What should the Wake County school system do with $32 million that's built up over the past year in its rainy day fund?

During Tuesday's school board meeting, staff reported that the undesignated fund balance had been replenished much higher than expected, leaving $32 million available in the undesignated fund balance. Staff said that cost-cutting during the year helped raise the amount above the $20 million they expected to have.

Some school board members want to return part of the fund balance to the county. But some board members and staff say the money should be retained because they need to make up for the recurring expenses covered by using fund balance earlier this year and in case the country goes over the federal funding cliff.

You can also look for new leadership next week on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

It's expected that Joe Bryan will take over Monday for Paul Coble as chairman of the board of commissioners while Phil Matthews would remain vice chairman. Barring any repeat of the 2009 restroom incident, Bryan will likely be elected by his fellow Republican commissioners.

Bryan says he has contacted both Republican and Democratic commissioners for their support.

In case you didn't get the message today, Wake County Commissioners haven't raised the property-tax rate in four years.

It's a message that Commissioners Chairman Paul Coble repeatedly referred to during his 2012 State of the County Address. That message was often co-mingled with his discussion about education unding.

"In January of each year, the board of commissioners creates goals for the upcoming year," Coble said. "Our number-one goal was maintaining the property tax rate at 53.4 cents. "

Much of today's Wake County Commissioners meeting will be focused on school issues.

Commissioners will vote on an amendment that will give them until Dec. 5 to work out the construction details for the new career and technical education high school. Instead of a lease-purchase, the plan being considered now is to outright purchase the former Coca-Cola bottling facility on South Wilmington Street.

Commissioners will also have second readings on purchasing the former YWCA building for a school site and reallocating money for renovations for the two single-sex leadership academies. Commissioners raised issues at the last meeting.

You've also got the 2012 State of the County Address, where school issues will likely be an element. You could hear talk about school funding and the school bond issue.

It looks like the Wake County school system may soon hire an outside firm to conduct a review of the district's Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) program.

During last week's school board student achievement committee meeting, staff reviewed different options for how to conduct the review that would help influence revisions that may be made to the AIG program. Click here on this handout.

One option would be to have the state Department of Public Instruction perform the review, possibly during the spring.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

New figures presented at Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting show more than $2 million worth of additional costs associated with the choice plan.

The biggest item is $1,089,643 that staff says is transportation operational costs for additional miles per day. The money covers funds for diesel fuel, oil, tires and parts for driving an additional 13,200 miles per day "with choice plan."

When the removal of 53 buses from the road led to transportation problems at the start of the school year, Wake responded by putting most of them back in service. Wake says they've paid $840,000 for 24 additional buses and drivers.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

It may be a tough sell for the Wake County school system to get county commissioners to approve funding for the single-sex leadership academies and the purchase of the former YWCA building.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Republican commissioners wanted more details before approving use of $1.657 million to renovate the former Thompson School as the site of the Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy. There were also questions about using $2.9 million to renovate buildings at the Gov. Morehead School for use by the Young Women’s Leadership Academy.

But there seemed to be an especially heavy dose of skepticism about spending $1.1 million to buy the former YWCA building on Hargett Street.

Today's election for seats on the Wake County Board of Commissioners and the bids for state office by three school board members will have both short-term and long-term implications for the school system.

If Republican school board members Debra Goldman, Chris Malone and John Tedesco win their respective state campaigns today, they'll have to resign with the board's Democratic majority filling the vacancies.

The chance to potentially increase the majority to 8-1 after today would allow the Democratic board members more latitude, such as waiving policies or rules that require a two-thirds vote. It would also give the new board members a heads up for next year's election.

Amid the less than good news that's marked school transportation for much of the school year, Wake County school administrators are touting they've saved $900,000 in fuel costs.

In a press release today, Wake points to the decision over the summer to buy 1.6 million gallons of diesel fuel — roughly a six-month supply — at $2.82 per gallon. Wake had originally budgeted to use three million gallons for the 2012-13 fiscal year at $3.30 per gallon, a cost of $9.9 million.

In contrast, most school districts use the state contract fuel price, which is now at $3.40 per gallon. Wake is saying that buying at the $2.82 per gallon price could result in more than $900,000 in savings for the district.

You can take a glass is half empty or half full view of Wake County student assignment in the short term.

As noted in today's article, the good news for families in the immediate future is that the 2013-14 plan is expected to have relatively few reassignments. But it's very much a transitional plan with a new plan to be developed for the 2014-15 school year that's likely to include a lot more reassignments for things such as promoting balance in student achievement and socioeconomic diversity.

"We were looking at trying to give the staff and the parents a respite so we could have the larger discussion that it seems like we’re trying to have right now, that we could have the larger discussion to put together a sustainable assignment plan," said board chairman Kevin Hill.