Here's a quick recap of today's press conference with Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

The the deadline for the online simulation of the blue plan has been extended from Monday until next Friday. Tata said he's gotten 10,260 responses but wants 12,000. Outreach events will be held Sunday and Monday in Southeast Raleigh and Eastern Wake, where the response has been lower than the rest of the county.

Tata has agreed to a request from the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, to meet with him about the new student assignment plan. But Tata is challenging Barber to tell him what the NAACP has done to help Wake recruit more minority teachers and principals and what the civil rights group has done to help the district do community outreach with parents.

UPDATE

Click here to view the letter Tata sent today to Barber.

Tuesday's board meeting agenda has Tata recommending that the bell schedules be changed for the 2011-12 school year to add in 25 more hours of instruction while also seeking a state waiver not to add in the five days. The state budget called for schools to add both five days and 25 hours.

Wake County Commissioner Tony Gurley talked today about his bid for lieutenant governor, this year's school budget and the upcoming fall school board elections.

In an interview today on the Rick and Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Gurley said the Wake County Republican Party "is very excited" about this year's school board elections in which five of the nine seats are on the ballot.  Without mentioning Debra Goldman by name, Gurley talked about increasing the GOP board majority in light of how fractured things have gotten.

"I believe that people were a little concerned when Republicans elected a majority during the last election but there was a little fracturing of that alliance and so everyone is seeing that you can't count on a one-person majority always holding together," Gurley said. "People are very excited about the potential of expanding on that majority that we already have."

In a case of good budget news, the Wake County school system will get $3 million in fine money as part of the settlement in a tax fraud case.

As noted in today's online article by Anne Blythe, two South Carolina cigarette distributors agreed to pay $6.5 million in restitution and fines to settle a protracted and complicated tax fraud case. This includes $3 million in court fines, which routinely go to schools.

The case was prosecuted in Raleigh so the money goes to Wake schools.

Wake County school board members insist they're being serious when they float ideas such as charging fees for students to play sports, ride the school bus or go off campus for lunch.

As noted in today's article, school board members at Wednesday's finance committee meeting said it's time to talk about the unthinkable to help deal with the budget crunch. Board members who were present Wednesday were preparing for the public backlash.

“These are clearly things – riding the bus and athletics – we expect to be free and provided by our school system,” said school board member Keith Sutton, chairman of the finance committee. “But in a tight time such as is this, is this something worthy of considering? Is this something that the public is willing to pay to save teachers’ jobs?”

UPDATE

Tedesco is also suggesting looking at establishing a formal foundation to get contributions. It's an idea that was also discussed earlier this year by school board member Keith Sutton, chairman of the finance committee.

Year two for the Wake County school board members who took office last December could be even more challenging than their first year.

As noted in today's article, the upcoming year has a wide range of big issues for the school board to face that go beyond student assignment. The board will also have to hire a permanent superintendent, adopt new board member districts, work out the details of the next bond issue, deal with the U.S. Department of Education and AdvancED investigations and prepare for the elections.

But the one thing board members on the various factions can agree upon is that the budget crisis will be the top issue over the next year.

Newly released figures today show that the Wake County school system would lose hundreds of teachers and potentially the vast majority of its teacher assistants to help make up for possible state budget cuts.

The state Department of Public Instruction was asked by Gov. Bev Perdue to draw up how it would cut funding by 5 and 10 percent to help close a $3.5 billion revenue shortfall next year. A 5 percent to Wake, or $51.6 million, would cost the state's largest school system 429 classroom teachers and 73 instructional support positions.

The impact would be especially hard on teacher assistants, with Wake losing $20 million, or 37 percent of the state funding it now receives. In that scenario, the state would only fund teacher assistants for kindergarten, first grade and half of the second-grade classes.

The State Department of Public Instruction is painting a grim picture of potential budget cuts affecting schools both across North Carolina and in Wake County.

As noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, the potential budget cuts laid out by DPI would result in the loss statewide of 5,300 teachers, elimination of thousands of teacher assistant positions and increases in class sizes. With Wake getting between 9-10 percent of the state's education funding, it wouldn't be pretty locally.

To help close a projected $3.5 billion revenue shortfall next year, Gov. Bev Perdue asked most state agencies to draw up plans for 5, 10 and 15 percent cuts. She only asked DPI to draw up 5 and 10 percent cuts for education funding but it's still pretty bleak.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta took another jab today at vice chairwoman Debra Goldman and also ripped into Commissioner Stan Norwalk for talking about teacher layoffs and opposing more charter schools.

In an interview today on WPTF's "Bill LuMaye Show," Margiotta accused Goldman of "walking away from her commitments" with her votes killing the zone plan and adopting Kevin Hill's student assignment proposal.

But the majority of that initial interview was on the looming budget crisis and the inevitability of layoffs next year. Margiotta again accused Norwalk, who was also interviewed today by LuMaye, of using "scare tactics" by saying that 2,000 teachers face being laid off.

Wake County school administrators painted their grimmest budget picture yet for next school year as they warned today that layoffs are inevitable and that deep classroom cuts will have to be considered.

The school system is facing the loss of more than $100 million in funding next year from the loss of federal stimulus dollars and the state facing a $3 billion revenue shortfall. With salaries accounting for more than 80 percent of Wake’s $1.2 billion operating budget, Chief Business Officer David Neter said layoffs are “inevitable” based on the scope of the funding cuts.

Neter said Wake has been fortunate compared to other school districts in that it hasn’t had to make classroom cuts that are as deep. He said that could end next year as Wake is out of wiggle room.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Wake County school board member John Tedesco and County Commissioner Stan Norwalk dealt with the possibility of mass teacher layoffs Wednesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF.

Tedesco, whose interview came first, joined school board chairman Ron Margiotta in criticizing Norwalk for saying 2,000 teachers could be laid off next year. But Tedesco also acknowledged that the financial challenges facing the school district next year means some teacher jobs could be lost.

Tedesco was specifically asked if there's "real truth" in Norwalk's statements about the layoffs.