The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board is being both more secretive and more open than how the Wake County school board handled its most recent superintendent search.

As noted in today's Charlotte Observer article, the CMS school board is meeting today and Wednesday in Charlotte-Douglas Airport to interview superintendent candidates. The reason for the airport meeting is to be able to keep the identities of the candidates secret.

The CMS school board opened the meeting in public. They then adjourned into closed session in the airport director's office, which is located behind the security gates.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Heather Losurdo got into some spirited discussions during their joint appearance on WRAL's "On the Record" show.

The discussion opened with Losurdo saying her resume is "contextually accurate." She said she was offended that people would say that someone like her with her military background and organizational and communications skills couldn't do the job of overseeing $2 billion in small business loans.

The topic then moved to the recently adopted student assignment plan.

Wake County school board member Carolyn Morrison has released a statement explaining why she will vote tonight against withdrawing from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the local arm of AdvancED.

In her statement today, Morrison says that Wake should work with the accreditation review team and "not hinder them in their investigation." She lumps the potential loss of accreditation with dropping the diversity policy, eliminating Wake/Wacky Wednesdays, withdrawing from the N.C. Schools Boards Association, eliminating the requirement that the superintendent be an educator, giving speakers two minutes now instead of three at board meetings and cutting public comment to one meeting a month.

Here's Morrison's statement:

UPDATED TO MENTION CUTTING TIME FOR INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS AT BOARD MEETINGS

The State of Things will tackle the Wake County school board's hiring of Anthony Tata as superintendent on today's radio show.

Among the guests expected on the show will be N&O reporter Thomas Goldsmith, Kathleen Brennan of Wake CARES, former school board member Beverley Clark of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and Steve Parrott of the Wake Education Partnership.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

CORRECTED TO SAY THAT STEVE PARROTT WILL APPEAR FROM THE WAKE ED PARTNERSHIP

CORRECTED TO SAY THAT BEVERLEY CLARK AND NOT YEVONNE BRANNON IS REPRESENTING GREAT SCHOOLS IN WAKE

Can and will critics of new Wake County Superintendent Anthony Tata be able to support him when he officially starts his new job Jan. 31?

As noted in today's article, vocal critics of the hiring such as school board member Carolyn Morrison and Great Schools in Wake Coalition chairwoman Yevonne Brannon say the community will need to rally behind Tata at some point.

For Brannon, that means when Tata is officially on the job. But for now, including today's board meeting, complaining about the search process and Tata's qualifications are still okay.

The Wake Community Network is accusing the Great Schools in Wake Coalition of making "dubious" claims in criticizing the way the Wake County school board hired Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

In a press release today, Joey Stansbury, director of the Wake Community Network, challenges the Dec. 23. claim from GSIW chairwoman Yevonne Brannon that the public met with prospective finalists in past searches.

This is a case where it may depend on what superintendent search you're discussing.

The biggest response from Tuesday's Wake County school board meeting may come from something that's not on the agenda.

A large turnout is expected of critics of the hiring of Anthony Tata as the new superintendent. During last week's meeting, a small but vocal crowd groaned at statements made by GOP members while cheering on Democrats who opposed hiring Tata.

If the board had passed Carolyn Morrison's motion last week, they would have delayed the vote until after Tuesday's public comment section.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton is dissing the way the superintendent search was handled that resulted in the hiring of Anthony Tata.

Sutton said the board's search committee had given the full board the names of three finalists. (He's not naming the other two people, sticking withe board's policy of keeping names confidential.)

Sutton said Tata and another finalist were far superior than the third person.

The GOP members of the Wake County school board sure love new Superintendent Anthony Tata's military background.

As noted in today's article, board members who supported Tata repeatedly argued Thursday that his 28 years in the U.S. Army were a good match for the school district's needs. In contrast, Tata's critics on and off the school board said being a retired brigadier general wasn't enough to offset his relatively limited experience in the education system.

"Mr. Tata's experience as a military strategist will complement our focus on academic achievement and encourage the implementation of new initiatives for the betterment of the education of our students," said school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

The Wake County school board voted 4-2 today to hire Anthony Tata to be the new superintendent.

The four Republican board members (minus chairman Ron Margiotta who didn't vote becaue ther was no tie) backed Tata. The two Democrats present, Carolyn Morrison and Kevin Hill voted no.

A motion from Morrison to defer the vote to Jan. 4 to allow for parental comment was defeated by the same 4-2 vote.

As Debra Goldman made the motion to nominate Tata, an "argh" came from the small crowd of Great Schools in Wake Coalition people. The crowd cheered Morrison after she read her statement opposing Tata.

More to come later....

UPDATE

Click here for the online story.

Click here for a statement from Tata, who was not at the meeting.

Click here to view Tata's contract.

Click here to read a Great Schools in Wake Coalition press release criticizing the hiring of Tata.