The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children and Martin Street Baptist Church are getting distinctly political tonight with a showing of a documentary attacking the Koch brothers.

In a Sunday email message on the CCCAAC listserv, CCCAAC President Calla Wright invites people to attend the screening of "Koch Brothers Exposed" that's being sponsored and shown at Martin Street Baptist.

Liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald has produced a series of short documentaries, now compiled into one long one, attacking the conservative Koch brothers. Greenwald came out with a film last year that tried to link the 2009 election of the Republican majority to the Wake County school board to Charles and David Koch.

The Wake County school board's facilities committee will meet today to try again to discuss planning for the next school construction program and bond issue.

The May 9 meeting was canceled because not enough school board members attended. A quorum is expected to attend today.

The wild card since that meeting is that Wake County staff have broached the idea of delaying a possible 2013 school bond issue by raising property 2.7 cents to pay for school construction needs. While the tax increase would guarantee money, it would likely produce less money than could be acquired if a bond issue passed.

How significant, if at all, is it that the gap has narrowed between the Wake County school system's graduation rate and the state average?

It was one of the points of contention during Tuesday's school board retreat as the board reviewed this draft strategic plan. Superintendent Tony Tata talked about how pg. 6 shows the state's graduation rate has risen since 2006 while it's dropped in Wake.

"That’s an alarming trend there where we are flat or marginally decreasing while the state is steadily increasing," Tata told the board.

Three Wake County school board members are requesting a revote on placing  Panther Creek High School's ninth-grade center at the site of the future Alston Ridge Middle School.

Republican board members Deborah Prickett, John Tedesco and Debra Goldman are requesting a discussion and revote on the location of the ninth-grade center at the June 5 meeting. They're citing the concerns raised by Cary Town Councilman Don Frantz about the town having to grant an ordinance amendment to approve the use of the site.

But the board's fourth GOP member, Chris Malone, is asking "isn't it very late to be having this discussion?" He asks what the "value proposition is" to reconsider the item at this late date.

Jim Huge was mistaken when he said he wasn't trying to make Tuesday's Wake County school board retreat a counseling session.

As noted in today's article, school board members traded heated words with each and with Superintendent Tony Tata. In turn, the superintendent didn't hold back either in his feeling that some board members were trying to undercut staff.

In the end, board members agreed to meet one-one-one with Tata to start things anew. Whether those meetings and the two-hour discussion Tuesday helps remains to be seen.

More to come later but some heated and emotional words are being uttered at today' Wake County school board retreat.

Supt. Tony Tata is complaining about some board members undercutting staff on the new student assignment plan and disrespecting staff. Board members Jim Martin and Susan Evans are accusing him of being defensive and disrespectful to them.

School board attorney Ann Majestic is telling everyone to "put down their weapons."

UPDATE

I'll have a lengthier blog post in the morning. But for now, here's what's up online.

The Wake County school board agreed to one change in the draft strategic plan this afternoon while having some heated discussions on other areas.

They board agreed to modify the vision section of the plan to add in the words that students will "be accountable partners" in their education. it was added after board member Jim Martin said that students need to have some responsibility in the issue.

I'll get into more on the other issues later, but the board disagreed about whether to leave in the draft strategic plan the use of teacher merit pay and the expansion of academies. Board members also disagreed on the significance of the rest of the state catching up to Wake's graduation rate.

The board is taking a lunch break before resuming discussion at 2:45 p.m. on board-superintendent communications.

UPDATE

Staff will bring back the revised core mission, vision and beliefs to the June 5 regular meeting for a vote.

The full strategic plan will be pulled from the June 5 action meeting. School board chairman Kevin Hill said individual members or groups of two can meet with Chief of Staff/Chief Transformation Officer Judy Peppler to go over any suggested wording changes before discussing at the June 5 work session.

Different methodologies are yielding different results on competing lists of the nation's top public high schools.

Four schools in the Triangle made the top 100 of Newsweek magazine’s “America’s Best High Schools 2012” list that was released this week. A total of 11 Triangle schools made the top 1,000 school list.

In contrast, only three schools in the entire state were in the top 1,000 in the U.S. News & World Report list released this month. Broughton High School in Raleigh was the only Triangle school in the top 1,000 on that list at 966.

The strategic plan, improving board communications and honoring students and employees will be on today's Wake County school board agenda.

The board will open today's retreat by spending two hours discussing the strategic plan that AdvancED wants the district to complete. The board had a lengthy discussion on it at the December retreat.

The next two hours of the retreat will be spent on board communications and protocol, detailing what should happen between board members and board members and staff. The tense exchanges in recent months are what prompted school board chairman Kevin Hill to make his call for proper decorum last week.

Wake County Manager David Cooke is recommending giving less than half of the $8.8 million funding increase requested by the school system.

Cooke's $941.5 million budget presented today would give the Wake County school system $318.3 million, a $3.9 million increase in funding. The school board, working on the budget developed by Superintendent Tony Tata, asked the county for $323.2 million

Cooke's budget would not raise property tax rate. Instead, he'd boost spending by using $22 million in increased revenue in property, sales and other taxes.