It looks, like for now, the Wake County school board will sign off on staff's recommendation to use $28.8 million out of the $33.9 million in the rainy-day fund.

As noted in today's article, staff made two pitches for using most of the money in the undesignated fund balance. One, staff said it's needed to avoid layoffs. Two, staff said they can replenish much of the fund balance for one more year in 2013.

"Long term, for the health of the school system, we do need to get away from using a significant amount of the fund balance toward recurring expenditures," Chief Business Officer David Neter told the school board. "That is not fiscally ideal. But again as I shared with you when I presented the budget a couple of weeks ago, we’re in survival mode at this point."

Is the Wake County school system only postponing the layoffs of hundreds of teachers and other school employees for one more year?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata's proposal to use $29 million out of the $34.6 million in the undesignated fund balance effectively replaces the $28 million in one-time federal dollars that saved more than 500 teaching jobs this school year.

If the school board goes with Tata's recommendation, they'll be able to keep those positions funded for the 2012-13 school year. But it's iffy at best that the money can be found again for the 2013-14 school year.

As part of today's article on Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata's one-year anniversary on the job, he sat with the N&O for an extensive interview.

Here are some highlights from the interview, which touched on a variety of topics, including student assignment, the budget and how Tata evaluates his job performance.

The big topic of the moment is the implementation of the new student assignment plan. Tata was asked about the complaints from parents of charter school and magnet school students than the rules have changed on them since they can't just go to a base school now.

In the face of what's expected to be a tight budget, Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata announced today that a hiring freeze has been implemented for the 2012-13 school year.

Schools will not be able to hire most positions for the upcoming school year, including teachers. Only certain positions such as principals, bookkeepers and lead secretaries aren't subject to the hiring freeze.

Tata said the freeze could result in employees being involuntarily transferred to other schools to meet staffing needs.

The Wake County Public School System remains one of North Carolina's largest employers even though layoffs are taking a toll on the number of bodies.

In the state's recently released Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, Wake was ranked the state's ninth-largest employer with between 15,000 and 19,999 employees.

Before the recent layoffs, Wake was listed in the state's 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report as the eighth-largest employer with between 20,000 and 24,999 employees.

Regardless of who wins Tuesday's runoff election, the Wake County school board will have a lot on its hands after the new members are sworn in Dec. 6.

As noted in today's article, three big issues are student assignment, the budget and the next bond issue. One question is how those issues might be approached differently depending on whether the school board has a Republican or Democratic majority.

For instance, it's safe to say that the new student assignment plan will be modified as it goes along.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo is promoting her runoff endorsement from the Wake Schools Community Alliance in this new campaign mailer.

In the mailer, Losurdo quotes from the WSCA endorsement which had blamed incumbent Kevin Hill for "failing graduation rates," "600 teachers fired," "26,000 students reassigned," "'Wacky Wednesday' PLTs" and "mandatory year-round schedules." The mailer quotes how WSCA said Losurdo "has consistently supported neighborhood schools, advocated for the use of EVAAS" and "called for civility and consensus-building on our School Board."

"Wake County's Leading Independent Education Reform Organization Supports Heather Losurdo," says the mailer. "So should you."

The mailer is interesting considering how Losurdo's supporters were dismissive of the WSCA before the runoff when the group endorsed Jennifer Mansfield.

The Wake Schools Community Alliance is now endorsing Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo in the District 3 runoff after having previously backed Jennifer Mansfield.

In a press release today, WSCA says Losurdo "has consistently supported neighborhood schools, advocated for the use of EVAAS and other objective data-driven measurements to meet our educational challenges head-on and called for civility and consensus-building on our School Board."

In contrast, WSCA rips into incumbent school board member Kevin Hill, citing his tenure as board chairman. They blame him for "falling graduation rates," "600 teachers fired, while protecting non-teaching administrators," "26,000 students reassigned," '"Wacky Wednesday' PLT’s were implemented, without regard to their impact on families" and "mandatory year round schedules forced on thousands of families."

The new Wake County student assignment plan will lead to changes in how new schools are built and filled.

As shown in this handout from Tuesday's school board meeting, the plan would have elementary schools open K-3 instead of the current system of opening K-5. Middle schools would only open with sixth-grade instead of the current practice of also having seventh-grade. New high schools would still open with only ninth- and 10th-grades.

The schools would pick up their additional grades as the kids age up.

Wake County Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul is accusing school board candidate Heather Losurdo of not caring about schools and being guided by her ambition in requesting a runoff against incumbent Kevin Hill.

In a message today to party members, Paul writes about how the $150,000 that could be spent on holding the runoff "represents more than $3,000 per vote that separated Kevin Hill from the outright majority that would have closed the door on the contentious school board conflicts of the last several years."

Paul says that $150,000 "could pay the salary of school employees and teachers who are now being threatened with layoffs due to budget cuts. It could mean the difference between a hard working janitor cleaning the classroom or a teacher having to pull double duty and cleaning after teaching all day."