The Wake County school board filled two top-level jobs and a principal's vacancy tonight.

Christine Mulder was hired for the newly renamed position of chief of family and public engagement. The job was previously called chief of communications but is being revamped as part of Superintendent Tony Tata's shakeup of his leadership team.

Her predecessor, Michael Evans, resigned last month.

UPDATE

Mulder's salary is $132,500. Baker's salary is $120,000.

David Holdzkom is now Wake County's highest paid classroom teacher.

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata involuntarily removed  Holdzkom last Friday from his position of assistant superintendent of evaluation and research. With no other senior position in store, Holdzkom said he asked to be sent back to the classroom.

Holdzkom was reassigned Wednesday to Millbrook High SChool to be an English  teacher, which he is licensed to do. He said he'll be teaching English IV and Shakespeare.

Michael Evans, the man who has been the public face of the Wake County school system for the last nine years, has resigned.

Evans, Wake's chief communications officer, resigned Friday and will be on paid leave through Sept. 16, according to Greg Thomas, a Wake schools' spokesman. No reason was given for the resignation. Evans could not be immediately reached for comment.

Evans, who was hired by the school system in August 2002, has a salary of $126,148.92. No decision has been announced yet on who will permanently replace Evans.

Should 16 Fuquay-Varina High School seniors be barred from their graduation ceremony on Sunday for their activities at the school?

As noted in today's article, the students say it was only a harmless prank when they hopped a school fence on Memorial Day and sprayed chocolate syrup and mustard on the walls of the courtyard and peanut butter on the door knobs. Another sprinkled forks and toiler paper all over the ground.

But Wake County school officials say it was vandalism and trespassing. They say the students also stuck feminine products on the walls, threw eggs and bologna on the walls, wrote profanity in chalk and drew phallic symbols on the walls of the courtyard.

Is it a sign of bias that federal civil rights investigators looking into Wake County's elimination of the diversity policy are holding Wednesday's community meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the feds asked the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, one of the complainants, to find them a location. The site chosen by SCSJ has been one of the centers of opposition to ending the diversity policy.

“The Office of Civil Rights wanted to have a communitywide meeting,” said Anita Earls, SCSJ executive director. “They gave us the date and time and asked us to find a venue. The purpose is for them to listen to the experiences and the concerns of the community.”

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board members are getting a sneak peak at the new long-term student assignment plan being developed by school administrators.

As noted in this online article by Thomas Goldsmith, school board members Carolyn Morrison, Kevin Hill, Chris Malone and Ron Margiotta met today with  Superintendent Tony Tata and the Student Assignment Task Force.

Additional small-group meetings will be held with the other board members. By having fewer than five members at a meeting they're able to avoid the state Open Meetings Law requirements.

"There were no policy decisions," said Michael Evans, Wake's chief communications officer. "We are anticipating being able to come to the community by mid-May with two or three courses of actions that we are going to want feedback on."

Who makes the most money in the Wake County school system?

That's one of the questions that the Charlotte Observe looked at as part of a Sunday article on six-figures salaries in Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Wake had 99 employees making at least $100,000 with 60 of them being principals.

This compares to 103 Wake employees with six-figure salaries in 2010, 112 in 2009 and 99 in 2008.

The Wake County school system is balking at providing the names or addresses of the 15 students who've received administrative transfers like the one given to board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's daughter.

The News & Observer had submitted a public records request for directory information on the 15 students who've gotten administrative transfers from the superintendent that's also given them bus transportation.

But Michael Evans, Wake's chief communications officer, said the district would be unable to provide the information. He cited the legal advice of school board attorney Ann Majestic, who said the information was protected under the federal Education Rights Privacy Act.

Did you know that you could bypass the normal paperwork and procedure for getting a student transfer in Wake County by appealing directly to the superintendent?

As noted in today's article, that's evidently what school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's family did to get their daughter transferred, with bus service provided. She's one of only 15 students in all of Wake County who are attending their current school based on an "administrative transfer" approved by the superintendent.

Michael Evans, Wake's chief communications officer, said that then-interim Superintendent Donna Hargens had approved in January a verbal request from the parent at Goldman's address in Cary to transfer to Davis Drive Middle School. (He worded it that way without saying Goldman's name due to privacy rules.)

The long awaited face-to-face meeting between Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata and the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, will take place Wednesday afternoon.

Barber had requested the meeting with Tata in a letter saying he wanted to build a strong working relationship with him. But Barber also reminded Tata that the NAACP was still fighting Wake's elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy, including filing the complaints that have led to a federal civil rights investigation and a probe by an accreditation agency.

Tata agreed to the meeting last month, saying he looked forward to "having an open and honest conversation." Tata had initially requested a one-on-one meeting but relented when Barber said he wanted to bring people with him.