The Wake County school board approved tonight the concept of creating a new career and technical education high school.

The vote was on the concept only because the opening of the school has been pushed back a year to the 2014-15 school year. Staff says the proposed location at the  Coca-Cola Bottling Facility on 2200 S. Wilmington St. won't be ready for the 2013-14 school year.

The details for the program, such as which grades would be served, how students will be selected and whether it would be a half-day or full-day program, still haven’t been finalized yet. School administrators will come back to the school board with details on funding and the programming at the school.

The Coalition of Concerned Concerned Citizens for African American Children is backing creation of a new career and technical education high school for Wake County, but is also saying they "are concerned about how this program is being designed and implemented."

In this press release sent late Monday, the CCCAAC questions whether the former Coca-Coca Bottling factory on Wilmington Street is the right location. The group asks "would the Gov. Morehead site be better, or perhaps a site closer to eastern Wake?"

Using the Gov. Morehead School could prevent it from also housing students from the single-sex leadership academies, a program that CCCAAC has opposed.

Student assignment, the new vocational/CTE high school and the school budget are among the issues that the Wake County school board will deal with today.

The school board is scheduled to vote on the budget May 1 so today's work session discussion will likely indicate what direction the spending document will take. Staff has said they'd want to know ahead of May 1 if the board wants any major changes made to the proposal.

The board will also discuss during the work session before voting in the regular meeting whether to approve partnering with Wake Technical Community College to start the new career and technical education high school for the 2013-14 school year.

But what will likely generate the most media attention today is the discussion on the student assignment plan, including adopting the transfer policy and any changes to the plan itself.

More to come later, but it looks like they'll scale back the grades that would be eligible to attend the proposed new Wake County career and technical education high school.

After receiving this presentation (check the end of this handout), several Wake County school board members said they'd support limiting the school to juniors and seniors and possibly sophomores. Board members said it's not realistic to expect that freshmen would be ready to decide on a track that would send them to the workforce and not college.

Staff wants the school board to vote on the proposal on April 24. This would allow them to have the school ready for the 2013-14 school year.

One question that still needs to be resolved is whether the school should be a full-day standalone program or split into morning and afternoon sessions so two different groups could attend.

The official public hearing on Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata's budget proposal will take place tomorrow after all.

An earlier district media advisory had said the hearing would be at the March 27 school board meeting. But a revised district media advisory and the official board agenda lists the public hearing for Tuesday.

During the work session, the board will receive a "school innovation update," which is the catch phrase for a presentation on housing the leadership academies at Peace University and the Gov. Morehead School for the Blind and the CTE high school at the former Coca-Cola bottling factory.

The discussion could result in the leases being added to the regular meeting agenda.

More to come later, but details were unveiled today for a proposed vocational high school that would be run under a partnership of the Wake County school system and Wake Technical Community College.

The career and technical education high school would open in August 2013 and offer courses in areas such as air conditioning, heating, refrigeration, biopharmaceuticals, collision repair, cosmetology, plumbing, game development and welding. Pending an approved lease, it would be located at the former Coca-Cola Bottling Facility at 2200 South Wilmington Street in Raleigh.

In addition to working with high school students, the facility would offer evening technical courses for adults.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR HANDOUT ABOUT CTE HIGH SCHOOL

School funding and the long-proposed career technical/vocational high school are on the agenda for today's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

Superintendent Tony Tata and Wake Tech Community College President Stephen Scott will talk about a potential career and technical education high school partnership. The idea of beefing up the vocational programs for high school students in Wake has been talked about for a long time.

After getting an update on the county's economic situation, both boards will discuss Tata's budget proposal. It's not expected that Tata's proposed $8.8 million increase from the county will get a warm reception from the commissioners.

You may also hear discussion about when a school construction bond issue might be put on the ballot in 2013.

The Wake Education Partnership is providing details on the presentation that Wake County school board member John Tedesco will make tomorrow on his vision for the new community-based school assignment zones.

In the latest issue of In Context, the WEP's weekly e-newsletter, the group said today that Tedesco has been talking about dividing the county into five regions and 18 assignment zones. While families would likely attend schools in their zone, they'd also be encouraged in some cases to go to schools outside their region.

The WEP says that Tedesco's presentation talks about keeping many of the current magnet schools with possibly a few new ones. There would also be new schools such as “themed academies” and vocational/technical training programs.

By the end of Tuesday, the Wake County school board could oust Supt. Del Burns, approve a resolution calling for community-based school assignments, approve calendar conversions and name the Civitas Institute as a provider for board member training.

As noted in today's article, Tuesday is looking to be a long day for the school board. One definite hot topic is the resolution establishing a board directive for community-based school assignments.

You can essentially view it as the blueprint for the direction the new board majority wants to take.

The future of the magnet school program could be the main holdup for implementing a new community-based/neighborhood school assignment plan.

As noted in today's article, Wake County school board member John Tedesco is the pointman for developing a new assignment plan over the next year that would divide the county into different assignment zones. Each zone would have magnet schools, year-round schools and traditional-calendar schools.

Fellow new board member Debra Goldman said she supports going to community-based schools. But she's concerned about Tedesco's potential overhaul of the magnet program.