The school board has decided to hold tomorrow's work session on the reassignment plan in Raleigh and not Cary.

The meeting, for now scheduled to start at 9 a.m., will be in the board conerenece room at 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. The meeting was scheduled to be heard in a larger room in the district's Cary offices on Corning Road.

UPDATE

The school board ended the work session in the middle of the discussion of Lacy Elementary without taking a vote. They're starting the work session at 9 a.m. after all instead of 8 a.m. on Friday. They can't change the time because it's already been posted for 9 a.m. 

The school board is taking a 30-minute break now for lunch after not having made any changes so far to individual schools in the reassignment plan.

Board members have started with elementary schools and are running through them in alphabetical order. They're just finished Herbert Akins Road Elementary. Board members said they'll revisit Banks Road Elementary on Friday.

Additionally, Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney said he'll review whether the data is correct in showing the percentage of low-income students at Fox Road Elementary is rising. This could lead to changes tomorrow. 

Aside from the straw vote on the grandfathering changes, only one other vote has been taken so far. Board members rejected adding Node 713, with about three to five kids, and moving them from Forest Pines Elementary to Wakefield Elementary.

No vote has been taken yet on the changed recommended today by staff. 

The school board has approved a pair of grandfathering changes recommended today by staff, including a big one parents have been asking to get for years.

The big grandfathering change would allow more families to keep siblings together in the same school. If a family gets a transfer for a child to stay at a school, it will also extend to younger siblings already at the school.

For instance, a transfer granted to a rising fourth-grader would be given to a sibling who is also a rising first-grader. It would not, however, apply if the younger siblings have not yet begun attending the school.

Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney told the school board today his staff is recommending these changes to the reassignment plan:

* Change the year-round application school for nine traditional calendar base nodes assigned to Lincoln Heights and Holly Ridge from Holly Grove Elementary to Herbert Akins Road Elementary.
* Move Lacy Elementary students to Root Elementary in 2009 instead of 2010.

Today is the day when a lot of parents will find out if their hard work has paid off in changes to the reassignment plan.

None of the changes that could be made at today's school board work session are final, but they have a strong chance of making it into the final vote on Feb. 3.

It’s also equally likely that anything the board leaves in the plan today will be incorporated into the final version.

 UPDATE

Friday's work session has been moved to the board conference room on Wake Forest Road. 

Beteena Person thinks diversity is a good idea.

But as noted in today's article, she thinks it stinks when it means reassigning her kids out of Smith Elementary School in Garner, which is six miles from her Southeast Raleigh home. They face going to Middle Creek Elementary in Apex, which is 15 miles away and on a different calendar.

"My kids are already very diverse," said Person, who adopted four children after initially taking them in as foster kids.

UPDATE

Staff is recommending dropping the Smith to Middle Creek moves. 

It's time to head back to school.

Wake will open on Thursday on a two-hour delay. School officials are encouraging drivers to use extra caution Thursday morning.

This may be a case of wishful thinking, but Lisa Boneham is confidently predicting victory in the Leesville year-round calendar fight.

You'd expect the school board will discuss the conversion of Leesville Road Middle School to a year-round calendar at Thursday's reassignment work session. In a press release sent today, Boneham thinks the board will put Leesville Road Elementary back on a traditional calendar and not convert the middle school.

Here's the press release sent by Concerned and Committed Leesville Parents:

Do you think you can do a better job of naming schools than the school system?

On Thursday, the school board is scheduled to name E21, the new elementary school in Southeast Raleigh. The board will also hear suggestions for naming H6, the new high school in northeastern Wake.

There are some rules to consider.

It could be a tough next two days ahead for high school students.

As noted in today's article, the cancellation of school for the past two days will mean rescheduling final exams for Wake's 39,000 high school students. The option that schools could use to solve the problem won't be a pretty one for students.

The option being considered by many high schools, assuming school resumes tomorrow, is to have Tuesday's exams on Thursday.