You've got 29 people lined up to speak at today's Wake County school board meeting.

It looks like people are citing the discussion of the facilities utilization report, which is item 14 on the agenda, to get around the ban about talking about student assignment. Among the people citing this section on the signup sheet are Anne Sherron, Adrienne Lumpkin, Susan Evans, Monserrat Alvarez (of N.C. HEAT) and Jim Martin.

On the list of 15 speakers for off-agenda topic items, you've got more supporters of the diversity policy who likely are using other ways to bring up student assignment. This list includes:

UPDATE

School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said the restriction on comment on student assignment was meant for discussion on specific moves in the plan.

It appears you are going to be out luck if you want to speak out about student assignment at tomorrow's Wake County school board meeting.

The school system has posted a message on its website that the board will take advantage of a policy that allows the chair to defer public comment on an issue when public hearings for that topic are provided. This means that discussion of student assignment will be limited to four public hearings being held in January.

The old board had followed that policy on keeping public comment on student assignment plans out of regular board meetings. But the new board had been more flexible earlier this year.

Regardless of your views on Monday's Durham City Council vote on accepting matricula consulars as identification for police, Bull City leaders took an interesting approach to public comment.

As noted in Tuesday's article by Jim Wise, Durham Mayor Bill Bell restricted public comment on the matricula consular issue to Durham residents. This caused some people in the audience to walk out as they complained that their free-speech rights were violated and that the issue was larger than Durham.

The issue had generated national controversy among conservative groups with non-Durham residents wanting to voice their opposition to the proposal.

Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman again broke ranks today with her former majority members to support returning to two regular board meetings a month and to reinstate standing committee.

Voting with the four Democrats on the board, Goldman preliminarily reversed her votes in August to eliminate the standing committees and to have only one regular board meeting a month. Both work session votes were 5-3 but Goldman left open the possibility of changing her vote again on the two action meetings.

Both changes were adopted in August on 5-4 votes. The former majority members said it would be a way to streamline the meeting process and avoid redundancies of having the same material presented to committees and the full board.

UPDATE

The board agreed to table the motion to go back to two regular action meetings per moth. They'll continue with the current schedule of one action meeting and one work session per month through January.

The Wake County school board's agenda for Tuesday covers a wide range of things, including student assignment, eliminating the Effectiveness Index and relocating Central Office to Cary.

During the work session that begins at 3 p.m., the board will discuss board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new multi-year student assignment plan. They'll also get into a talk on the 2011-12 assignment plan, the third year of the plan adopted by the old board.

Also during the work session, the board will discuss whether to keep the process of having only one regular action meeting per month.

UPDATE

If passed, the resolution would essentially kill off the Effectiveness Index. E&R has said that the only resources put in are staff time.

You can credit Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman for there not being a school board meeting today.

The board traditionally meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. But at Goldman's request, the board agreed to reschedule the Nov. 2 meeting to next Tuesday.

"I have other things that I like to do on Election Day such as vote, work at the polls, a few different things," Goldman said at the June 15 committee of the whole meeting. "We have quite a few board members who are very active so I can tell you right now I won't be here at that meeting."

Security costs have dropped sharply since the Wake County school board decided to go with only one regular action meeting a month.

In September, Wake only paid $330 for off-duty police officers and $736.51 for private security to work at school board meetings. In contrast, the August bill was $1,395 for off-duty cops and $1,081.21 for private security.

The big difference is that Wake is only hiring off-duty police officers for one meeting a month. The other monthly meeting, redesignated from an action meeting to a work session, is now held in the board conference room without as many layers of extra security.

Wake County school board members are being advised to avoid texting, instant messaging or sending e-mails about board business while the meetings are in progress.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, school board attorney Ann Majestic explained to board members on Tuesday her position on those forms of non-verbal communication. Her advice to board members is to keep everything above board.

"The purpose of the meeting is for the public to listen to the board engage in deliberation," Majestic said. "To the extent that people are communicating about the deliberative process, that concerns me. The benchmark ought to be that it is transparent."

Members of the former Wake County school board minority are shooting down rumors that they intend to soon replace board chairman Ron Margiotta.

If vice chairwoman Debra Goldman voted with the same four Democrats she joined Tuesday to vote down the evolving zone-based assignment plan, they could bump Margiotta from his seat as chairman. Democratic member Carolyn Morrison said she wouldn't support such a move.

"No, I like Ron; I would never think of that," Morrison told reporter Thomas Goldsmith.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education is poised to vote Thursday whether to fill a vacant one-year board position with a former school board member or open it up to the public.

A spot on the seven-member board opened in September when Joe Green resigned to take a new job in Wisconsin. The opening coincides with the district’s search for a new superintendant, the first in 19 years.

Chairman Mike Kelley  said there are good reasons to consider tapping a former member to serve out Green’s term, though he said he had no particular person in mind.

“If we followed the old process, the new school member would not have experience in serving on the board. They would not be trained,” Kelley said. “It really takes a year to understand how everything works and all the processes.”