The Wake County school board voted tonight to acquire two sites to relieve overcrowding at Garner and Panther Creek high schools.

The school system will pay $1.75 million to buy the Garner Towne Square 10 theater, located at 2600 Timber Drive. The theater, which closed in 2010, will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for the nearby Garner High.

The school system will pay $12.38 per square feet to lease a 77,574-sq. ft. office building at 3700 Pleasant Church Grove Road in Morrisville. It would be a six-year lease, starting July 1, with a 3 percent annual escalation. The building will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for Panther Creek High.

Congratulations to Garner High School Principal Drew Cook, who has been named one of the eight finalists for North Carolina Principal of the Year.

Cook was named the finalist for the state's north central region. A state selection committee will review the eight regional finalists with the winner being announced in Raleigh on April 5.

Cook, 37, has been at Garner High for much of his life. He was a student there. After college, he returned to the school in 1997 to become a teacher. He was promoted from assistant principal to principal in 2009.

Cook was named the Wake County school system's 2011 Principal of the Year in October. Click here for a story by Carla Turchetti that looks at his life as a hometown success story.

Here's a condensed recap of today's press conference held by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata said his staff will work through the weekend to be able to present at Tuesday's school board meeting the impact of making adjustments to the feeder patterns. He didn't go into specifics but said they're addressing some areas of concern that have been raised.

Tata said they'll also present info on the feasibility of making changes such as raising student achievement over proximity in the selection process and setting aside 15 percent of the seats at the high-performing regional choice schools for applicants from low-performing areas.

The girls golfer of the year in the Greater Neuse River Conference is Smithfield-Selma's Brittany Talton.

The Greater Neuse River Conference released its all-conference awards for volleyball.

East Wake puts seven players on Greater Neuse all-conference soccer team.

Southeast Raleigh quarterback David Washington is named the Greater Neuse 4A Conference football player of the year.

Games will be played Friday and Saturday in Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem.

The anti-Junior ROTC movement appears to be out at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Five of the 11 speakers have signed up to speak about a proposal to add an Army JROTC unit at Knightdale High. The board is also set to ratify the prior agreement to set up an Army JROTC program at Garner High.

"JROTC is part of the military industrial complex that promotes and profits from war," said Sandy Irving.

UPDATE

The JROTC program was approved as part of the consent agenda. Only school board member Anne McLaurin voted against the consent agenda. She didn't give a reason.

Advance tickets for Friday night's Eastern Regional 4AA championship game at Garner between the Trojans and Fayetteville Jack Britt will go on sale today at noon in the school's main office. The advance tickets, which are $8 each, will be available at the school until 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

Tickets will also be sold at the gates as usual on Friday night. Gates to Trojan Stadium will open at 6 p.m.; kick off is at 7:30.