More to come, but Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata presented a $1.25 billion operating budget today calling for an $8.8 million increase in funding from county commissioners.

Tata is also asking the school board to waive policy to allow him to use $28 million of the district's $34.5 million undesignated fund balance to help balance the budget. Board policy says Wake should only spend half of its rainy-day fund.

Tata said these steps will allow him to make up the $28 million loss in federal money that saved 500 teaching jobs this year. It will also allow Wake to offer teachers a 1-percent raise and a one-time $500 bonus to non-certified staff.

Tata said the budget also includes money to help schools become more attractive that were under chosen in the new student assignment plan.

The budget also calls for no layoffs.

UPDATE

Click here to view the budget proposal. Click here to provide feedback.

Is the Wake Count school system not getting the best bang for the buck by offering higher pay for teachers who have master's degrees or national board certification?

At Tuesday's school board work session, school administrators presented data showing the majority of Wake's high-performing teachers don't have either a master's degree or national board certification.

"An important point is we pay extra for the board-certified teachers and the advanced-degree teachers receive extra but the high-performing teachers receive nothing," said Superintendent Tony Tata.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

There's some good news, bad news and some assumptions being made in the new 2011-12 budget proposed today by Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.

Starting with the good news, Tata said his focus was to develop a budget that protects teachers and the classroom while setting conditions to make schools in high demand.

In terms of protecting teachers and the classrooms:

Here's some more details about the Renaissance Model being used to turn around the Wake County school system's four lowest performing elementary schools.

The quick description is that additional resources, including new technology, signing bonuses and performance bonuses, will be used at Barwell Road, Brentwood, Creech Road and Wilburn elementary schools. All four schools happen to have high poverty levels but they were chosen because their passing rates were below 60 percent on state exams last year.

The issue has gotten more attention this week because the school board voted Tuesday on a $950,000 a year bonus plan for the schools using federal Race to the Top money.

Today's Wake County school board meeting will be long and touch on a variety of topics, including reassignment, bonuses to work at high-poverty schools, redistricting, bell schedules and the magnet review.

The school board will vote today on the last three potential changes to the 2011-12 student reassignment plan, including moving school board member John Tedesco's neighborhood from Creech Road Elementary to Aversboro Elementary. The plan calls for splitting off the part of the node that includes his subdivision to go to Aversboro.

Also as noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the board will vote on setting aside $950,000 in Race to the Top grant money to provide signing bonuses and merit pay to teachers who will work at the four Renaissance schools: Barwell Road, Brentwood Road, Creech Road and Wilburn elementary schools.

Wake County Commissioner candidate Jack Nichols is making a direct effort to link incumbent Paul Coble to the student assignment controversy on the school board.

In this new campaign mailer, Nichols calls Coble, the GOP candidate, "Commissioner NO!" One example he cites is on education.

Nichols, the Democrat, says Coble "supports School Board's rash approach to student assignment and opposes impact fees on new growth to pay for school construction so property taxes can be kept in existing classrooms."

Both Wake County Commissioner Paul Coble and challenger Jack Nichols are talking about education in their campaign material.

In a television ad, Coble, a Republican, introduces himself and says "we all want our tax dollars spent wisely to strengthen the economy and create new jobs." He adds that "I've stopped over $40 million of wasteful spending and reinvested it in our schools to make them stronger."

In this campaign mailer, Nichols, a Democrat, asks "what's going on with education in Wake County?" He says he'll "restore sanity and civility." He promotes a "third way."

UPDATED WITH COLOR VERSION OF NICHOLS' MAILER

Here's the text of Coble's other TV ad:

"I'm Paul Coble. My daughters got a great education in the Wake County school system. In tough times I've worked hard to make sure our schools were a top priority and pass a budget that will help keep our schools strong. I'm Paul Coble."

Could a potential 30 percent cut in extra-duty pay cause many Wake County school athletic coaches to give up their jobs?

As noted in today's article by Tim Stevens, high school athletic directors are worried that they'll lose some coaches, especially young ones, if the cut is made. School administrators and board members have stressed that the cut is only a proposal.

The cut in extra-duty pay would save $2.2 million as part of a list of $20 million in potential cuts should the state slash education funding by 3 percent next year. Gov. Bev Perdue has proposed a 3.8 percent education cut.

The $20 million in new potential cuts proposed last week by Wake County school administrators got a pretty negative reaction from speakers at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, several speakers complained about the reduction in the number of media specialists and in the 30 percent cut in extra-duty pay. Board members and staff repeatedly stressed that the new round of cuts hasn't been approved yet.

But the board might run out of options, especially if state funding is cut by 5 percent.

It looks like most Wake County elementary schools will go back to operating on a 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. schedule for this fall.

During the committee of the whole meeting, the school board tentatively agreed to go with putting schools back on their 2008-09 schedule. This option will require spending an additional $748,000, likely by withholding some local raises for teachers and using money from vacant positions.

It came after multiple votes. The option that was tentatively adopted, and still needs to be formally approved this afternoon, was rejected at one point today.

UPDATE

The board voted 5-3 to approve the bell schedule. Kevin Hill, Debra Goldman and Chris Malone voted no. They'll pay for it for using the vacant positions and withholding some local teacher raises.