Democratic members of the Wake County school board are distancing themselves from the decision to prosecute the school board protesters.

As noted in today's article, Democratic board members like Susan Evans and Keith Sutton are saying last week's decision to reject mediation shouldn't be interpreted as them wanting the protesters to go to trial. they say the prosecution question is solely up to Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby.

But Willoughby said Thursday his office will move forward with prosecution because the board didn't take the mediation offer that would have avoided the need for trials.

The liberal/progressive Great Schools in Wake Coalition is being praised for helping oust the Republican majority on the Wake County school board.

In this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, GSIW received one of the publication's 2012 Citizen Awards. The article cites Great Schools' various efforts over the past two years such as its white papers, community forums and having members speak at school board meetings.

"When the 2011 elections in Wake County resulted in a stunning defeat for the Republicans, with all five school board seats on the ballot won by pro-diversity candidates, GSIW was the major factor in the outcome," according to the article by Bob Geary.

It looks like protesters were wrong if they were hoping that the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board would be more sympathetic that the Republicans were on the issue of mediation instead of prosecution.

As noted in today's article, the school board met in closed session last week and agreed to stick with the decision made by the former majority to recommend that the protesters who disrupted board meetings in 2010 go to trial.

Since it was discussed in closed session, neither the board members or board attorney Ann Majestic are saying why the board decided not to go with mediation.

New Wake County school board member Susan Evans raised more than $40,000 in her successful bid to unseat incumbent Ron Margiotta,

In her final campaign report filed today, Evans reported raising $43,386.53 and spending $39.077.16. Margiotta hasn't filed his final report yet, but he had reported raising $52,748.31 as of Sept. 26.

But the funding gap between Evans, a Democrat, and Margiotta, a Republican, is a lot narrower considering all the outside money that was poured into the District 8 race.

Who will the Democratic majority on the Wake County school board side with on the new student assignment plan?

As noted in today's article, different influential groups have taken opposing sides on the plan. Will the Democratic board members side with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership who want the plan to be implemented for this fall?

Or will the new majority side with the Great Schools in Wake Coalition's call for the plan to be delayed a year?

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton raised more than $30,000 during his lopsided election win in District 4 last fall.

In Sutton's final campaign report filed Thursday, the Democratic-backed candidate reported raising $33,327 and spending $32,484.31. His Republican challenger, Venita Peyton, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $1,280 as of Sept. 26.

Sutton's report seems to be missing some info. He reports having raised $5,500 from other political committees on his summary page. But the actual page listing this contribution or contributions isn't included.

The final campaign reports for last fall's elections are starting to come in and they show that Cynthia Matson was at a major funding disadvantage in her bid to win a seat on the Wake County school board.

In Matson's final report filed Tuesday, the Republican-backed candidate reported having raised and spent $13,807.10. Her Democratic opponent in District 5, Jim Martin, hasn't filed his final report yet. But Martin had reported raising $31,534.46 as of Sept. 26.

The biggest contributor in Matson's latest report is conservative businessman Art Pope, who gave $4.000. All five Republican school board candidates have reported receiving donations from Pope except for Venita Peyton, whose final report isn't in yet.

It's not much of a surprise that the Wake County school board elections have made some lists of top news stories in 2011.

According to the Associated Press' 2011 Memorable Moments for North Carolina, "Wake County voters returned Democratic-backed candidates to power on the state's largest school board, although it took one runoff race to complete the five-seat sweep.

The contest was watched nationally - and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars - because Republican-backed candidates had earlier scrapped the district's student assignment policy which aimed at achieving a socioeconomic - and, therefore, racial - balance in student populations through busing."

Former Wake County Superintendent Del Burns apparently has a lot to say about the school system in his new book "Preserving the Public in Public Schools."

But, as noted in today's article, Burns' new book isn't officially about Wake. Instead, he writes about the fictional Crestwich Public Schools, which is Wake in all but name.

The book talks about Crestwich/Wake's merger, adoption of magnet schools, busing for diversity, student reassignment, the impact of a new majority sweeping into office and a lot of other things.

The revamping of the Wake County school board District 8 board advisory council continued tonight with the appointment of three new at-large members.

New District 8 school board member Susan Evans nominated Patty Williams, communications director for the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. Williams is the parent of a student at Athens Drive High.

Evans also nominated Hardin Engelhardt, a magnet parent and former teacher. Like Williams, Engelhardt spoke out at board meetings against the change in the diversity policy.