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.

School equity, student transfers and athletics will be on the agenda for today's first meeting of the reconstituted Wake County school board policy committee.

Now chaired by board member Jim Martin, the committee will review the proposed equity policy and its R&P. Martin worked on the policy when he was a community member of the economically disadvantaged student performance task force.

The committee has slotted half of the two-hour meeting to talk about the revised transfer policy before it's referred back to the full board on Tuesday.

Supporters and critics of Wake County's proposed math placement policy both sought the moral high ground during this week's school board discussion.

Critics of the policy argued that using too low a placement standard would do students a disservice and give them a weak math foundation. Supporters of the policy argued they were trying to promote equitable access to rigorous courses.

School board member Jim Martin got the discussion going Tuesday when he proposed a motion to indefinitely postpone the policy in favor of implementing this charge.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board member Jim Martin flexed some of his political muscle at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Martin got the board to amend the plan to reallocate $130 million in unused bond money to cover the cost of design work for renovations to Athens Drive High's stadium. Staff is projecting they'll have $500,000 left over, which Martin noted would cover the design costs for the stadium.

The design work would jump start the renovation project. The actual funding for the $7.4 million in renovation work would come from the next bond issue.

Don't look for the new middle school math policy to be discussed, after all, at today's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting.

School board vice chairman John Tedesco said the math policy was removed from the agenda because of the need for staff to review how it would be impacted by the new common core of curriculum standards. He said hopes to have the task force discuss the policy in December.

Tedesco said today's meeting agenda is still in flux, with at least one topic expected to be the draft equity policy.

The meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. at Brentwood Elementary School, 3426 Ingram Road in North Raleigh.

It's not an understatement to say that Tuesday's Wake County school board elections hang on the outcome of the District 8 battle between board chairman Ron Margiotta and challenger Susan Evans.

As noted in today's article, Margiotta is proud of the actions the board has taken in the past two years on issues such as ending the diversity policy while Evans says he's ruined Wake's national reputation. The fact that Democrats have to oust Margiotta to have any chance of regaining control is why so much money and attention has been poured into District 8 by critics of the board majority.

"If they get rid of me, they have control of the school board," Margiotta said.

Wake County school board candidate Cynthia Matson says she would "love another $10,000 (in campaign donations) by Monday."

Matson made the pitch for more campaign cash during an interview today on the conservative Frank Roche Show on WRDU. She said she's raised about $10,000 but will need more money to defeat Jim Martin in District 5.

"I would love people to give us some more donations because then I can reach more individuals throughout the county and throughout my district because really when I get on that board they may not be able to vote for me in my district but when I'm elected I'm voting for them," Matson said. "So I'm asking people across the county if you believe in choice, if you believe in fiscal efficiency, you believe in having the community represented and you want someone who knows how to read a budget, manage people and get things done, please support my campaign financially."

Middle school math placement, the Khan Academy and a policy on equity will be discussed at today's meeting of the Wake County school board's economically disadvantaged student performance task force.

School board vice chairman John Tedesco, chair of the task force, said staff will provide a detailed report on 2011-12 middle school math placement efforts. There was skepticism that some schools weren't being as diligent as others at using the new EVAAS-based criteria to place more students in advanced math classes.

Tedesco said they'll also watch a video from the non-profit Khan Academy, which has more than 2,000 videos available on YouTube. The videos cover a variety of topics to teach people math and other concepts.

UPDATE

Click here to view the handouts from the meeting.

Middle school math placement, the experience level of teachers at schools and the proposed equity/equality policy are on the agenda of today's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting.

Staff will discuss how they'll implement the guidelines for placing students in advanced math courses in middle school for the 2011-12 school year. School board member John Tedesco, chair of the task force, said staff will explain how they'll implement the criteria in the fall to avoid the questions about implementation from this school year.

Tedesco said the issue is even more important now that the board has adopted the core belief that they'll have high expectations for all students.

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.”