There's been some fallout from a December 2009 poll on the Wake County school system that was conducted on behalf of the conservative Civitas Institute.

Facing South, the online magazine of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies, is reporting today that the Georgia pollster hired by Civitas has been fined $10,000 by the state. The pollster got in trouble for not identifying itself during the robocalls.

The problem for the firm, Rosetta Stone Communications, is that one of the people it called was Sue Sturgis, an editor for the magazine. She filed a complaint with the N.C. Department of Justice that led to the fine.

The poll, conducted shortly after the new board majority had taken office, had found opposition to mandatory year-round schools and the diversity policy.

For you numbers crunchers, here's additional information on Wake County year-round and traditional-calendar acceptances by base school

The most year-round applicants by base elementary schools this year was at Wildwood Forest Elementary, where 67 of 109 applicants were accepted. That's compared to 52 acceptances out of 78 applicants last year.

The most year-round applicants by base middle schools was again Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle, where 242 of 265 applicants got accepted Last year, 252 of 282 applicants were accepted.

The issue of whether siblings could be accommodated on Track 4 decided which Wake County year-round schools would make the move to a single track for the next two school years.

Click here for this handout that shows how the 14 underutilized year-round schools were evaluated by staff. Inability to accommodate siblings was cited for eight of the nine schools as to why a move to a single-track year-round calendar wasn't considered feasible.

Laura Evans, senior director for Growth and Planning, said inability to accommodate siblings reflected challenges caused by moving multi-track year-round schools to a single-track calendar.

More details to come later but Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is recommending today that Alston Ridge, Highcroft, Lake Myra, Rand Road and Timber Drive elementary schools make the change to single-track year-round.

Tata said the schools would make the move as part of a two-year pilot that he estimated could save Wake $400,000. The schools are expected to all move to track 4.

Tata says they'll take steps like making allowances for families who would have been on tracks 1, 2 and 3 who had already planned to be in school in July. Track 4 starts in late July so they'll provide a trackout program.

UPDATE

The changes to all five schools were unanimously approved.

Year-round schools, student discipline and the budget aren't the only issues on today's Wake County school board agenda.

The work session that begins at 3 p.m. will include Superintendent Tony Tata giving school-by-school recommendations whether the 14 underutilized multi-track year-round schools should move to a single track for 2011-12. The formal vote will take place during the regular meeting that begins at 5:30 p.m.

You also have the interesting situation in which during the work session Tata will talk about proposed changes to the student transfer policy as a result of the probe into school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's case.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

Also during today's press conference, Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata touched on the school budget, complying with AdvancED's findings, the 14 year-round school changes and bus transportation.

Tata said today that he, and possibly some school board members, will meet next week with Wake County members of the state legislature to press the case for not cutting education funding by more than 5 percent. He was not happy that the state House is looking at an 8.8 percent cut.

“These are very significant cuts and we can’t balance the budget on the backs of our children,” Tata said.

The trend of more Wake County families getting into magnet schools since the end of the old diversity policy is continuing.

School officials say 4,720 out of 8,476 applicants, or 55.7 percent, were accepted into magnet schools for the 2011-12 school year. Last year, 4,450 out of 8,732 applicants were accepted, or 51 percent.

A small part of this year's increase can be attributed to the opening of the new Wake NC State STEM Early College. But that's only 56 kids.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is opposing a proposal to allow up to 14 under-enrolled Wake County multi-track year-round schools to switch to a single track for the 2011-12 school year.

In a press release today, GSIW says the decision should be postponed until after the new comprehensive long-term student assignment plan is developed. The new plan wouldn't go into effect before the 2012-13 school year.

“A piecemeal approach to assignment is precisely what got previous Wake School Boards into trouble,” said GSIW Chair Yevonne Brannon in the press release. “As Superintendent Tata and his staff are currently working on a long-term plan, it seems logical to look at the bigger picture before impacting overall school capacity. We are sensitive to the desire of parents who wish to have their children on a single calendar, but we don’t want projected growth to cause another upheaval when we need room for new students.”

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta issued a call for help in this fall's elections during last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

Most of Margiotta's speech focused on the actions initiated by the board since December 2009. But Margiotta closed his speech by pointing to the stakes for this fall's school board elections when he will be running for re-election while also hoping to pick up at least one of the Democratic seats.

"I think it's important that we recognize that the campaign from those that will be out there again will be an attempt to return to the old practices of moving kids around for the sake of socioeconomic diversity," Margiotta said. "And we can not go back to those programs. It's important that we elect candidates that are committed and will stay with their commitments and remain committed and follow through with the programs we've been able to initiate."

Classes are reopening Tuesday for the five Wake County schools who were closed today because of this weekend's storm.

School officials are warning that some bus service might still be disrupted. Click here for more information.

The schools will make up today on April 30, a Saturday. That's pretty common for the multi-track year-round schools but no sot much for modified-calendar schools like Moore Square Middle.