The revised student assignment policy drew some widely differing reaction Tuesday between the Wake County school board majority and minority board member Deborah Prickett.

As noted in today's article, policy supporters praised the revised policy with its balancing of student achievement, stability, proximity and operational efficiency as something "that anybody in this country would be proud of."

But Prickett charged it was a policy aimed at low-income and low-performing students that would move them out of their neighborhoods and wouldn't really help them succeed academically.

Is creating an Office of Diversity and Equity something that the Wake County school system should look at exploring?

As noted in today's article, the school board told staff on Tuesday to revise the budget proposal to come up with up to $200,000 to create this new office. Board members say this office, along with the revisions in the student assignment policy to minimize concentrations of low-income and low-performing students at schools and the new equity policy will help promote equity for students.

School board chairman Keith Sutton has been the big backer of creating this new office, which is modeled on one in the Guilford County school system. It's because of Sutton that staff developed a business case for creating the new office even though it wasn't part of the original budget request.

Are there racial reasons in the changes in Wake County school board election districts in Senate Bill 325?

As noted in today's article, Sen. Josh Stein and Sen. Dan Blue, both Raleigh Democrats, charged that the bill had racial and partisan purposes in play. They spoke for most of the debate before the Senate voted 33-17 to approve the bill with all Republicans in support and all Democrats voting no.

During part of his speech, Stein focused on the urban regional district created by the bill. He said it matches the boundaries for Blue's legislative district, which he said was one of the minority districts that the Republican majority had drawn up before the rest of their new state legislative redistricting lines.

Since there's already been discussion about it in one of the blog posts, I thought I'd create a separate one on this new YouTube video looking at the difference in offerings between Wake County magnet schools and non-magnet schools.

The video from Barbara Walters points to the large number of electives provided at magnet schools, particularly the GT and IB schools. She contrast it with the much smaller number of options at the non-magnet schools.

Walters charges that the disparity is the result of a deliberate "suppression" of options at non-magnet schools. Walters said the public should threaten to not support a school bond unless the school board develops an appropriate policy governing the relationship between magnet and non-magnet schools.

Historically, non-magnets in Wake have been restricted in what they can offer. Former Superintendent Tony Tata had been chipping away at those distinctions during his tenure.

It looks like the area around Joyner Elementary School in Raleigh could get a wave of new housing.

The Triangle Business Journal is reporting today that the Wake County school system is negotiating to sell its former administrative building and bus lot on Noble road, across from Joyner, to M/I Homes.

TBJ reports that site plans filed with the Raleigh Planning Department show that M/I Homes wants to build 83 townhouse on the 10-acre property. The new housing should raise Joyner's base population as it tries to find enough seats for magnet applicants.

Wake is hoping to make a $2.2 million profit on the sale to help pay off the e lease costs for its new headquarters in Cary. The big property that Wake still hasn't sold yet is its former headquarters on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

As some have already mentioned on the blog, Millbrook High School is moving from the 4x4 block schedule to the A/B block schedule this fall.

This switch would make Millbrook one of only three high schools in the Wake County school system not using the 4x4 block in which students take a different set of four 90-minute courses each semester. Under the A/B block, students will take all eight courses over the entire year by alternating between four different 90-minute courses each day.

As noted in in this article in Wednesday's North Raleigh News by Sarah Barr, Julieta Ventura, an assistant principal at Millbrook who oversees the IB program, said the school is still operating within the county's rules because the schedule change is required to maintain the IB program.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Lois Nixon and Jim Pomeranz went through for the Wake County school board District 9 vacancy.

Nixon repeatedly said she's be an independent, nonpartisan board member. Nixon mentioned having run unsuccessfully for the seat in 2009.

Nixon said she decided to stay involved after the election because she's committed to the schools. She said she's attended 90 percent of the board meetings since then to learn as much as she can.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Nancy Caggia and Bill Fletcher went through for the Wake County school board District 9 seat.

Caggia brought up her many years working on student achievement issues, including serving on the Governor's School Task Force. Caggia has been involved for many years with programs for academically gifted students, saying she's all about student achievement and effective teachers.

Caggia said she believes they need to reach each child where they are to reach proficiency, citing the need for differentiated instruction.

The Wake County school system is looking for public feedback on the proposed bell schedule changes for the 2013-14 school year.

Parent can go here to view the proposal and here to provide online feedback. The school board wants feedback before the March 19 vote.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, Bob Snidemiller, senior director of transportation, said they left 91 percent of schools unchanged to provide consistency. He said they're proposing changes at 15 schools to promote transportation efficiency.

Here are some of the quick highlights from the $1.3 billion operating budget that interim Wake County Schools Superintendent Stephen Gainey presented today.

Gainey is asking county commissioners for an $8.3 million increase. Gainey is also proposing that the school board waive policy to allow the district to use $28.7 million of the $32.7 million in the fund balance to balance the budget.

School staff say they can use the $8.3 million in additional county dollars for things such as:

UPDATE

Click here to view the budget proposal.