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Chris Augustine was the lone candidate to file today to run in this fall's school board elections.

Augustine, 43, a self-employed business owner from Cary who lives near West Lake Elementary school, became the fourth person to run for the District 2 board seat. He's talking about reforming the system to give teachers more control over education.

"Teachers unions and school boards are taking away from what students need to learn," Augustine said.

Wake Democrats and Republicans are getting into the act for this fall's school board races.

Wake County Republican Party Chairman Claude Pope fired the first shot in April when he announced the GOP "will vigorously support School Board candidates who actively support the concept of neighborhood schools."

The Wake County Democratic Party is gearing up as well now to back candidates who would largely preserve current school board policies.

CORRECTION

Changed Prickett's voter status to unaffiliated from independent.

The District 7 race is getting more crowded with Jerry Ballan the lone candidate to file today for the school board.

Ballan, a securities principal/certified financial planner, became the third candidate in District 7. It looks like Ballan is positioning himself between Deborah Prickett, a board critic. and Karen Simon, a supporter of school policies.

"I'm not pro-SES (socioeconomic status) but we have to find a way to work around it to find something better," Ballan said. "You can't throw the baby out with the bath water on the first day."

A woman who lost to Rosa Gill for a seat on the Wake County school board in 1999 now hopes to replace her.

Doris Burke, a retired educator, is the only applicant so far to fill the vacancy caused by Gill taking a seat in the General Assembly. Gill had beaten Burke to win her first term on the school board.

"I would welcome this opportunity to continue to help meet the elementary and secondary educational needs of Wake County by serving in this position," Burke wrote in her cover letter.

It's not your imagination if your kid's year-round class size looks larger than normal.

As noted in today's article, some year-round schools have classes of more than 30 students while others are in the high 20s. The state's budget shortfall is being blamed for much of the problem for the larger class sizes.

"We don't have a lot of flexibility with staffing as we have had in the past," said Shelly Watson, principal of Green Elementary School in North Raleigh.

A new Wake County PTA Council press release goes a bit further than just reminding parents about the new weekly early dismissals.

The stated goal of today's press release is to remind parents that the Wednesday early dismissals start tomorrow. But the press release also goes to praise how creating more time for professional learning communities "will help our schools meet the board’s goal of having all of our children achieve high growth and graduate on time, prepared for the future."

Sarah Martin, president of the Wake County PTA Council, was a member of the time committee that recommended the changes to the school board.

Will a large candidate field help Horace Tart's bid to stay on the school board?

That's Tart's thinking as it looks like there could be four or more candidates vying for the District 2 seat that includes Fuquay-Varina, Garner and Willow Spring.

Tart, a builder and developer, likes his chances because three of his opponents will probably be from Garner while he's from Fuquay-Varina. Sectional loyalties have been a longtime issue in District 2.

Will the mystery candidate please step forward for the District 9 school board seat?

Joe Ciulla, a member of the steering committee for Wake Schools Community Alliance, said they have agreed on an endorsement for the District 9 seat that includes much of Cary. But he said they're not announcing the endorsement until that person announces his/her candidacy.

This means the endorsement won't be going to Ray Martin, a Chapel Hill teacher, or Lois Nixon, an environmental educator. Both have announced their plans to run for the school board.