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.

The Wake County school board voted tonight to extend Superintendent Tony Tata’s contract by six months.

Tata’s contract will now run through December 2014. School board chairman Kevin Hill said the extension will align Tata’s contract with his annual evaluation cycle.

Tata was hired as superintendent in December 2010.

Could the Wake County school board decide after all to implement for this fall seat set-asides at the high-performing schools or lift the priority for students from low-performing nodes?

Both topics are part of the student assignment update that will be presented at the work session. Topics, according to the handout, include assignment priorities for displaced magnet students and the number of AG students accepted into sixth-grade at Ligon and Carnage middle schools.  

Also on the agenda, is a staff presentation to change the bell schedules for nearly all of the schools this fall.

UPDATE

The school board ran out of time to discuss the student assignment update.

Click here for the online story about the bell schedule proposal.

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 board candidate Jennifer Mansfield raised more than $7,500 during her unsuccessful run for the District 3 seat.

In Mansfield's year-end report filed Monday, she reported raising $7,543.33 and spending $6,324.56. Mansfield wasn't able to compete against her main opponents, who were heavily backed by their respective political parties.

Republican challenger Heather Losurdo raised $99,207.29 and spent $98,207.83. Democrat incumbent Kevin Hill raised $68,598 and spent $54,322.

Overall, Mansfield's husband, Shane O'Donnell, was the largest donor with $3,647.14. After finishing third in October, Mansfield did not give an endorsement in the runoff election.

The numbers keep rising in the most expensive race in Wake County school board history.

As noted in today's article, campaign finance reports filed Monday show that the candidates raised more than $470.000. The wild card though is the spending from the outside groups and the political parties, numbers which are already at $150,000 and rising.

Once the final numbers are in, the spending might hit $700,000 to $800,000 this year.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo raised nearly $100,000 in her unsuccessful campaign bid.

In her final campaign report filed Monday, Losurdo reported raising $99,207.29 and spending $98,207.83 It was a record amount for a Wake school board race.

The Republican outspent her main District 3 opponent, Democrat Kevin Hill, who raised $68,598 and spent $54,322. But the numbers look to be more in Hill's favor when you factor in the outside spending.

Allison Backhouse now has her own blog and her focus today is on AdvancED's  accreditation investigation of the Wake County school system.

Backhouse criticizes the "ridiculous complaint" by the Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP that led to the review. Noting the recent positive AdvancED report, she writes that the organization's concerns were addressed "due to the hard work of the previous Board and Supt. Tata."

"But, what has really changed – besides the political majority on the School Board?" Backhouse writes. "Are our high schools and their students better in some way? Even the Wake Education Partnership came to the conclusion that accreditation is just a public perception issue. We think it’s important only because we’ve been told it is."

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.

A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.

Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman says she's taking on the role of board "watchdog."

During last week's board meeting, Goldman, a Republican, repeatedly raised concerns about the way she felt the new Democratic board majority was operating. She accused the board of committing several policy violations and not passing the "smell test" on email discussions.

"You’ve referred to me as the watchdog and I will pick up that mantle and go forward with it," Goldman said during the meeting.