Former Wake Forest Town Commissioner Chris Malone announced today that he's running for the District 1 school board seat being vacated by Lori Millberg.

It's a pretty crowded field. Rita Rakestraw and Otis Tyrone Lindsey have both filed paperwork to create campaign committees.

Here's the press release:

The Wake GOP is continuing to fling shots over year-round schools having been in session on Memorial Day.

In a press release today, the Wake GOP says the "poor decision by a majority of the Wake County Board of Education and WCPSS demonstrates lack of patriotism and concern for parents’ needs" is what resulted in more than 13,000 students skipping school Monday.

While insisting that it's not a Democrat vs. Republican issue, Wake GOP Chairman Claude E. Pope Jr. says "it is telling that our GOP organization was the only group that decided to take a stand.” The GOP has taken flak from some for having urged parents to keep their children home from school yesterday.

You guys may want to say hello to Gerald Grant, who viewed the blog Thursday before speaking at Quail Ridge Books & Music on his new book "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh."

In front of around 100 people, Grant forcefully articulated his support for Wake's diversity policy. Citing a February article, he took Dana Cope, leader of the Children's PAC, to task for saying, "how dare they use my children for a social experiment that has gone wrong and needs replacing."

"The experiment has not gone wrong as Dana Cope says," Grant said. "It doesn't need to be replaced. It needs to be replicated."

The candidate filing period hasn't even begun yet but Wake Schools Community Alliance announced today that it's endorsing Deborah Prickett for Wake's District 7 school board seat.

In the press release, the group cites Prickett's support for WSCA's objectives, her experience as an educator and her perspective as a parent who has gone through mandatory year-round and reassignment.

"Deborah [Prickett's] commitment to our core beliefs is beyond question," said Joe Ciulla, a member of WSCA's steering committee, in the press release. "Deborah has been an outspoken proponent of positive change in our school system, having helped organize her neighborhood to advocate for their schoolchildren, and speaking out through letters to the N&O editor and her comments at Wake County School Board public hearings."

The current Wake school board may rue the day it agreed to reassign Brier Creek area families from Panther Creek High to Broughton High.

The board's decision to reassign those kids in February helped trigger Deborah Prickett's desire to run for the District 7 school board seat. Her son would move to Broughton in 2010 after having spent his freshman year at Panther Creek.

"I'd been interested in [running for the school board]," Prickett said in an interview. "But what they did with reassigning 26,000 students, I said, 'That's enough.'"

It looks like Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents is turning to the ballot box now that the courts and the school board have had their say on year-round schools.

In a press release sent today, Lisa Boneham, CCLP's founder. says the group is moving forward even though Leesville Road Middle School's conversion is basically a done deal. She said they've joined forces with Wake Schools Community Alliance and are looking forward to this fall's school board elections.

"Leesville Parents see this fall's School Board elections as their chance to put more responsive and family-friendly board members into place, and fortunately the District 7 School Board position is available," Boneham says in the press release. "...WakeSCA and CCLP both believe that the WCPSS has strayed from families, stability, and academic excellence, and they look forward to October's elections as the chance to put the focus back on what should be important."

Deborah Prickett, a longtime educator and former Wake teacher, announced today she'll run for the District 7 school board seat.

In her press release, Prickett criticizes the school district for "repeated reassignments" and the use of mandatory year-round schools. That issue could resonate in District 7, where complaints about the conversion of the Leesville schools could motivate a lot of voters.

District 7 includes northwest Raleigh, Morrisville and part of Cary. The seat is now held by Patti Head, who isn't running for reelection.

How hard will the school board implement the year-round court ruling and what will it mean for this fall's elections?

Those are among the questions noted in today's article. The state Supreme Court gave Wake the legal authority for mandatory year-round schools but it's up to the school board to see how the power will be exercised.

For instance, will the board go ahead with consent for the 2009-10 school year?

Here's Wake Schools Community Alliance's response to today's court ruling:

Regarding The NC Supreme Court Ruling Against Choice in Wake County Schools

Wake Schools Community Alliance (WSCA) is extremely disappointed in today's North Carolina Supreme Court ruling that Wake County Public Schools System (WCPSS) has the right to assign students to Year Round calendars on a mandatory basis.  In their ruling, the Supreme Court stated "We recognize the emotional nature of this case, but we must emphasize that our duty goes no further than to determine the legal authority for implementing mandatory year-round schools, not the wisdom of such a decision."

Some school board members are taking a field trip today for a firsthand look at the career and technical education program.

From 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., board members will visit Middle Creek, Athens Drive, Wake Forest-Rolesville and Leesville Road high schools. Among the board members who may attend are Rosa Gill, Patti Head, Anne McLaurin, Lori Millberg and Horace Tart.

The trip was pushed by Tart, who is expected to make CTE (what used to be called vocational education) a campaign issue. He's been urging the school district to set up a magnet high school that would focus on vocational skills for kids who don't intend to go to college.

Whether it will help Tart against Cathy Truitt or any other challengers remains to be seen.