood system."

New Wake County Commissioners Chairman Tony Gurley is pledging a closer working relationship with the school board, assuming he still holds the post by the end of the day.

As noted in today's article, the commissioners will reconvene at 10 a.m. to try to break the 3-3 deadlock on vice chair. But Gurley and Wake Democratic Party Chairman Jack Nichols are expecting the Dems to try to revote on chairman if Harold Webb is able to attend.

Gurley insists that his election on Monday, made possible by Betty Lou Ward's unexcused bathroom break, lasts for the whole year. The Democrats may feel otherwise.

UPDATE

Today's meeting is on Time Warner Cable Channel 11, at least in Raleigh. Click here for the county web site for the link to watch it live online.

Harold Webb is participating by phone. Betty Lou Ward is calling for a revote on chairman. She's threatening to sue if Gurley doesn't allow a revote. Gurley has ruled her out of order, saying they can't go back because of all the actions they did after that vote Monday. County Attorney Scott Warren said he's siding with Gurley that she's out of order but would have to recuse himself in favor of outside counsel if a lawsuit is filed.

With Webb present by phone, it ended on one vote today with Ward being named vice chairwoman by a 4-3 vote over Paul Coble. According to Coble, it was the 129th vote on vice chair.

New Wake County Commissioners Chairman Tony Gurley may want to bring some insulin from his pharmacy at future meetings.

As noted in today's article, it took Commissioner Stan Norwalk citing the need for an insulin shot to end more than eight hours of voting on a vice chairman. At his request, the meeting was recessed until 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Norwalk's health came up several times during the meeting. He has diabetes.

Today's joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners could get really interesting.

It's the last chance for the commissioners to officially meet with the outgoing school board members, whose terms expire at the end of the month. But the new school board members have also been invited to the joint meeting.

School officials continue to work to make sure the new Carrboro High School arts wing will be approved and funded as quickly as possible.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted unanimously at the last board meeting to approve the transfer of $78,600 in old project funds to complete the design and bid process of the project. The funds come from remaining balances on two older, completed renovation projects at Mary Scroggs Elementary and Glenwood Elementary. The two projects have a positive balance of $92,477 generated from sales tax refunds.

The move represents the next step in the process to break ground for the arts wing by winter. Once it starts, the project could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to complete.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners committed to the construction of the arts wing in June – as long as the school district could fund the project using federal stimulus, no interest loan money.

So far, the school district has received $1.9 million from the state in “Qualified School Construction Bonds” from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The district has also applied for an additional $2.7 million from the state’s Department of Public Instruction, which has leftover money from school districts in the state that did not apply to receive the extra funds. They’ll
hear back later this month about this money. When combined, these two sources
make up the entire cost of the project, estimated at $4.6 million.

An update on the project and a request to apply for bond funding will be presented at tomorrow night's county commissioners meeting.

The school district has got legitimate reason to worry whether county commissioners could scuttle the Forest Ridge High project by not approving any money to pay for road improvements.

School administrators have estimated that it could take another $5.7 million from the commissioners to fund state-mandated road improvements around Forest Ridge High, which is scheduled to open in 2012.

But at today's meeting, a majority of the commissioners complained about the rising cost of the road work. In particular, complaints came from Lindy Brown and Joe Bryan, who had both flipped their votes last year to approve purchasing the site.

UPDATE

Click here for the article from Gabe Starosta.