There were some interesting developments in the grading discussion at Tuesday's Wake County school board policy committee meeting.

As noted in today's article, staff presented this revised R&P that says extra credit "that is used to assess students’ mastery of the content standards may be used." Board members were a lot happier with this wording than a prior version that would have banned extra credit completely.

Board members expressed reservations about R&P wording that would prevent teachers from giving a zero when an assignment isn't handed in. They also weren't sure about setting 50 as the lowest score for an F in elementary and middle school and 63 as the basement for an F in high school.

Grades and transparency are the topics for today's meeting of the Wake County school board's policy committee.

The committee has tried several times to discuss the proposed overhaul of the grading policy, specifically what changes board members don't want staff to make such as a blanket elimination of extra credit. But problems such as the committee running out of time or staff not being ready to discus the R&P delayed discussion.

The committee will also have another discussion of the transparency policy proposed by board member Debra Goldman. At the last meeting, staff raised concerns about the policy leading to a lot of extra work and the posting of sensitive items.

What you might now see emerge is the transparency policy becoming more of a high-concept idea rather than a document laden with specifics.

What's the proper balance between having Wake County school board meetings run efficiently and allowing individual members to get their concerns aired in public?

The school board's policy committee is forwarding along proposed changes to how meetings are run, including how information items can be requested and the minimum notice for bringing information to board members.

But school board member Debra Goldman is concerned that the changes could make it harder for board members to get information items added. She's also concerned that the changes in policy also don't provide a way for minority members to get action items added.

It's going to take another month before Wake County school board members begin exerting a say on controversial proposed grading changes such as dropping the use of extra credit and limiting the penalty for work handed in late.

The school board's policy committee was set to begin discussion Tuesday about what grading issues to move from R&P and into board policy. This would allow the board to cut back or potentially block staff from implementing some proposed changes.

The committee ran out of time and agreed to discuss the grading policy and R&P on Aug. 28. But there were again some sharp discussion between board members and staff about the grading changes.

Wake County school board agendas, transparency, board advisory councils and the grading policy are all among the agenda topics at today's policy committee meeting.

The committee will discuss this change to policy 1322 that would regulate how board members can add items such as resolutions and information items to regular meeting agendas. They'll also discuss this change to policy to 1321 saying that adequate data needs to be presented before any board action is requested.

The changes are the outgrowth of concerns from AdvancED about how the prior board majority was making decisions without data or public notice. The old board had approved the changes in November but second reading was never done by the new board.

Allison Backhouse is criticizing Wake County school board member Jim Martin's efforts to help professionals such as his fellow N.C. State professors keep their children's school assignments when they return from sabbaticals.

In a Sunday blog post, Backhouse writes about "the unethical nature of creating a policy to serve his friends and co-workers at the request of his boss." Martin says the provost who made the request to him and others in the school system for an extended family professional leave policy isn't his boss.

Martin also responded to Backhouse that he's "not working to 'benefit my friends.'" Martin writes that "careful attention should be paid to policies that impact any of the County's major employers," such as N.C. State.

Speaking of virtual schools, Wake County school administrators are looking to broaden the opportunities for high school students to take academic enrichment courses.

At last week's Wake County school board policy committee meeting, staff presented changes they're working on to the district's dual enrollment policy and its R&P. The policy governs how high school students can take supplementary courses at other secondary schools or institutions of higher education to get academic credit.

A big proposed change would be to end the monopoly on non-secondary schools having to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for students to get credit from them. Wake would now say that accreditation could come from other regional equivalents to SACS.

Wake County families may want to make sure their before-school and after-school care providers are ready to handle some proposed changes to school bus procedures this fall.

Revised draft regulations from school transportation staff would now require daycare centers and after-school care centers to have staff present to load and unload students. Approval of transportation to these facilities would now have to be requested and reapproved annually.

Those are just some of these proposed changes to policy and R&P that staff presented to the school board's policy committee on Tuesday.

Should the Wake County school system hold spots at specific schools for families who say they're leaving but intend to return?

If a guarantee can be given, should it be limited only to families citing sabbaticals from universities or professional leave to go on unique job opportunities? Or should there be no guarantee for any family that leaves with Wake saying it will try, space permitting, to put them back at the same school when they return?

Those questions formed the heart of a lengthy discussion at Tuesday's school board policy committee meeting on whether not having base assignments in the new student assignment plan requires development of a family and professional leave policy.

Some Wake County school board members want to have more of a direct say on proposed changes to the way grades are given to students.

Most of the contentious points of a proposed change in Wake's grading practices are in the R&P that administrators would use to implement board policy. That includes the banning of the use of extra credit, allowing retests to replace scores and limiting the penalty for late assignments.

But school board attorney Ann Majestic said today that the board could move items from R&P into the grading policy revision to determine what it considers to be the "non-negotiables" for staff to consider. That caught off guard administrators who thought the changes were in their purview.