Former Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata has been named today the new state Transportation Secretary by Gov.-elect Pat McCrory.

Tata was noted for his logistical skills during his long career in the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of brigadier general.

But Tata's critics will also point to the major problems that the school system experienced this school year with the buses. It's one of the factors that the school board's Democratic majority cited when they fired Tata, officially without cause, in September.

The 2013-14 student assignment plan is now becoming more real for Wake County families.

Between today and Monday, currently enrolled students will receive their initial notice of school assignment for the upcoming school year. This notice grandfathers students at their current schools with their current transportation unless they're reassigned to one of the three new schools — Richland Creek Elementary, Rolesville Middle and Rolesville High.

The notice will have rising sixth- and ninth-graders being assigned to their base schools. This means that magnet students will have to submit an application, whose approval will be guaranteed, to stay in the program, and that people who want the choice plan feeders will need to request it in the first transfer period.

For families who've been oblivious to the recent student assignment discussion, the notices could be a rude surprise.

Wake County parents may want to consider becoming active PTA members in the future in case it can reduce the chances of their children being reassigned.

During the last board meeting, school board member Jim Martin talked about the "frank conversations" he had with parents at a recent tour of Dillard Drive Elementary School in Raleigh. He said it highlighted to him the need to consider the impact of reassignment on PTAs when they work on future assignment plans.

“It’s pretty clear that in many of our schools we need to look at where the PTA leadership in the schools comes from because we think a lot about reassignments as they impact families, which we need to and they really do," Martin said.

Is it a case of kumbaya or at least improving relations on the Wake County school board now?

The Wake County Taxpayers Association accused the school board's Democratic majority of worsening the situation with its actions. In response, the school board's attorneys are trying to paint a picture of growing consensus on the board in their response to AdvancED this week.

"Contrary to the unfounded allegations in the Complaint, it has operated openly and transparently and solicited input at every turn from staff and community stakeholders," the report says of the school board. "It has sought consensus whenever possible and decided the lion’s share of the issues it has faced by super-majority votes."

The Wake County school system is denying that members of the school board's Democratic majority are being unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

As noted in today's article, Wake's school board attorneys are telling AdvancED that majority members are making decisions based on their independent judgment and not because of the influence of Great Schools or any other advocacy group. The Wake County Taxpayers Association had charged GSIW had "extreme influence" on the majority, particularly the new board members.

"The allegation that the Board members who voted in favor of the June 19 student assignment directive did so because of 'extreme influence' from GSIW is suppositional and wrong," says this report.

More to come later, but the Wake County school system is defending the decision by the school board's Democratic majority to drop the choice-based student assignment plan in its response to AdvancED.

In this 28-page report sent today, Wake says the board majority's vote was based on “reasonable beliefs that there were demonstrable and substantial problems with the Choice Plan.”

“While four Board members believed that the Choice Plan remained viable and that any problems could be successfully addressed, five members came to the conclusion that a fundamental change in approach was needed,” according to the report.

UPDATE

AdvancED hasn't even reviewed the report yet. It's WRAL misinterpreting that Wake is telling AdvancED that it should find the complaint as being without merit.

Today is the deadline for the Wake County school system to respond to the complaint that the Wake County Taxpayers Associated filed with AdvancED.

The initial WCTA complaint focused on a variety of things, including the private meeting the new school board members had with Michael Alves, the post-midnight vote on the student assignment directive and board member Jim Martin trying to arrange an assignment provision for parents going on sabbaticals. WCTA has also argued that the new board members are unduly influenced by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

The WCTA later amended the complaint to include the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

How Wake's response to the complaint affects AdvancED's review of the accreditation of the district's high schools remains to be seen.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is praising this week's vote by the Wake County school board's Democratic majority to move back to an address-based assignment plan for the 2013-14 school year.

On its revamped website, GSIW say it's "pleased" by the vote and "is gratified that many of the elements in the 2013-14 assignment plan proposal include several suggestions made in our April, 2012 Let’s Find a Better Way position paper."

"Among the positive elements of the new plan," GSiW says, are restoration of base assignments with choice options, implementation of stay where you start rules, ending the requirement of registering new students at central office and priorities to keep siblings at the same school.

GSIW has been relatively silent publicly over the past few months.

There is a reason why Wake County school board member Debra Goldman has brought rubber ducks with her to the last two board meetings.

At the Dec. 3 public hearing, Paula King, a Cary parent, brought a duck with her to the podium as she urged the board to change the student assignment plan. She talked to the board about lining up their ducks in a row.

"All we're asking is that you give a duck or two," King said to laughs from the audience.

The new grandfathering rules approved Tuesday by the Wake County school board provide more stability for families than historically has been the case.

It will become evident when the notice of initial school assignments for the 2013-14 school year go out to students between Jan. 2-7. Unless a student is being reassigned to one of the three new schools — Rolesville High, Rolesville Middle and Richland Creek Elementary — Wake is assuming you'll stay at your current school for the 2013-14 school year.

Let's follow the example of students who live in the nodes being reassigned  to an existing school, such as those who being moved to River Bend Elementary to free up spots for magnet applicants at Fox Road Elementary.