The school board will be busy behind closed doors on Tuesday wrapping up Superintendent Del Burns' annual evaluation.

Under his contract, Burns gets an automatic 3-percent raise every year. But if the board doesn't complete his annual evaluation by Aug. 31, he's entitled to an additional increase that would be equal, this year, to 3 percent.

Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, expects the board to decide what new offer to make to Burns on Tuesday. If he agrees, the new terms will be announced at a future board meeting.

After months of work with an outside facilitator, the school board has finally finished its work plan.

In theory, the work plan lays out what the board wants to focus on between 2008-11. The items should be familiar as they're based off the findings of the curriculum management audit and the citizens' facilities advisory committee.

The board will look at is how to provide equal access to comparable programs, services, and opportunities to impact success for all students.

The board will also review offering weightlifting, wrestling and tennis and reducing parking spaces. Both of those options from the CFAC report drew a lot of negative remarks. Tennis supporters were especially unhappy.

There are plenty of other things in the work plan to keep the board busy. 

The school board is having a lot of discussion about how to get information to the public. During Tuesday's work session, board members discussed what information should be included in the minutes.

Some school board members said the minutes are too 'verbatim,' which requires staff to spend additional time preparing the minutes.

Some members suggested they liked the idea of having the minutes condensed using bullets to reflect the highlights of the meeting.

School board member Ron Margiotta asked what was require by law. Superintendent Del Burns said the board was required to reflect any action. Margiott also suggested that since the minutes are recorded, staff could plug the recording on the Web site.

As it stands now, the minutes include comments made by the school board chair and superintendent and any comments from committee chairs. The minutes also note if there were any questions from the board about a particular item discussed on the agenda.

"This is why I advocated so much for the Web stream," said school board member Lori Millberg

As you know by now, Wake school leaders gave final approval Tuesday to a$319.2 million budget to run schools for the 2008-09 school year.

Board members have spent weeks debating on which programs and services to cut after commissioners said they were only allotting $319.2 million, still an $18.5 million increase over this past fiscal year.

During those discussions, one of the items board members debating keeping $200,000 to stream school board meetings. Several board members favored this idea, however with all the cuts that needed to be made having that capability was chopped off the list.

During Tuesday's meeting school board members Lori Millberg and Patti Head reiterated the importance of being able to stream school board meetings. Board members have pointed to such technology being used during the county commissioners' meetings.

Some board members hinted that streaming could be made possible with money the district is supposed to recoup from fines paid by former House speaker Jim Black, since he was convicted in Wake County.

But school board member Ron Margiotta said with all the cuts that had to be made, any money recieved should go towards other items that had be cut. He mentioned adding more funds back to hire more teachers.

But both Millberg and Head countered that the ability to have the public listen to the discussions that take place during meetings is valuable.

"This is really in keeping with our efforts of keeping the public informed," said Head. "Hope that this could be a priority."

The Wake County School board approved a request Tuesday to name Leesville Road High School after longtime athletics director Marshall Hamilton.

As noted in the North Raleigh News story today, Hamilton was highly regarded around high school athletic circles. He established the athletic program at Leesville when he helped open the school in 1993. He retired in June 2007, after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Hamilton died in December.

Typically, naming part of school facilities after individuals is a
rare. However, the district's policy does permit buildings or
structures or rooms to be named in memory or honor of people who have
rendered extraordinary service to the district.

Despite the efforts to unseat her, Rosa Gill is back as chairwoman of the school board.

Gill was unanimously elected as chairwoman for another one-year term. Lori Millberg, who was rumored to be lobbying for the job, seconded the nomination.

What might explain how things turned out is that Kevin Hill was elected vice chairman. He got the job after Beverley Clark declined the nomination because she said she had too much on her plate. Clark proceeded to nominate Hill.

Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, has got a coup d’état on her hands.

As noted in today's article, Gill faces opposition in her bid to be re-elected to a one-year term as chairwoman on Tuesday. Even though Lori Millberg won’t comment, she’s cited by other board members as being Gill’s challenger.

It’s leading to some interesting bedfellows. For instance, Ron Margiotta is backing Gill despite their many public tiffs.

“I believe Rosa has done a good job in reaching out to the community,” Margiotta said.