Tuesday's discussion about Fox Road Elementary highlights the challenges and limits that the current assignment policy faces in Wake.

For those who don't want to read the whole post, I'll run off some of the main points from Tuesday's facilities committee meeting. Staff is reviewing the draw areas for magnet and year-round schools, which could affect where current and future application students will go.

For diversity reasons, some magnet schools were deliberately left with empty seats this school year. For diversity reasons, an effort to encourage more low-income students to apply for year-round schools may have backfired, at least at Fox Road Elementary.

The return to neighborhood schools hasn't ended fights about student assignment in Charlotte.

As noted in today's Charlotte Observer, student assignment is a major factor in next month's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school boards elections. Fights over boundary lines for new schools brought hundreds of people to school district meetings and intensified interest in the elections.

Charlotte still uses diversity as a factor, albeit not a major one, in assigning students to neighborhood schools. Some candidates say CMS should "stop juggling demographics and create stable boundaries that reflect neighborhoods and communities."

But at least one candidate thinks CMS needs to do more to promote diversity.

School board member Ron Margiotta is talking about a more gentle move to neighborhood schools in 2010-11.

As noted in today's article, Margiotta wants to see if they could make it possible for parents to request seats at neighborhood schools in 2010. This would be done in lieu of a forced shift back.

For now at least, school board member Horace Tart isn't endorsing any of the candidates in the runoff election in District 2.

Tart said he's been approached by supporters of both John Tedesco and Cathy Truitt asking him for his endorsement. He said Wednesday he's staying "neutral" for now.

Reflecting on finishing third in the election, Tart said he couldn't compete with the anti-busing message of his two main opponents.

The question on the minds of a lot of people is whether the new school board will live up to campaign promises about neighborhood schools, year-round schools and ending the diversity policy.

Some people are anxiously hoping for the changes to come while others are dreading the future. But as noted in today's article, the new board members aren't sure yet how they'll turn their promises into reality so they're urging parents to give them some time.

"We haven't had neighborhood schools in such a long time that we have to see what we have in our neighborhoods," said new board member Deborah Prickett.

Did lack of support for the diversity policy in the African American community help contribute to Tuesday's school board election results?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, a survey by Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling found that 46 percent of African Americans opposed current policies on diversity and reassignment. That compares to 39 percent in support and 14 percent not sure.

So what factors led to what all sides will agree was a historic school board election on Tuesday?

As noted in today's articles, it seems to depend on who you ask. Supporters of the current board blamed voter apathy while critics argued that change was on people's minds.

"Hunger for change was so great that no matter how much money the opposition was willing to spend, they weren’t going to stop that change from happening,” said victorious school board candidate Chris Malone in an article.

Here are a pair of mailers sent by school board candidates Cathy Truitt and John Tedesco.

In this mailer sent this week, Truitt calls herself "a new leader who will focus on our children, our schools, and our communities." She also calls herself the only candidate "with the leadership skills, experience and background" to serve District 2.

School board candidate Cathy Truitt is using her ample warchest to make another pitch in new ads running in weekly newspapers in Garner and Fuquay-Varina.

In this ad appearing this week in Fuquay-Varna and Garner, Truitt calls herself "the clear choice for Wake school board." The ad also says she's the only candidate who "has an independent voice without a hidden agenda."

The ad talks about how she will "oppose forced reassignment," "aggressively pursue a balanced approach to community schools and expanded magnet program options" and "bring better socio-economic balance to District 2 schools."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST 

The Wake Schools Community Alliance has raised more than $20,000 so far in its bid to elect school board candidates who are critics of the current diversity policy.

The latest report from the group shows that it has raised $24,034.44 and had $10,740.06 left over as of Sept. 21. That money could be useful in the final weeks of the campaign and in any runoffs.