Budgets, bell schedules and the voluntary desegregation resolution will be among the topics on Tuesday's Wake County school board agenda.

During the committee of the whole meeting that starts at 1 p.m., the board will discuss the bell schedules for this fall. They'll focus on whether to adopt schedules that would start most elementary schools at 9:30 a.m. this fall or pursue other options that would start them at 9:15 a.m.

One option presented by staff to come up with $748,000 to hire enough bus drivers to start at 9:15 a.m .is to withhold some local teacher pay raises and to use salaries from vacant positions.

UPDATE

Ticket vouchers will still be issued beginning 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. The COW meeting is still in the board conference room despite this week's request from the Great Schools in Wake Coalition to move the location.

Here's a recap of today's Wake County school board finance committee discussion.

Administrators said that schools would have to bear the brunt of the $20 million in new state cuts because central services has been slashed so much in the past. Here's a list of the cuts.

The upshot is that schools will probably have larger class sizes and fewer teachers, teacher assistants, media specialists and school supplies. Athletic coaches, department chairs and other teachers receiving extra duty pay will see a 30 percent cut for those services.

Would you be wiling to send Wake County elementary students to the bus stop before 7 a.m. in order to flip schedules around to start high schools later in the day?

School transportation officials presented a model last week of what things could look like if high schools were to start after 9 a.m. But the model would involve flipping around the three-tier bus system so that some elementary schools start at 7:25 a.m.

It's not an option that most school board members are considering, at least for this fall. Whether there's interest down the road remains to be seen.

Student assignment policy and budget issues are expected to dominate today's Wake County school board committee discussions.

At this morning's policy committee meeting, board members will discuss changes to the student assignment policy now that the community-based assignment resolution was passed. They'll also discuss creating a formal policy for the public comment period at board meetings.

A lot of attention will also be on budget cuts that will be discussed at this afternoon's finance committee meeting.

Rumors are swirling around Wake County's magnet school community about the possible loss or reduction in school bus service.

Magnet parents probably don't have to worry about that kind of a drastic change in bus service for this fall. But you might want to be on the lookout for down the road.

The issue came up during Tuesday's committee of the whole discussion as school board members and staff brainstormed about ways to avoid having most elementary schools run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. this fall.

It looks like the threatened loss this week of transportation to hundreds of Wake County special-education students is over.

As noted in today's article, Lucas Transportation and the other private vendors have agreed to serve out the rest of the school year. Zell Lucas, president of Lucas Transportation, had threatened to shut down this week because he said the current contract is putting the company on the verge of financial collapse.

The stand down is welcome news to the 2,500 students who are served by the private vendors. These are kids who can't be put on regular buses for various reasons, such as behavioral issues, severe mental disabilities or homelessness.

Will there be any money saved from school transportation costs if the Wake County school system abandons the socioeconomic diversity policy?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, supporters of scrapping the policy are predicting that going to community-based schools will lead to savings. But supporters of the diversity policy are skeptical about savings and warn that it could cost more to have transportation under community-based schools.

Wake says $45 million of its $56 million transportation budget comes from the state.

As if Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting agenda couldn't get any more packed, here comes a proposed 2010-11 bell schedule that would see most elementary school students start at 9:30 a.m.

Under the new schedule, 71 of Wake's 103 elementary schools would run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The later start time will likely be an aggravation for families.

The changes are taking place at the same time there are $3.8 million in proposed school transportation budget cuts.

UPDATE

Modified the setenence because school officials say the changes aren't a direct result of the $3.8 million in budget cuts. But they are saying they're being proposed to save money. More details at end of post.

School board chairman Ron Margiotta said they may postpone Tuesday's vote to give more time to review the changes. It looks like board members didn't get the specifics on the new schedule until today,

In the latest Gurley-Norwalk battle, both Wake County commissioners went at each other Friday over the cost of neighborhood schools.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Commissioner Stan Norwalk claimed Friday the school board's efforts to create a neighborhood-based system would cost $250 million.

"You're making things up," responded Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, in the article.

Ready or not, we're about the begin the era of weekly Wednesday early dismissals.

As noted in today's article, year-round schools this week will be the first to begin sending students home early each Wednesday. They're arguably the guinea pigs that will test things out before traditional-calendar schools start in late August.

The one thing that's not in doubt is that Wednesdays aren't going to be the same.