Parents at Daniels and Leesville Road middle schools will get a second crack today at persuading the school board to reverse recent votes.

Today's board agenda includes a vote on converting Leesville to a year-round calendar and another on removing the magnet program at Daniels. Parents will be able to have their say during the public comment portion at 4 p.m.

As noted previously, a revote was likely.

UPDATE

Ron Margiotta unsuccessfully asked his fellow board members to pull the items for Leesville and Daniels off the agenda. Both of his motions to remove the items died from a lack of a second. He had argued they should be pulled to allow more time for public comment before a final decision is made.

If you're considering applying to a magnet school in February, let me know.

You can call me at 829-4534 or send an e-mail to keung.hui@newsobserver.com.

It's looking more likely that the school board will revote on the recent decisions affecting Daniels and Leesville Road middle schools.

As noted in today's article, Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, said she's reviewing the recent votes and could ask on Nov. 3 for new votes. In the case of Daniels. there's a decent chance that the board could now decide to keep the school's magnet program.

Gill said she wants to see how the recent votes compare with prior ones. The board had voted in regular meetings and not work sessions to make final decisions before on demagnetization and calendar conversion.

Broughton High School ducked a new requirement on Tuesday that could have sharply reduced the number of magnet applicants.

School board member Patti Head had initially proposed telling Broughton's magnet students that they'd need to take the IB Diploma Programme to stay at the school. She had been responding to concerns that a minority of the magnet students make the attempt to get an IB diploma.

That requirement was initially part of the motion that Head had proposed to keep the magnet program at Broughton.

School board member Beverley Clark had a message on Tuesday for all those Broughton High School parents who had been lobbying for the magnet program to be saved.

Clark said the Broughton parents, who had bombarded board members with e-mail messages and calls, need to show the same level of energy during the budget season. She said the parents need to urge the county commissioners to provide the school system with adequate funding.

Clark warned that next year's budget negotiations could be very difficult. Considering that County Manager David Cooke warned this week that the county is facing a potential $17 million budget shortfall due to the global crisis, it's not lookiing good for a big boost in school funding next year.

Speaking of magnet schools, there's even more news today.

The U.S. Department of Education sent out a press release today noting that Combs Elementary School is featured in a new publication, “Creating and Sustaining Successful K-8 Magnet Schools and Successful Magnet High Schools.”

Combs does have a national reputation.

The magnet themes for Brentwood and Smith elementary schools were unveiled on Tuesday.

Smith, as expected, will offer the International Baccalaureate theme. It will help form a K-12 feeder in Garner for the International Baccalaureate program that will lead to East Garner Middle School and Garner High School.

David Ansbacher, senior director for magnet schools, said an IB program at Smith should strengthen the one at East Garner.

Broughton High School parents may come to rue the school board's decision to not demagnetize the school.

As noted in today's article, school board members told staff to look at ways to increase the number of magnet students at Broughton. Considering how landlocked the school is, that's going to mean moving some base students out.

That won't sit well with Broughton families who, as the old saying goes, want to have their cake and eat it too.

Vicky Powers is understandably happy to be the art teacher at Wiley Elementary School in Raleigh.

As noted in today's Midtown Raleigh News article, Powers loves the fact that the magnet program at Wiley allows the school to offer up to 30 different art electives. It's a big reason why Powers, who was named the N.C. Art Education Association's 2008-09 Elementary Educator of the Year, has no plans to leave Wiley.

It also helps highlights the advantages that magnet schools have over non-magnet schools.

The magnet parents at Daniels Middle School made an unsuccessful pitch to the school board today to save its magnet program.

These parents, from Cary and Apex, were miffed when told by the board that the Oct. 7 decision to demagnetize Daniels was final. They questioned how such an important decision could be made before giving the public a chance to comment.

The Daniels' parents are being treated differently than those at Lincoln Heights, Olds, Root and Wake Forest elementary schools when they were demagnetized.