It's not an understatement to say that Thursday's Wake County school board discussion on the student assignment policy was a free-wheeling discussion.

The variety of topics discussed, such as how explicit to make an achievement goal and what to say about socioeconomic diversity, set the stage for the long process to follow to come up with a revised policy.

Unlike most committee meetings, nearly every board member including new appointee Tom Benton attended. That's a sign of how important the discussion was viewed.

Does the Wake County school system need to adopt a school board policy on equity of educational resources?

The answer, at least as of last week's school board policy committee meeting, is no for now. The consensus of the majority and minority members of the committee is that they can put the policy on hold.

For now, the board will see if the mission, vision and core beliefs statement adopted last year will do enough to promote equity.

Is there a systemic reason why the Wake County school system hasn't been able to over the years increase the percentage of minority teachers?

In an article in last week's issue of The Carolinian, Cash Michaels credits Wake Superintendent Tony Tata for trying to recruit more minority teachers.  But Michaels also criticizes Tata for not recognizing past school system and community efforts to recruit more minority teachers.

In contrast, Tata argues that Wake has had essentially the same "staid" hiring practices for the past 20 years. He points to how the percentage of white teachers has stayed relatively constant at over 80 percent even as the percentage of minority students has sharply increased.

It looks like the question of reducing autonomy for Wake County principals is something that Superintendent Tony Tata will be pushing for as he continues to put his stamp on the school district.

Tata has questioned the extensive level of autonomy that principals have in both of the school board retreats, including the one on Saturday. He said he wants Central Office to have more authority while still preserving some autonomy for principals.

"A theme today is that there needs to be a higher degree of accountability between Central Office and the schools," Tata told board members Saturday.

While noting it's up to feds to see whether they'll believe the Wake County school system's latest response, Cash Michaels is making it clear he doesn't put stock into the reasons used for justifying ending the diversity policy.

In a blog post today of a piece that will appear in The Carolinian, Michaels writes that "after over forty years of school busing for desegregation across the nation, South and North Carolina, there are no credible independent studies proving the board majority’s point."

"Nothing that confirms, beyond conservative board members own 'feelings,' and the dubious statistics school system staff was directed to produce, that undeniably details how academically debilitating a school bus ride from Southeast Raleigh to Cary can be," Michaels writes.

UPDATE

Click here for a response to this blog post written by Michaels.

You should probably get to know the name of Eli Broad because he could have a major impact on the Wake County school system in the next few years.

As noted in today's article, one obvious factor is that Wake Superintendent Tony Tata graduated from the Broad Superintendents Academy. Another factor is that Tata hopes to use his contacts from the academy to draw in millions of dollars from philanthropists like Broad, Bill Gates and the Walton family.

One of the things Tata said he was surprised to learn when he started in Wake was that the school system wasn't heavily involved in raising money from the private sector.

Could the wording from the Oct. 5 resolution that killed the zone plan come back to bite the Wake County school board during the accreditation review?

As noted in today's article, Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, said the review team will question how the school board will follow through on the wording in the Oct. 5 resolution to provide “equity and equal opportunity” for all students. It's part of the review of whether the school board is following its own policies and procedures.

“We’re telling them it’s their right to assign students as they wish,” Elgart said. “But when you have a resolution that says you will ensure equality of opportunity, you have to say how you will do that.”

As promised, here's a spreadsheet showing which courses are available this school year at each Wake high school.

You'll soon notice that some schools have a lot more courses than others. For instance, the spreadsheet caused school board member Lori Millberg to ask why East Wake High had so few advanced courses compared to Enloe High.

(I should throw in this disclaimer from the district that it's a draft document that could be revised.)

After months of work with an outside facilitator, the school board has finally finished its work plan.

In theory, the work plan lays out what the board wants to focus on between 2008-11. The items should be familiar as they're based off the findings of the curriculum management audit and the citizens' facilities advisory committee.

The board will look at is how to provide equal access to comparable programs, services, and opportunities to impact success for all students.

The board will also review offering weightlifting, wrestling and tennis and reducing parking spaces. Both of those options from the CFAC report drew a lot of negative remarks. Tennis supporters were especially unhappy.

There are plenty of other things in the work plan to keep the board busy.