The Wake County school system is now making a belated attempt to market the new Richland Creek Elementary School to families.

With the fate of the school's opening hanging on getting enough additional students to apply by June, an open house will be held Saturday at the DuBois Center modular campus site. Principal Tammie Sexton will talk with parents at 530 E. Perry Avenue in Wake Forest from 10 a.m. to noon.

Wake has also produced a YouTube video pitching Richland Creek with testimonials about how a modular school won't hurt students and could help.

A Douglas Elementary School teacher talks about how modulars makes no difference on learning. Two parents whose children were at DuBois when it was the modular campus for Forest Pines Elementary talk about the advantages of going to a small school and how families can help shape a new school's identity.

Tuesday night's Wake County school board vote on the student assignment plan will be accompanied by a protest.

Cary Town officials say a permit has been issued in Maria Reier's name for 50 to 100 people to protest outside the school system's headquarters on Tuesday. They'll be protesting from 5:30 to 6 p.m., ending in time for the start of the public comment section of the board meeting.

Organizers say they want to bring attention to widespread issues with the new assignment plan.

Candidate and school board chairman Ron Margiotta held firm to his opposition to the use of achievement schools as he touched on student assignment and other matters today.

In an interview today with conservative WPTF talk show host Bill LuMaye, Margiotta said parents all across the county, including those in Southeast Raleigh, have indicated they want neighborhood schools. He pointed to how parents on the online test drive overwhelmingly chose their closest school.

"Parents want to be close to home and as far as I'm concerned every school in this county should be a high-achieving school," Margiotta said. "And I think that's what our goal should be: to make every school high achieving, not just ones in the suburbs. or not just our magnet schools within the cities, wherever they may be."