The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce's proposal for resolving the fight over school ownership and school board elections appeared to fizzle Wednesday.

As noted in today's article, Joe Bryan, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said no Wednesday to the chamber's proposal that both boards work out agreements before the pending state legislation passes.

“It’s a little late in the day for the Chamber and they’re not presenting much,” Bryan said.

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce announced today it's not supporting the two state Senate bills that would change who owns schools in Wake County and how school board members are elected.

Rather than rely on the bills, the Chamber is calling for the school board and Wake County Board of Commissioners to jointly working together to deal with the issues. They say they hope the pressure from the legislation will cause them to work out something although there's not as much incentive for the commissioners to agree.

They're reviving the 2008 deal in which they're calling for the county to take over ownership, construction and acquisition of schools with the school district retaining siting, design and maintenance. As part of the deal, the commissioners would have to agree to increase school operating funding through a "multi-year predictable, expanding funding stream."

One thing that became clear on Tuesday is that Wake County families really like 8:30 a.m. start times, especially those whose kids go to elementary schools that start at 9:15 a.m.

As noted in today's article, the school board approved Tuesday this revised 2013-14 school bell schedules for each school. A common theme voiced by board members and the public is the concerns families have with continuing to start most elementary schools after 9 a.m.

Wake operates a two- and three-tier bus system in different parts of the district. This means the majority of buses run two or three routes in the morning and afternoon to save money.

The Wake County school board will deal today with another consequence of abandoning the Forest Ridge High School site in favor of Rolesville High School.

During the work session, school administrators will propose that Wake Forest-Rolesville High School be renamed Wake Forest High School because Rolesville High is opening in August. There's a price tag for the change.

According to this handout, it would cost $20,000 to change the name of the sign in front of Wake Forest-Rolesville and to change the sign in the main gym. But the big price tag is the estimated $100,000 in new uniforms for the high school to reflect the name change.

UPDATE

School board members indicated they'd support renaming Wake Forest-Rolesville High and Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle at the April 9 meeting. The discussion was mixed on West Apex HIgh with several board members said they'd like Friendship High. But at staff's urging, they'll see what the Apex Town Council does tonight.

Enrollment caps, school budgets and bell schedules are among the things the Wake County school board will deal with today.

During the work session, this handout shows that school administrators will recommend placing enrollment caps for the 2013-14 school year on 17 schools. This is based on how crowded those schools are after the declaration of base, magnet school and first transfer application periods.

Nine of the 17 schools already at the cap figure, meaning families who hadn't moved in by a set date can't attend this fall. The cap would go into effect at the other eight schools when they hit their cap figure.

UPDATE

A revised document presented today shows that 15 of the schools are already at their cap figure. Only Farmington Woods Elementary and Holly Springs High aren't there yet.

Should the Wake County school system spend as much as $90 million in the next school construction bond issue on technology?

At Wednesday's school board facilities committee meeting, staff outlined proposals for $54 million to establish a "classroom baseline" and $36 million in network systems. Click h here for the network needs.

A lot of the discussion was around the classroom technology piece, where the goal in the next bond is to reach a ratio of one device (laptop, iPad or tablet) for every three students. This would involve 50,000 devices for $25 million.

The word inconsistent was said more than a few times Thursday by members of the Wake County school system's new school safety task force after getting an overview of the current security practices.

As noted in today's article, task force members were surprised to hear about the lack of a uniform standard of security measures at the 169 schools. For instance, the majority of schools don't have a security officer or computer system for managing visitors and a large minority have few or no surveillance cameras and outdated locking systems.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, co-chair of the task force. “We’ve got a lot of inconsistencies.”

The Wake County school board's student achievement committee is scheduled to discuss today the latest recommendations from the School Health Advisory Council, including the controversial one on banning the sale of unhealthy foods.

Since the SHAC report came out last week, school board members have been getting a steady stream of comments from booster groups warning that restricting what they can sell at concession stands will harm their ability to raise funds to support athletic programs.

The response was so much that school board vice chairwoman Christine Kushner, also chair of the student achievement committee, quipped last week that they should invite the booster groups to the superintendent search feedback meetings.

Here's a recap of the interviews today that Nancy Caggia and Bill Fletcher went through for the Wake County school board District 9 seat.

Caggia brought up her many years working on student achievement issues, including serving on the Governor's School Task Force. Caggia has been involved for many years with programs for academically gifted students, saying she's all about student achievement and effective teachers.

Caggia said she believes they need to reach each child where they are to reach proficiency, citing the need for differentiated instruction.

The level of distrust between members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and Superintendent Tony Tata during his final month on the job was high.

As noted in today's article, the release this week of more than 3,400 pages of emails from Aug. 1 through Sept. 25 showed repeated board allegations that staff was trying to undermine them. Democratic board members also tried to distance themselves from the bus problems and the complaints about the release of the draft student assignment plan.

“I hate to seem suspicious, but at this time I am left with little other than to conclude that some on staff are trying to undermine the Board by creating mass confusion in the community,” school board member Jim Martin wrote in a Sept. 22 reply to Ellen Nightingale on the draft plan. “This is unacceptable.”