It's looking less likely that you'll be able to rely on the assurances that will be part of the new multi-year assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, the state Supreme Court's decision to hear the year-round case will pose major challenges on Wake's ability to lock down the new plan. The possibility of the school board revisiting the plan after it's adopted is going up.

In other words, you might not want to base any vacation plans off the plan that the board is scheduled to adopt in January.

You can take on the school system and win over student assignment.

As noted in today's North Raleigh News article, Dawn Crowder's youngest daughter will be starting kindergarten today at Forest Pines Drive Elementary School. She had been told before, apparently erroneously, that she'd have to send her child to Wake Forest Elementary School instead.

Forest Pines is one of two schools under an enrollment cap, meaning new people who moved in after May 1 will be sent to overflow schools. Administrators had applied the cap to Crowder even though she lived in Forest Pines' attendance area before May 1.

Chuck Dulaney answered one question Tuesday about the multi-year assignment plan that, honestly, shouldn't have surprised people

School board member Beverley Clark asked Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, how fixed the moves would be in the future years of the plan. She's raised concerns in the past about locking the district into the moves that are in the multi-year plan.

Dulaney said he would like to think that most of the assignments in the second and third years of the plan should stick. But he said it wouldn't preclude the board from making additional moves if circumstances change.

Would you rather have your children attend the closest middle school or go to a more distant one if it meant they'd be with their friends from elementary school?

The answer, according to Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, seems to be keeping peer groups together. That's what he told school board members on Tuesday while discussing the development of the multi-year assignment plan.

Dulaney said the issue of what priority should be higher for filling middle schools came up during discussions with planning groups. These planning groups consist of teachers, parents and administrators in the areas most likely to be affected by the assignment plan.

School administrators are still weighing whether to recommend delaying the opening of two new elementary schools.

Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, told school board members on Tuesday that Herbert Akins Road Elementary in Fuquay-Varina and Alston Road Elementary in Cary might open in 2010 instead of 2009.

It all depends on whether both schools are needed more for middle school students as part of the multi-year assignment plan.

The year-round/unconversion issue came up during Tuesday's presentation of the multi-year assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, school board member Ron Margiotta asked Chuck Dulaney, assistant superintendent for growth and planning, if he'd include reversing some of the conversions in the plan.

Dulaney said it's a question that he hears often. He said he can't go against the planning assumptions adopted by the school board and the county commissioners for year-round schools.

Here's a quick recap of what happened. (I'll go into more detail tomorrow.)

Students protested the parking fee increase at the school board meeting.

Administrators went over the multi-year reassignment planning process.

Test results were shared with the board.

The board approved a new hunter education policy, the naming of Rolesville Middle School and taking $677,804 out of fund balance to keep teaching positions at year-round schools.

The board is now reviewing Supt. Del Burns' performance behind closed doors. An official announcement of the new terms is not expected until Sept. 2.

It's time to revise your student assignment calendars.

School administrators plan to accelerate the timetable beginning with the multi-year assignment plan. A draft plan will now be released in late October, followed by community engagement meetings in November. A revised plan would go to the school board in mid-December with a final vote expected in January.

Previously, the community engagement meetings would be held in October and November with the draft plan coming out in December. The board would get the revised plan in January and vote in February.

Click here for the district's press release.

Today's school board agenda is action packed.

It's not just the closed-door evaluation of Superintendent Del Burns' job performance or the committee of the whole talk about the 10th-day year-round enrollment totals.

You've also got presentations on test scores and the multi-year student assignment process and a request to dip into the rainy-day fund to bail out year-round schools. You'll also have a discussion on the proposed hunter education policy and a possible student protest over the $50 hike in parking fees.

Wake County school board members are pointing to a new report on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system as a reason why socioeconomic diversity is so important.

The report from the Swann Fellowship notes how Charlotte has rapidly resegregated by race and income since the school district switched to a neighborhood school plan in 2002. The report warns that "it will take innovative policies, enthusiastic teachers and far more money" to mitigate the effects of concentrated poverty in schools.

"In short, our community is turning progressively more schools into high-poverty factories of educational failure," according to the report.