The WakeEd blog is devoted to discussing and answering questions about the major issues facing the Wake County school system. How much will the new Democratic majority on the school board do to undo the changes made by Republicans since 2009? Will the new student assignment plan be a hybrid of the last two models or primarily be a return to the use of busing for diversity? Who will replace Tony Tata as the new superintendent of the state's largest district? How will voters react to a likely request in 2013 to borrow potentially more than $1 billion to build and renovate schools?
WakeEd is maintained by The News & Observer's Wake schools reporter, T. Keung Hui. While Keung posts information and analysis on the issues, keep us posted on your suggestions, questions, tips and what you're doing to cope with the changes in Wake's schools.
Wake CARES may need a new lawyer after next week.
Bob Hunter, the lead attorney for Wake CARES, is running on Tuesday for a seat on the N.C. Court of Appeals. If he wins, he'll need to step away from his legal practice.
"I certainly wish him well but we'll miss him," said Kathleen Brennan, a co-founder of Wake CARES.
If you're considering applying to a magnet school in February, let me know.
You can call me at 829-4534 or send an e-mail to keung.hui@newsobserver.com.
Are Kenn Gardner and Stan Norwalk as dangerous to education or to your pocketbooks as critics claim?
As noted in today's article, some inflammatory things are being said by the candidates and their backers in that contested race for county commissioner. Many of those accusations revolve around how both men would deal with school funding if they're elected next week.
"Stan Norwalk will give the school system a blank check," said Kathleen Brennan, a co-founder of Wake CARES, which is backing Gardner. "Norwalk basically supports everything the school system wants."
It's possible that the school system might have been overcharged on office supplies from Office Depot.
State Auditor Leslie Merritt announced today that he’s probing whether the Office Depot contract managed by the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance charged appropriate prices for $5 million of office supplies to local and state agencies.
Under that contract, the Wake school system is being charged with $454,738 in supplies, the most of any group on the list.
Is the legal fight over year-round schools a battle over summer sports and summer vacations?
That's something that the school district's lawyers dismissively assert in their brief, filed Monday, to the N.C. Supreme Court. Wake CARES, which sued the district, contends that parents have the right to preserve the opportunities available under the traditional calendar.
"The potential injuries alleged by plaintiffs have little or no relation to the opportunity for a sound basic education at issue in Leandro.
To no one's surprise, the school system is a campaign issue among the candidates for county commissioner.
In particular, sides are being drawn in the hotly contested race between incumbent Republican Kenn Gardner and Democratic challenger Stan Norwalk. Gardner is supported by critics of the district and Norwalk is backed by supporters.
Norwalk is talking a good deal about education in his campaign spots.
It's looking more likely that the school board will revote on the recent decisions affecting Daniels and Leesville Road middle schools.
As noted in today's article, Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, said she's reviewing the recent votes and could ask on Nov. 3 for new votes. In the case of Daniels. there's a decent chance that the board could now decide to keep the school's magnet program.
Gill said she wants to see how the recent votes compare with prior ones. The board had voted in regular meetings and not work sessions to make final decisions before on demagnetization and calendar conversion.
School board members are taking Election Day off but not students at year-round and modified-calendar schools.
The school board rescheduled its Nov. 4 meeting to Nov. 3. Students at traditional-calendar schools are also getting Election Day off. But year-round and modified-calendar schools are open on Nov. 4 on a two-hour delay.
“We decided that it was an important day and didn’t want to meet,” said Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board.
Broughton High School ducked a new requirement on Tuesday that could have sharply reduced the number of magnet applicants.
School board member Patti Head had initially proposed telling Broughton's magnet students that they'd need to take the IB Diploma Programme to stay at the school. She had been responding to concerns that a minority of the magnet students make the attempt to get an IB diploma.
That requirement was initially part of the motion that Head had proposed to keep the magnet program at Broughton.
School board member Beverley Clark had a message on Tuesday for all those Broughton High School parents who had been lobbying for the magnet program to be saved.
Clark said the Broughton parents, who had bombarded board members with e-mail messages and calls, need to show the same level of energy during the budget season. She said the parents need to urge the county commissioners to provide the school system with adequate funding.
Clark warned that next year's budget negotiations could be very difficult. Considering that County Manager David Cooke warned this week that the county is facing a potential $17 million budget shortfall due to the global crisis, it's not lookiing good for a big boost in school funding next year.
