The new world of online sign-up for public comment at Wake County school board meetings begins Tuesday.

According to a district press release, you can register to speak Tuesday at the district's homepage beginning at 3 p.m. Computers will also be available for you to register in person at the school board offices at 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

You'll have until 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday to sign up. Public comment starts at 6 p.m

Be prepared for some even later nights now with the Wake County school board.

School board members agreed this week to begin starting the monthly regular/action meetings at 5:30 p.m. with public comment starting at 6 p.m. Those meetings have been starting at 3 p.m.

The new 5:30 p.m. start is supposed to make it easier on people who can't get off work to attend and speak at the 4 p.m. public comment sessions.

The Wake County school board will hit on a variety of topics during today's work session.

Topics include the proposed 2011-12 calendars, the disadvantaged student supplemental fund, the times of board meetings, the transition plan for community-based schools, public-private partnerships and textbook funding.

In terms of meeting times, school board chairman Ron Margiotta has talked about starting the regular meetings later in the day for people who can't come now because of the afternoon start time. He's also talked about moving the meetings outside of Central Office.

SEE END OF POST FOR PDFS OF DRAFT 2011-12 SCHOOL CALENDARS

The Wake County school board's community relations committee will discuss today online signup to speak at board meetings and other ways to improve communications with the public.

The board had agreed last week to allow for online registration at board meetings. The community relations committee will go over the details today before the new procedure is implemented in October.

Also today, the committee will discuss ways to share information with the public and to discuss proposed design changes to the school district's website.

You will now be able to sign up online to speak at Wake County school board meetings.

Previously, people who wanted to speak at a board meeting had to go in person to the school district's headquarters to physically sign up on a sheet. Now you'll be able to register electronically anywhere you have an Internet connection.

The sign-up period will still begin at 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Board members rejected the idea of allowing registration days ahead of time.

Don't be surprised if you see Wake County school board members spending a lot of their time looking at their laptop computers during today's meeting.

School administrators have provided board members with electronic copies of their meeting information packets to go along with their normal printed copies. Instead of leafing through their binders, board members may be looking at the information on their laptop screens.

School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said she had asked staff to provide electronic copies of the documents as a way to "save trees." The printed packets are pretty thick.

Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman is expressing her unhappiness with the new budget and her support for the changes in board meeting structure.

In a blog post Friday, Goldman writes that she voted against the revised budget adopted earlier this month because she didn't feel that her concerns were answered about the last-minute staff recommended changes. An example she cites is the proposed changes for Project Enlightenment.

"The Budget came up for a vote and I was the only Board member NOT to vote for it," Goldman writes. "There is a lot of work to do, and though it is described as a 'fluid document,' there is a tremendous amount that concerns me, on many topics."

In an often contentious debate, the Wake County school board voted tonight to reduce public comment to once a month and eliminate standing committees.

The decision to change one regular meeting a month to a work session with no public comment was approved by a 5-4 vote. By the same 5-4 vote, the board rejected an amendment from Keith Sutton which would have set aside 30 to 45 minutes for public comment at the monthly work sessions.

The vote to eliminate the standing committees was 5-3 with Sutton crossing lines.

Seventeen people have signed up to speak at today's Wake County school board meeting.

Most of the speakers have indicated they're talking about the board meeting changes, the budget and diversity. Board attorney Ann Majestic warned that school board chairman Ron Margiotta will curtail people who say they've signed up to speak on an agenda topic but don't do so.

Margiotta said he'll be more lenient today but will enforce it more in the future. Some people have indicated they're speaking on items on the agenda, which puts them at the top of the list, but then go off topic.

Is the move to only have one public comment section a month at Wake County school board meetings an effort to streamline operations or to silence the public?

As noted in today's article, the board is set to give final approval this afternoon to policy changes that would eliminate one of the two monthly comment sections. One of the two regular board meetings would be redesignated as a work session, which would have no public comment.

The changes were proposed by school board chairman Ron Margiotta, who said it would make the board run more efficiently.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR N.C. SOCIAL JUSTICE PROJECT'S REACTION TO CHANGES