A bill, H498, was introduced Monday in the state House that would allow the Wake County school board chair to vote on all issues and not just to break ties.

The bill was sponsored by Rep Nelson Dollar and co-sponsored by House Majority Leader Paul Stam, Rep. Marilyn Avila and Rep. Tom Murry. None of the Democratic members of the Wake delegation are sponsors of this local bill.

The bill was requested by the school board as part of this year's legislative agenda. School board chairman Ron Margiotta had pitched the bill when he met with the Wake delegation last week.

If passed, it would change the law that's been in place since the 1976 merger of the Raleigh and Wake school systems.

Monday's meeting of the Wake County legislative delegation could be more eventful than normal.

The scheduled presenters include Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta, Wake Tech President Stephen Scott and N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson. You can expect a lot of discussion about funding, which is appropriate because state Sen. Neal Hunt is both co-chair of the Wake delegation and co-chair of the Senate appropriations committee.

Margiotta could also make the pitch for the school board's legislative agenda, which includes changing state law to allow the board chair to vote on all issues. You might even see the high school accreditation bill come up.

The meeting is at 4 p.m. in Room 415 of the Legislative Office Building on North Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh. The meeting is open to the public.

The Wake County school board adopted its 2011 Legislative Agenda tonight after some unusual machinations.

After various motions, the board essentially adopted the draft agenda presented by staff. The big difference is that the board did decide to add a request that the General Assembly pass a law allowing the school board chair to vote on all issues.

The process for getting to the final outcome was convoluted.

Is the Wake County school board looking for a backdoor in case it loses accreditation from AdvancED?

The school board is set to discuss and vote today on its 2011 Legislative Agenda, which lists the issues it will lobby the General Assembly on. One of the items in the draft agenda is to "review the state accreditation process and provide clarification to the school system."

During the AdvancED fight, school board attorney Ann Majestic has broached to school board members the possibility of seeking state accreditation. The problem is it no longer exists in the form that Wake would want.

UPDATE

One issue that will likely wait two weeks is adding allowing the board chair to vote on all issues. The Democratic members objected to voting today, saying they want more information first on why the prohibition was added to the merger law.

The Wake County school system could become the only school district in the state to not be a member of the N.C. School Boards Association.

At today's committee of the whole meeting, the school board will discuss whether to keep Wake's membership in the NCSBA, the National School Boards Association, NSBA's Council of Urban Boards of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

At issue for members of the new board majority are the membership costs for the groups, particularly for the NCSBA. School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said Wake pays more than $40,000 a year combined to be a member of the NCSBA and NSBA.

UPDATE

Clarified to indicate the $40,000 figure would reflect the combined cost of being a member of NCSBA and NSBA. It's $26,415 to join NCSBA and $14,000 to join NSBA.

Staff had planned to renew the memberships because the money is already in the proposed budget. But the board now plans to add to today's agenda a vote on  remaining members of those groups. Whether the vote will be to stay or go remains to be seen.

Members of the new Wake County school board majority put their stamp today on the state legislative lobbying agenda.

The board amended the agenda, which includes the items that Wake wants the General Assembly to approve, to say that the district opposes giving taxing authority to local school boards. Previous school boards have lobbied to get taxing authority from the state.

New school board member John Tedesco said he likes having the checks of balances of relying on the county, state and federal governments for funding.

Could at-large school board elections now make it on the school board's legislative agenda?

In an online article published Friday in the Carolina Journal, school board member Ron Margiotta said "without a doubt" he still wants at-large elections added to the legislative agenda.

It's the right time of the year for the issue. The board historically adopts the legislative agenda in December, just in time for the new board majority.

The Durham City Council is not putting Rev. Melvin Whitley's "Bullet Ownership Bill" on its agenda for Durham's legislators, but it is considering a simpler resolution with much the same intent.

Durham County had seven issues on the legislative wish list it presented the Durham delegation Friday.

• Two pertain to handling of erosion-control violations;
• another would shift the burden of proof from property owner in tax appeals;
• another would maintain counties' right to jury trials in tort claims.

The other three items are also backed by the N.C. Association of County Commissioners: restoring public-school systems' access to sales and use tax refunds; allowing information sharing between the juvenile and adult criminal-justice systems; and blocking portions of the proposed Jordan Lake Nutrient Strategy regulations.

The Jordan rules, which would require local governments to bear the cost of retrofitting existing developments with new stormwater controls, could cost Durham taxpayers more than $210 million, County Attorney Chuck Kitchen said.

"It's a classic case of an unfunded mandate," commissioner Ellen Reckhow said. "We don't know how we're going to get the money."

Kitchen said, "We think it's just wrong."

The school board wants more state funding and local taxing authority but not the removal of the cap on charter schools.

The school board voted 6-2 on Tuesday against Ron Margiotta's motion to add the lifting of the charter cap to the 2009 legislative agenda. The agenda lists the things that the district wants the General Assembly to change.

The school board had voted in 2007 to add removal of the cap to the legislative agenda. But the board has rebuffed efforts to add it to the 2008 and 2009 agendas.

Margiotta, a long-time supporter of lifting the 100-school cap, made another request on Tuesday. Only Horace Tart backed his motion.

Click here to read the approved 2009 legislative agenda.