Susan Pullium, one of the senior staffers in the Wake Count school system's student assignment office, has become at least the seventh person from the school district hired by the state Department of Transportation.

State Transportation Secretary Tony Tata announced today that Pullium will be the DOT's director of strategic planning. Pulliam will oversee the Transportation Planning Branch and Performance Metrics Management Office as she works on developing a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan.

“Susan has overseen large-scale planning and community engagement efforts and understands the importance of collaboration,” said Tata, the former Wake school superintendent, in the press release. “She is a talented, innovative individual who will be a tremendous asset as we work with our business and community partners to develop a long-range transportation plan that boosts North Carolina’s economy.”

If you haven't' read it yet, the Wake Education Partnership had an assessment of last week's discussion by the Wake County school board on the student assignment policy.

This appeared in Thursday's issue of In Context, the WEP's e-newsletter:

The framework for a long-term approach to student assignment that is noticeably different from past years is beginning to take shape in public conversations among school board members.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Lois Nixon and Jim Pomeranz went through for the Wake County school board District 9 vacancy.

Nixon repeatedly said she's be an independent, nonpartisan board member. Nixon mentioned having run unsuccessfully for the seat in 2009.

Nixon said she decided to stay involved after the election because she's committed to the schools. She said she's attended 90 percent of the board meetings since then to learn as much as she can.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Linda Gunter and Anna Johnson went through for the Wake County school board District 9 vacancy.

Gunter said she wanted to give back to the community, mentioning several times about having been a state Senator in the early 1990s and a Cary High School social studies teacher for 30 years. Gunter talked about how she brought in her students to the General Assembly to speak on issues.

If appointed, Gunter said she'd resign from her position as a registered lobbyist for the N.C. Association of Educators.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Nancy Caggia and Bill Fletcher went through for the Wake County school board District 9 seat.

Caggia brought up her many years working on student achievement issues, including serving on the Governor's School Task Force. Caggia has been involved for many years with programs for academically gifted students, saying she's all about student achievement and effective teachers.

Caggia said she believes they need to reach each child where they are to reach proficiency, citing the need for differentiated instruction.

The level of distrust between members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and Superintendent Tony Tata during his final month on the job was high.

As noted in today's article, the release this week of more than 3,400 pages of emails from Aug. 1 through Sept. 25 showed repeated board allegations that staff was trying to undermine them. Democratic board members also tried to distance themselves from the bus problems and the complaints about the release of the draft student assignment plan.

“I hate to seem suspicious, but at this time I am left with little other than to conclude that some on staff are trying to undermine the Board by creating mass confusion in the community,” school board member Jim Martin wrote in a Sept. 22 reply to Ellen Nightingale on the draft plan. “This is unacceptable.”

The school budget, student assignment and bell schedules are among the items that the Wake County school board will deal with today.

During the work session, school transportation staff will present this list of 15 schools whose bell schedules are proposed for changes in the 2013-14 school year. The wild card is whether Deputy Superintendent Cathy Moore tells the board that any other schools need changes to meet the new state requirement of 1,025 instructional hours.

The board is then slotting more than an hour to discuss factors and goals to use in the new comprehensive 2014-15 plan. This handout is the result of the wide-ranging discussion held Feb. 7.

During the regular meeting, interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey will present his 2013-14 fiscal year budget proposal. We'll see how much of an increase he wants to request from county commissioners.

Former candidate Lois Nixon says she wants to fill the District 9 vacancy on the Wake County school board.

Nixon, who lost to Debra Goldman for the seat in 2009, told Andrew Kenney of the Cary News that she’s focused on finding compromise in the school board’s meeting room.

“I would like to turn down the heat a bit, if I can help to do that,” Nixon said.

The Wake County school board passed the voluntary desegregation resolution it needs as part of it federal magnet grant application, but in the process it led to a discussion about achievement at magnets and the programming options at non-magnets.

At the last meeting on Feb. 5, the board considered this voluntary desegregation resolution. Approval was required as part of the $10 million in federal magnet dollars Wake will request to start up three new magnets and to revamp the themes at two schools.

School board member Deborah Prickett came to the discussion with a long list of notes to raise her concerns about approving the resolution.

The hybrid of the choice plan/address-based plan kicks off today with the start of the new first transfer application period.

As noted in today's article, it carries over how in the choice plan you could request as many as five schools. But there are some big differences, like how you won't get transportation for most of the schools you request now.

You've got the people who will request a calendar-option school, with transportation provided.