Are state Senate Republicans just giving some county governments more flexibility over school construction or are they trying to exact more political payback on the Democratic-led Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, Senate Democrats charged that Republican legislators were deliberately going after the Wake school board in Senate Bill 236. Senate Republicans denied politics were involved, just as they denied that politics was behind Senate Bill 325, the Wake school board redistricting bill.

The bill comes as the Wake County school board and county commissioners meet this morning to go over a proposed $939.9 million school construction program that would largely be funded by the fall bond issue.

The lobbying and negotiating over what projects to include in the next Wake County school construction bond referendum is already in progress.

As noted in today's article, the scenarios presented Wednesday range from $609 million to $2.3 billion. It's understood that the $2.3 billion, which lays out all the district's needs, isn't going to happen.

The question is which projects to still fund in a reduced bond amount.

Is it time for the Wake County school board to try to negotiate the best possible school construction management deal with the county commissioners?

The legislation allowing county governments to take over all school facilities responsibilities from school boards has pretty sweeping language. It would relegate school boards to the sidelines in counties which exercise the ownership authority.

"The county shall consult the board of education in the siting, design, construction, equipping, expansion, improvement, or renovation of the property," according to S236.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."

More to come later, but Wake County Commissioners voted 4-3 today to make a $775,000 counter offer to purchase the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for use as a school.

The offer is $50,000 less than what the school board agreed to pay for the property on Hargett Street. It was a compromise on the part of Democratic Commissioner James West that got the support of GOP Commissioners Chairman Joe Bryan after the other Republican commissioners balked at paying $825,000.

Whether the YWCA bankruptcy trustee will take the new deal remains to be seen. The trustee wrote a letter saying that another group, with a much longer closing date than the school system, had offered to pay $875,000.

Commissioners unanimously approved purchasing the M-13 site. Also, Great Schools in Wake Coalition members came to the meeting to criticize GOP commissioners for balking at the YWCA deal and passing their proposed state legislative school changes.

CORRECTION

Corrected to say that the price the school system offered was $825,000.

We'll see whether there's more fuel added to the fire today in the fight between the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

At today's meeting, the commissioners are scheduled to have the second and final reading on purchasing the former YWCA building near downtown Raleigh for a school. There's also a second reading scheduled for purchasing land for M-13, a new middle school that would be built in northeast Raleigh.

GOP commissioners were pretty critical at the Feb. 4 meeting about the YWCA purchase. They gave no reasons for delaying the M-13 vote.

If the state legislative changes go through as commissioners envision, control of school facilities would include the county taking over the purchase of school sites. The county would work off the target circles drawn up by the school system.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley will have to wait awhile if he wants to see the minutes of the Jan. 22 closed-session meeting in which the school board agreed to purchase the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

Commissioners rejected a prior YWCA offer on Jan. 7, leading to the school board approving a revised deal on Jan. 22. Gurley said Monday he wants to review the minutes because he believes the school board was buying the property for “political reasons” and had “misused its rules seriously” during the closed session.

School board chairman Keith Sutton and school board attorney Jonathan Blumberg said the closed session was valid. But Blumberg said the minutes can’t be released yet because they’ve haven’t been approved by the board.

Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton is warning about severe consequences should county commissioners have their way and get their legislative changes approved.

As noted in today's article, Sutton repeatedly characterized the changes commissioners want in school ownership, charter school facilities funding and at-large school board elections as a "power grab." He said there's nothing showing things would improve if commissioners have their way.

“The plan is to decimate the public school system as we know it and build it up in some other way,” Sutton said in a meeting Thursday with News & Observer reporters and editors.

The Wake County school board is going to fight it out in the General Assembly against the county commissioners over proposed legislative changes.

As noted in today's article, members of the school board's Democratic majority objected to the legislative changes backed by the GOP majority on the county commissioners. The school board will fight letting commissioners take over ownership of schools, give money to help charter schools build facilities and their support for adding at-large school board seats.

Democratic board members said they were defending the school system by hiring a lobbyist to oppose the commissioners' 2013 state legislative agenda.

The bad blood continues to flow between the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the school board.

As noted in today's article by Martha Quillin, Republican commissioners accused the school system of misleading taxpayers about its fund balance. The GOP majority also tabled approval of a land purchase for a northeast Raleigh middle school and accused the school board of engaging in politics in wanting them to approve buying the former YWCA building in Raleigh.

GOP commissioners said they were speaking for the taxpayers. But Democratic commissioners said Republicans were endangering development of the next school bond issue and harming relations with the school board.