The Wake County school system, along with the rest of the state's public schools, will deal with the state Senate's latest proposal to remake the education system.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger introduced today S361, a modified version of the Excellent Public Schools Act that was only partially implemented last year. Among the many elements of the new bill would be ending teacher tenure, setting up the criteria for the new A through F grading system for each school, a restatement of the desire for teacher merit pay and narrowing of when state tests can be given.

Click here to compare to last year's version.

The education reform package passed last year by the state legislature drew plenty of red flags at Thursday's Wake County school board student achievement committee meeting.

As noted in today's article, school board members said that issuing an A through F grade for every school will humiliate schools and won’t have much value. School leaders also say now requiring districts to hold summer reading camps for third-grade students who fail the state reading exam is an unfunded mandate.

“We are charged to make sure we have the best education system for our students and teachers," said school board member Jim Martin. "If something is coming down the track that doesn’t help students and teachers, then we have the obligation to get off the track before the train hits us.”

How will the Wake County school system be affected by the changes, those approved and those still to come, from the Republican-led state government?

One of the items on today's school board student achievement committee agenda is an overview and discussion of SB 795 " The Excellent Public Schools Act." Elements of the act that were incorporated into the budget last year were praised by Republicans and criticized by Democrats.

Among the elements that went into effect, over the veto of former Gov. Bev Perdue, are creating an A-to-F grading scale using test scores to evaluate all schools and requiring third-graders to pass the state-end-of-grade reading test to be promoted.

Congratulations tonight to Ken Branch of Brentwood Elementary School being named the Wake County school system's 2012 Principal of the Year and Ruth Ann Freeman of Bugg Elementary School being named Assistant Principal of the Year.

An interesting note here is that Brentwood is one of Wake's Renaissance schools, which have come under fire lately from members of the school board's Democratic majority.

Before his firing, Superintendent Tony Tata had repeatedly touted the academic gains at the Renaissance schools. A sore point, for the majority members, is the use of merit pay at the Renaissance schools.

Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata is saying his goodbyes in this op-ed piece that will appear in Friday's paper.

In the piece, Tata writes about the "progress" and "great strides" that were made during his 20-month tenure as superintendent. He also briefly addresses his firing, noting he wasn't fired with cause and wanted to stay.

"In a relatively short period of time, we significantly raised expectations and proved that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status or where they attend school, can have strong academic performance," Tata writes. "With the hope that the impact we made will continue for the benefit of our students and with the belief that our community can best proceed with an accounting of progress, I want to share some parting observations."

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter to the editor from board chairman Kevin Hill that will appear in Tuesday's paper in response to Tata's point of view column.

Democratic members of the Wake County school board were under the gun Tuesday to justify their decision to fire Superintendent Tony Tata.

As noted in today's article, Democratic members got far more explicit about their reasons for firing Tata than they did last week. At the same time, members of the audience and the Republican board members ripped into the board majority for its decision.

School board chairman Kevin Hill set the tone for the Democratic response during his opening comments.

More to come later, but tonight's Wake County school board meeting has gotten off to a wild start.

During board comments, board chairman Kevin Hill blasted former Superintendent Tony Tata's over several issues, including the merit pay issue, implementation of the choice plan and the school bus problems. He accused Tata of breaking the board's trust.

Hill said that Tata had implemented new programs such as the choice plan, creating two single-sex leadership academies and expanding the number of Global Schools and STEM Schools without telling board members the costs.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is trading barbs again with Wake County school board vice chairman Keith Sutton.

In the latest dispute, CCCAAC President Calla Wright accuses Sutton of "hiding" from the group for not answering its requests to meet with him. Sutton declined the invitation, citing "the tone and tenor of your last meeting that I was invited to," but agreed to answer the group's questions.

CCCAAC had a long list of questions, many involving what more will be done to help Walnut Creek Elementary School. Questions also dealt with topics such as why Sutton is supporting the use of performance pay for teachers, whether any magnet schools will lose their status and when will revisions to the student assignment policy be presented.

Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata came out with a three-point message at his State of the Schools address on Thursday.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Tata talked enthusiastically about the gains that Wake made on state exams. But he warned that the results could drop as Wake and the rest of the state switches to the new common core curriculum and tests this school year.

The third prong of Tata's speech was the need "to make a compelling case" for the passage of a school bond issue in 2013.

It took 18 months, but the Wake County school board has finally adopted a strategic plan that's supposed to guide the operations of the school district.

The document, which was proposed by Superintendent Tony Tata and required by AdvancED, went through multiple revisions to get as much support as possible from the school board. The final version, which includes various targets, won bipartisan support on Tuesday.

But questions about the level of autonomy that Central Office should give to schools and the role of performance pay/merit pay for teachers kept the vote from being unanimous.