It might not produce any changes in the proposed bell schedules for Wake County schools this fall, but look for a discussion Feb. 21 on the impact of school start times on high school students.

School board member John Tedesco wants staff to talk about the sleep study research that indicates it's better to have later start times for older students.

Also look for a discussion on traffic concerns raised by school board member Jim Martin that later start times for high school students could be dangerous.

Late Tuesday night, the Wake County school board voted 5-4 along party lines to pass on first reading the reinstatement of the student achievement, finance, policy and facilities committees.

Under the vote, which will still require a second reading for adoption, the committees would be reevaluated after six months. Left unresolved Tuesday was the future of the economically disadvantaged student performance task force.

Democratic school board chairman Kevin Hill proposed keeping the ED task force but rolling it into the student achievement committee. That proposal drew opposition from Republican school board member John Tedesco, who has headed the ED task force since its formation in 2010.

Can the Wake County school system sell the public on the merits of the bell schedule changes for this fall?

As noted in today's article, school staff said the proposal would help Wake avoid $10 million in costs and revenue losses this fall. But school board members said it would take community outreach to explain it to parents why they're being asked to make changes of more than an hour in some cases.

"If we don't (do community outreach), we’re going to get thousands of calls and emails about this," said school board member John Tedesco.

UPDATE

Click here for the handout from the board meeting. It lists the proposed bell schedules.

Wake has fixed some errors with the individual school times from yesterday's handout. I've replaced the link with the new one. Wake made more corrections Thursday.

It's late so I'll keep it short.

The first reading of the revised middle school math placement policy was tabled Tueseay night at the suggestion of Wake County school board member John Tedesco. This came in an attempt to block a motion by school board member Jim Martin that would have nixed the policy entirely in favor of forming a working group to evaluate and stop tracking issues.

Martin questioned the need to have a districtwide policy on math placement when one doesn't exist for other subjects. He also criticized the use of the 70 percent EVAAS probability of success as the floor for placing students,

By passing Tedesco's motion, it moves the discussion of the policy to the next board meeting. Ruth Steidinger, senior director of middle school programs, said the middle schools will do math placement this month for the upcoming school year and need guidance soon on what criteria to use.

It's not been easy for the Wake County school system to sell the three former administration buildings it owns in Raleigh.

As noted in today's article, the school board will vote today on an offer of $2.6 million for the Noble Road property. It's $900,000 less than the school system had hoped to get.

Proceeds from the sale are supposed to help pay for the cost of leasing and operating the new headquarters in Cary. As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, there are some questions as well about how that lease deal was handed.

UPDATE

The sale of the Noble Road site was approved 8-1 with only John Tedesco in dissent.

Wake County school administrators hope to get a grant to encourage community participation in an early childhood literacy initiative.

During Thursday's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting, administrators said they've applied for a grant from The Campaign For Grade-Level Reading.

The Campaign focuses on closing reading achievement gaps between low-income and middle-income students. A major focus of the group is for students to have reading proficiency by the end of third grade.

Should the Wake County school board move quickly to extend Superintendent Tony Tata's contract?

As noted in today's article, Tata is generally getting good reviews as he hits the one-year anniversary mark of his tenure on Tuesday. But he also faces some challenges, including potentially from members of the new Democratic school board majority.

Republican school board members are talking about wanting the board to take action next month to extend Tata's contract past the June 30, 2014 end date.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is getting a lot of credit for AdvancED upping the accreditation status of the school district's high schools.

As noted in today's article, AdvancED said in its new report that the school system has made "significant" progress to address the issues it had raised in its March report. Throughout the report, AdvancED cites Tata as being a major factor for the change.

"A common theme during interviews was the significance of the Superintendents’ influence on the direction of the system in providing governance and leadership focused on student learning and system effectiveness," according to the report. "Described as a 'calmer' Board, stakeholders attributed this change unequivocally to the Superintendent’s leadership."

The timing could have been better, but Wake County school board member John Tedesco officially announced today that he's running for state superintendent of public instruction.

In his press release, Tedesco cited issues such as the state’s high suspension rate and poor test scores for minority students in his announcement.

“Our children can no longer wait as a failed education system robs them of the promise of tomorrow with each passing day,” Tedesco said in his announcement.

How worried should the Wake County school system be about how the new student assignment plan is impacting the magnet schools?

As noted in today's article, the Democratic board members expressed concern Tuesday about the sharp decline in magnet applications. They also raised concerns that not enough academically identified students got accepted into Carnage and Ligon middle schools, which operate the AG Basics magnet theme.

“It seems to me that demand for magnets has gone down by half,” said new Democratic school board member Christine Kushner in remarks to staff members. “I’m concerned about that decline. I hope it’s something you are paying attention to.”