Membership of the new student assignment committee

The first meeting of the Wake County school board's new student assignment committee has now been set for Thursday.

School board member John Tedesco, the committee chairman, said the meeting will focus on looking at a handful of node changes for the 2010-11 school year. This includes requests from Brier Creek families to be reassigned to the new Mills Park Middle School and to stay at Panther Creek High.

The meeting will take place as the final community members of the committee are being finalized. The membership so far represents a diverse mix of people, some of whom will be well known on the blog.

Each board member was asked to nominate a person. Tedesco said that rather than have a formal board vote, he forwarded the names to all the board members to see if they were ok with them.

In District 1, Chris Malone nominated Robert Bridges, a former Wake Forest town commissioner who had served with Malone on that board. Bridges is the parent of a current student and a Democrat, Malone noted.

In District 3, Kevin Hill nominated Sue King.

In District 5, Anne McLaurin nominated Anne Cooper. a parent and supporter of the diversity policy.

In District 6, Carolyn Morrison nominated Anne Sherron, her board advisory council chairwoman and a member of the old staff student assignment  committee. At the Dec. 1 board meeting, Sherron accused the new majority of acting "like a bull in a china shop" with all the new resolutions that were added at the board table.

In District 7, Deborah Prickett nominated Eric Blau, a Leesville parent and regular on the WakeEd blog. He's one of the numbers-crunching critics of the diversity policy and the current method of student assignment.

In District 8, Ron Margiotta nominated Ann Rouleau, a Western Wake parent who frequently showed up at the meetings of the old board to question whether the diversity policy is actually helping  low-income students.

In District 9, Debra Goldman nominated Barbara Walsh, a Cary parent who helped successfully fight last year the reassignment of the Churchill Downs, MacGregor Downs, Royal Ridge and Woods of Kildaire neighborhoods out of Apex High to Athens Drive High.

Still up in the air are Keith Sutton's pick for District 4 and Tedesco's pick for District 2. Tedesco said he's waiting first to see who Sutton chooses before making his selection.

It's this group that will spend the next 9 to 15 months, assuming the community schools resolution passes Tuesday, drawing up the new system for student assignment in Wake.

Click here to compare with the membership of the old student assignment commitee that had advised staff. 

The meeting will run from 4-6 p.m. in the board conference room, 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

UPDATE

The final two commitee members have been selected.

In District 4, Sutton nominated Nicole Sullivan, Manager of Office of Research and Planning for the state Department of Corrections' Division of Prisons. Sullivan is also a member of the Southeast Raleigh Assembly.

In District 2, Tedesco nominated David Williams, a Garner parent and member of the old staff student assignment committee. Williams is also a member of Greater Garner Advocates, the group of civic and business leaders in Garner that had orginally backed Cathy Truitt in the election.

The meeting is still set to take place Thursday even though Tedesco's voice is nearly gone.

I had the wrong Sue King. It's not the former principal of Timber Drive Elementary although she too is a retired Wake principal. She has a son at Sanderson High.