It looks like some more Wake County multi-track year-round schools will be recommended to be switched to a single-track calendar for the 2013-14 school year.

During Tuesday's school board work session, Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, offered another "peak" at the 2013-14 assignment plan that will be presented Nov. 13. She said it will include a recommendation to convert multi-track year-round schools in the Knightdale area to a single-track calendar, namely track four.

The reason the issue came up was some school board members asked if the plan for 2013-14 could address underutilized schools.

Amid the likely media circus today, the Wake County school board does have business to conduct.

During the work session, staff will discuss the proposed student assignment plan timeline and likely get last-minute feedback before unveiling the plan on Nov. 13. The board is scheduled to adopt the timeline during the regular meeting.

Also today, the board will vote on which grades to offer for the CTE high school.

Wake County school board member Debra Goldman is speaking out about the recent controversy that has engulfed her run for state auditor and shaken up the school board and community.

As noted in today's article, Goldman called untrue statements that fellow school board member Chris Malone made to Cary police in 2010 that they had a romantic relationship. She's also firing shots at former school board chairman Ron Margiotta for suggesting her vote against the zone plan in 2010 might have been tied to her issues with Malone.

In the three-hour interview with the N&O on Saturday, Goldman also dealt with topics such as why her family has contacted Cary police so much, why she contacted Cary police about school board vice chairman Keith Sutton and her plans should she not be elected auditor.

Could the flap involving Wake County school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone affect the accreditation status of the district's high schools?

In a blog post Tuesday for the Progressive Pulse, which is maintained by the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Lucy Hood points to the speculation from former school board chairman Ron Margiotta that Goldman might have voted against the zone plan in October 2010 to get back at Malone. The publicity about the 2010 police report comes as AdvancED is waiting for an update from Wake on how it's handling the concerns the group previously made.

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, has recently voiced his concerns about the new school board majority firing Superintendent Tony Tata and dropping the choice plan.

"Already displeased with the school board’s penchant for partisan voting, it will be very interesting to see what Elgart has to say about this new brand of partisan, or 'anti-partisan,' voting," Hood writes about Goldman's 2010 vote.

How much political fallout will there be over the publicity about Wake County school board member Debra Goldman naming board member Chris Malone as a suspect in a burglary she reported in 2010 and the conflicting statements they gave about their relationship?

As noted in today's article, the two face consequences in how it will affect their campaigns for state office. They also face consequences about how the controversy will affect them on the school board, especially if they don't win their elections next month.

As Andy Taylor, an N.C. State University political professor noted, people aren't talking now about the firing of Superintendent Tony Tata.

It's not every day that one elected official accuses another of potentially committing a felony and then both tell police about their relationship.

As noted in today's article, a Cary police report shows that Wake County school board member Debra Goldman reported in June 2010 that $130,000 was stolen from her home and that she named board member Chris Malone as a potential suspect.

Malone was able to satisfy investigators that he didn't commit the burglary. In the process, both board members gave conflicting statements about whether they had a romantic relationship.

Among the names appointed to a Wake County school board advisory council on Tuesday was the familiar one of Ellen Nightingale.

School board member Jim Martin tapped Nightingale to serve on his District 5 board advisory council as the rep for Conn Elementary School. Nightingale was a vocal public critic of the choice plan, speaking to media outlets and appearing at board meetings.

Nightingale had complained that although she lives in the Mordecai neighborhood near downtown Raleigh, she and several neighbors weren't able to get their kids into kindergarten after the first choice round.

CORRECTION/UPDATE

Nightingale says she lives in Oakwood, which is near Mordecai and that Conn is her closest school. Nightingale says that, despite being on Yevonne Brannon's email list, she's not a member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

You can take a glass is half empty or half full view of Wake County student assignment in the short term.

As noted in today's article, the good news for families in the immediate future is that the 2013-14 plan is expected to have relatively few reassignments. But it's very much a transitional plan with a new plan to be developed for the 2014-15 school year that's likely to include a lot more reassignments for things such as promoting balance in student achievement and socioeconomic diversity.

"We were looking at trying to give the staff and the parents a respite so we could have the larger discussion that it seems like we’re trying to have right now, that we could have the larger discussion to put together a sustainable assignment plan," said board chairman Kevin Hill.

More to come later, but Wake County school staff proposed today a timeline that would have the school board adopt the 2013-14 assignment plan on Dec. 11.

This draft timeline would have the plan being presented Nov. 13 with public hearings in November and early December. The board would hold work sessions  Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 with the vote that day.

The board will vote on the timeline Oct. 30.  If the plan is adopted Dec. 11, the soft transition would immediately go into effect Dec. 12 with new families going to their base school instead of participating in the choice plan.

Along the way, you had board members arguing about scrapping the choice plan and what using the 11-12 maps mean. It was stressed that there would be few reassignments for next year and that all existing students can grandfather at their current school, including those who participated in the choice plan.

Could the decision by the Wake County school board's Democratic majority to fire Superintendent Tony Tata come back to haunt them when it comes to high school accreditation?

As noted in today's article, Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, said Monday he’s “troubled” by recent decisions by the the board majority to fire Tata and to drop the choice-based student assignment plan. He said he's concerned about major decisions once again being made along 5-4 partisan lines.

It's not helping the board majority that Elgart has been vocal in praising Tata's actions as superintendent.