It might not produce any changes in the proposed bell schedules for Wake County schools this fall, but look for a discussion Feb. 21 on the impact of school start times on high school students.

School board member John Tedesco wants staff to talk about the sleep study research that indicates it's better to have later start times for older students.

Also look for a discussion on traffic concerns raised by school board member Jim Martin that later start times for high school students could be dangerous.

Wake County school board member Jim Martin flexed some of his political muscle at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Martin got the board to amend the plan to reallocate $130 million in unused bond money to cover the cost of design work for renovations to Athens Drive High's stadium. Staff is projecting they'll have $500,000 left over, which Martin noted would cover the design costs for the stadium.

The design work would jump start the renovation project. The actual funding for the $7.4 million in renovation work would come from the next bond issue.

Late Tuesday night, the Wake County school board voted 5-4 along party lines to pass on first reading the reinstatement of the student achievement, finance, policy and facilities committees.

Under the vote, which will still require a second reading for adoption, the committees would be reevaluated after six months. Left unresolved Tuesday was the future of the economically disadvantaged student performance task force.

Democratic school board chairman Kevin Hill proposed keeping the ED task force but rolling it into the student achievement committee. That proposal drew opposition from Republican school board member John Tedesco, who has headed the ED task force since its formation in 2010.

Can the Wake County school system sell the public on the merits of the bell schedule changes for this fall?

As noted in today's article, school staff said the proposal would help Wake avoid $10 million in costs and revenue losses this fall. But school board members said it would take community outreach to explain it to parents why they're being asked to make changes of more than an hour in some cases.

"If we don't (do community outreach), we’re going to get thousands of calls and emails about this," said school board member John Tedesco.

UPDATE

Click here for the handout from the board meeting. It lists the proposed bell schedules.

Wake has fixed some errors with the individual school times from yesterday's handout. I've replaced the link with the new one.

It's late so I'll keep it short.

The first reading of the revised middle school math placement policy was tabled Tueseay night at the suggestion of Wake County school board member John Tedesco. This came in an attempt to block a motion by school board member Jim Martin that would have nixed the policy entirely in favor of forming a working group to evaluate and stop tracking issues.

Martin questioned the need to have a districtwide policy on math placement when one doesn't exist for other subjects. He also criticized the use of the 70 percent EVAAS probability of success as the floor for placing students,

By passing Tedesco's motion, it moves the discussion of the policy to the next board meeting. Ruth Steidinger, senior director of middle school programs, said the middle schools will do math placement this month for the upcoming school year and need guidance soon on what criteria to use.

The Wake County school board meeting is running past 11 p.m. despite an effort to adjourn the meeting.

Pursuant to board policy, board chairman Kevin Hill said he needed a vote to continue the meeting past 11 p.m. He said they need to continue because staff had time-sensitive items.

School board member Debra Goldman then made a motion to adjourn the meeting. That vote took priority but was defeated with only Goldman, Chris Malone and Deborah Prickett supporting adjournment.

With the motion defeated, the board voted to continue with the meeting.

UPDATE

A second motion from Goldman at 11:11 p.m. to adjourn the meeting was also defeated.

A third motion from Goldman at 11:18 p.m. was defeated.

With all business done, the motion passed to adjourn at 11:20 p.m.

Wake County school leaders announced tonight the appointments and transfers of seven permanent and seven interim principals.

Scott Lyons was named principal of Enloe High in Raleigh with a salary of $99,666. He's been principal of Leesville Road High since 2009. He used to be an assistant principal at Enloe.

Christopher McCabe will be principal of Heritage Middle in Wake Forest with a salary of $93,303. He's been principal of North Forest Pines Drive Elementary since 2007.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR BIO SHEETS

The Wake County school board voted tonight to acquire two sites to relieve overcrowding at Garner and Panther Creek high schools.

The school system will pay $1.75 million to buy the Garner Towne Square 10 theater, located at 2600 Timber Drive. The theater, which closed in 2010, will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for the nearby Garner High.

The school system will pay $12.38 per square feet to lease a 77,574-sq. ft. office building at 3700 Pleasant Church Grove Road in Morrisville. It would be a six-year lease, starting July 1, with a 3 percent annual escalation. The building will be converted to operate as an off-campus ninth-grade center for Panther Creek High.

The Wake County school board voted tonight to extend Superintendent Tony Tata’s contract by six months.

Tata’s contract will now run through December 2014. School board chairman Kevin Hill said the extension will align Tata’s contract with his annual evaluation cycle.

Tata was hired as superintendent in December 2010.

The three new Democratic Wake County school board members all said tonight they're still planning on making changes to the new student assignment plan.

“I want the public to know that it is my intention and that of several other board members to monitor the data as it comes in,” said new Democratic board member Susan Evans. “We will respond to things that we feel warrant immediate response.”

Evans, speaking during the board comment section of the meeting, expressed frustration that they ran out of time to discuss the assignment plan during the work session.