Do you think there's any significance in the timing of the release of the new student enrollment projections?

As noted in today's article, the projections weren't released in the normal way. Traditionally, they've been released at a joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners.

Instead, they were released at the school board's facilities committee meeting.

Tuesday's discussion about Fox Road Elementary highlights the challenges and limits that the current assignment policy faces in Wake.

For those who don't want to read the whole post, I'll run off some of the main points from Tuesday's facilities committee meeting. Staff is reviewing the draw areas for magnet and year-round schools, which could affect where current and future application students will go.

For diversity reasons, some magnet schools were deliberately left with empty seats this school year. For diversity reasons, an effort to encourage more low-income students to apply for year-round schools may have backfired, at least at Fox Road Elementary.

This month's school board election in District 7 pretty much has shown that more people opposed mandatory year-round schools and the calendar conversions than supported them.

Concerned and Committed Lessville Parents and BiggerPicture4Wake had both claimed they represented the silent majority. But as noted in today's North Raleigh News article, CCLP's side prevailed and now the question is when Leesville Road elementary and middle schools will go back to a traditional calendar.

The signs seem to be pointing to both schools abandoning the year-round calendar for the 2010-11 school year.

The question on the minds of a lot of people is whether the new school board will live up to campaign promises about neighborhood schools, year-round schools and ending the diversity policy.

Some people are anxiously hoping for the changes to come while others are dreading the future. But as noted in today's article, the new board members aren't sure yet how they'll turn their promises into reality so they're urging parents to give them some time.

"We haven't had neighborhood schools in such a long time that we have to see what we have in our neighborhoods," said new board member Deborah Prickett.

The Wake Schools Community Alliance has weighed in with campaign mailers for all for its endorsed school board candidates.

Each mailer mentions that only 54 percent of Wake's low-income students are graduating from high school and that the district didn't make Adequate Yearly progress under No Child Left Behind in 2008-09. (Wake is one of the state's 60 districts that are in school improvement status for not meeting NCLB for at least two years in a row.)

But most of the mailers also mention material specific to that individual district.

We're reaching what could be a case of put up or shut up about year-round schools.

As noted in today's article, voters can choose between a slate of school board candidates who support or oppose the current practice of assigning students to year-round schools. A sweep by critics could lead to more reversed conversions and even a return to having mostly voluntary applications into year-round schools.

But for those who claim that parents and voters accept year-round schools as they are, the election results could prove their case as well.

Deborah Prickett and Karen Simon pretty much took 180s from each other during this morning's District 7 Wake school board candidate forum.

Prickett repeatedly found ways to mention her support for neighborhood schools as a way to promote stability and improve academic performance. LIke the other WSCA-backed candidates, Prickett repeatedly pointed to Wake's 54.6 percent graduation rate for low-income students to attack the diversity policy.

"There is overwhelming evidence that the diversity policy isn’t working in Wake," Prickett said. "Too many poor and minority students are not graduating."

Did the Wake Education Partnership cross the line in its latest newsletter and inappropriately influence the school board elections?

As noted in today's article, that's alleged in the complaint filed late Friday with the state Board of Elections by Joe Ciulla. He alleges that the statements in the Partnership's newsletter, In Context, violate the group's non-profit status.

"It's far beyond their place to make false statements in support of their candidates," Ciulla said

The Wake Education Partnership is weighing in on the school board races.

In this week's edition of In Context, the Partnership takes on the issues of year-round schools, construction costs and the graduation rate for low-income students. Those issues have come up at the forums sponsored by the group.

District 2 school board candidate John Tedesco has fired back at opponent Cathy Truitt for her recent attack ads accusing him of being a pawn of Ron Margiotta and Western Wake.

In a wide-ranging interview in this week's Garner Citizen, Tedesco called Truitt "divisive" and a "hypocrite." He claims that Truitt, should she be elected, will become "marginalized and ineffective" because of the ads.