The Wake County school system's PR campaign to retain control over school construction, maintenance and ownership is underway.

The video highlights the arguments that the district and its supporters have made about the experience Wake has in school construction that the county doesn't possess. The video says 42 new schools and 62 major renovations have been done since 2001 in "a process which requires careful planning, thoughtful oversight and responsible fiscal management."

The video notes how schools are designed with educational specifications in mind and that the district has won nearly 50 school construction awards since 1991.

Wake County Commissioners are scheduled to vote today on taking over the acquisition of new school sites from the school board.

Based on this handout, it would still be up to the school system to identify target rings for where to look for new school sites. But it would be the county that would take the lead in finding site, in consultation with school staff.

If a potential site is found outside the target rings, it would be brought to the school system promptly for approval before any further county staff action is taken.

Should the Wake County school board ask for more money at a time when the state and county are facing big budget cuts?

During today's school board meeting, staff reviewed how the state Department of Public Instruction's budget proposal could result in $39 million to $71 million in cuts to Wake. Combine this with a drop in per-pupil funding if the county commissioners give the school board the same amount for the second year in a row despite student growth.

“We’re looking at academic genocide,” said school board member Kevin Hill. “We’re looking at going back 25-30 years.”

As expected, the new Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 this evening to rescind the resolution expressing concern about resegregation of the school system.

Paul Coble, newly elected chairman of the board of commissioners, said it was time to remove the "political hammer" that was used by the prior Democratic majority to go after the school board for eliminating the diversity policy.

Coble said that commissioners should have run for the school board if they had wanted to get into student assignment.

UPDATE

By a 4-3 vote, commissioners approved adding lifting or eliminating the cap on charter schools to the board's statewide legislative goals. It was a straight party-line vote after Norwalk unsuccessfully added an amendment saying charter schools should reflect the diversity of the community.

Click here for today's article of the meeting by Thomas Goldsmith.

The new Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners is planning on making a major splash at their first meeting on Monday.

As noted in today's article, commissioners are planning on reversing some decisions made by the prior Democratic majority. Two revotes that affect the school system will be rescinding the resolution on school resegregation and restoring greater oversight over the school budget.

Tony Gurley, who will likely be replaced by Paul Coble on Monday as the new chairman, said they're correcting the "mistakes" made by Democrats who've been in the majority since 2009.

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.

Claude Pope, chairman of the Wake County Republican Party, is stepping down from his post to pursue business opportunities.

In a press release late Monday announcing the news, Pope pointed to various accomplishments since he became chairman in March 2009. For instance, Pope notes "we elected a majority on the School Board in 2009" and "a majority on the County Commission this year."

Tony Gurley, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, was effusive in his praise today of school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

As noted in an online article by Thomas Goldsmith, Gurley singled out Margiotta during today's State of the County address. Gurley said the boards of education and commissioners continue to work closely together.

“A great deal of credit for this excellent relationship must go to Ron Margiotta,” Gurley said.

It looks like the Wake County school board's budget could go back to getting greater scrutiny from the board of commissioners.

As noted in an article today in the Raleigh Public Record, Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, wants to bring back the "purpose and function" budgeting requirements for the school system. Gurley says that school board chairman Ron Margiotta agrees with the idea, which would be a major change from how prior boards viewed the requirement.

Under purpose and function, the school system budgeted the amount it received from the county into several broad categories. The school system had to get the approval of commissioners if it changed any of the categories by more than 15 percent.

Wake County commissioners Stan Norwalk and Tony Gurley got into a tussle Monday over the possibility of teacher layoffs in next year's schools budget.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Norwalk warned that the school system might have to fire as many as 2,000 teachers to make up for expected cuts in state funding and the loss of federal stimulus funding it received for the current year.

Norwalk got an angry response from Gurley, the board chairman, when Norwalk proposed that the county sell unused land and convert the proceeds into operating expenses.