Is the Wake County school system's new Office of Equity and Diversity needed to address equity issues in the district?

During the budget discussion Tuesday, school board member Tom Benton argued that the new office is needed to bring focus on the "many, many equity issues" in the district. But school board member Deborah Prickett questioned the need for the office, saying it was a "last-minute sort of addition."

The board spent a lot of time at the April 23 budget work session talking about creating the Office of Equity and Diversity. The board directed staff to figure out a way to add it to the budget.

The Wake County school board has picked four semi-finalists tonight for the position of superintendent.

The names are being kept secret. But school board chairman Keith Sutton said they’re all veteran educators who are currently serving in leadership positions in their respective school districts, ranging in size from 30,000 students to close to Wake’s size of 150,000 students.

“They’re all highly qualified, very capable of running the district,” Sutton said. “They stood out above the rest.”

The Wake County school board is now meeting in closed session to determine who will make the list of semi-finalists for the superintendent's position.

A total of 25 people applied but two later withdrew. The board will review the list of seven applicants recommended by the search firm of McPherson & Jacobson and the 16 other candidates.

School board chairman Keith Sutton said his goal is to end the meeting with a maximum of six semi-finalists.

I'm looking for parents of students in the Wake County Public School System whose children previously attended schools in other states.

I'd like to hear how you think Wake compares to your former school system, whether it's good, bad or the same. Please contact me at khui@newsobserver.com with a number I can call you back on.

The revised student assignment policy drew some widely differing reaction Tuesday between the Wake County school board majority and minority board member Deborah Prickett.

As noted in today's article, policy supporters praised the revised policy with its balancing of student achievement, stability, proximity and operational efficiency as something "that anybody in this country would be proud of."

But Prickett charged it was a policy aimed at low-income and low-performing students that would move them out of their neighborhoods and wouldn't really help them succeed academically.

If all goes to schedule, the Wake County school board should end the day with semi-finalists chosen for the superintendent's position.

The board will meet in closed session to review all the applications, including the ones recommended by the search firm of McPherson & Jacobson. The board will attempt to lock down the semi-finalists so that interviews can be conducted next week.

The names of the semi-finalists will be confidential.

Here's a quick recap of today's Wake County school board meeting.

The board voted 7-1 to approve on first reading the revised student assignment policy. Board member Deborah Prickett was the lone dissenter. John Tedesco was absent tonight.

The board also voted, apparently unanimously, to approve a budget request asking for an $8.3 million increase from the county. Prickett questioned creating the Office of Equity and Diversity.

The board also gave initial thumbs up approval to a revised $940 million list of school bond projects. Staff was able to come up with money to fund more renovations, particularly in Garner, by making some cuts, using projected proceeds from sale of school properties and using $43 million in school bonds being issued by the county.

Student assignment, the school budget and the bond issue are among the items the Wake County school board will deal with today.

The board will hold the first of two scheduled votes on this revised student assignment policy that would incorporate as goals minimizing concentrations of low-performing and low-income students at schools.

On a related diversity note, the school board will vote on approving a budget that asks county commissioners for an $8.3 million increase in funding. This request includes $218,000 to create an Office of Equity and Diversity, which could elicit questions from some commissioners.

During the work session, the board will continue to refine the list of projects that would be funded out of this fall's proposed school bond referendum. One thing to see is if board members call for revising the original staff list to cut the number of new schools in order to increase funding on renovation projects.

John Hood is disputing that the Wake County school board redistricting bill is an attack by the Republican majority in the General Assembly against local representation.

In this column today in the Carolina Journal, Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, notes the bills that would transfer control of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and Asheville's water systems to regional authorities.

Instead of being an attack on localities, Hood writes that both bills are the legislature's attempt to "intervene in disputes among several different, duly elected localities." He then ties that back into Senate Bill 325, which is supported by the the county commissioners but is opposed by the school board.

Former Wake County Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope isn't pinning most of the blame for the 2011 loss of the GOP majority on the Wake County school board on Democrats.

Instead, as noted in today's article in the Wilmington Star-News, "Pope says the Republicans lost the majority mainly because of intraparty discord among members of the board." Pope, now running for state Republican Party chairman, says he's hoping this kind of discord won't repeat itself at the statewide level.

The article doesn't go into detail on what the discord might be. But things you could point to include the fighting between Debra Goldman and her fellow Republican school board members.