It looks like the area around Joyner Elementary School in Raleigh could get a wave of new housing.

The Triangle Business Journal is reporting today that the Wake County school system is negotiating to sell its former administrative building and bus lot on Noble road, across from Joyner, to M/I Homes.

TBJ reports that site plans filed with the Raleigh Planning Department show that M/I Homes wants to build 83 townhouse on the 10-acre property. The new housing should raise Joyner's base population as it tries to find enough seats for magnet applicants.

Wake is hoping to make a $2.2 million profit on the sale to help pay off the e lease costs for its new headquarters in Cary. The big property that Wake still hasn't sold yet is its former headquarters on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.

Congratulations to the 12 finalists for the Wake County school system's 2013-14 Teacher of the Year award.

The finalists are Lisa Amador of Yates Mill Elementary in Raleigh, Sonya Brown of Smith Elementary in Garner, Elizabeth Crowell of Davis Drive Middle in Cary, Laurie Dillman of Fuquay-Varina High, Amy-Lyn Foster of Lockhart Elementary in Knightdale, Lindsay Hamrick of Martin Middle in Raleigh, Dianne Jones of Wiley Elementary in Raleigh, Anne Mayer of Sycamore Creek Elementary in Raleigh, Luke Miles of Durant Road Middle in Raleigh, Lynn Rustay of Holly Ridge Elementary in Holly Springs, Rachael Stauffer of Olive Chapel Elementary in Apex and Keri Woronka of Pleasant Union Elementary in Raleigh.

The winner will be announced May. 9.

Wake County school board member Susan Evans is being credited with helping work out a potential compromise over the name of the new high school that will be built in Apex.

The school board and the Apex Town Council had initially agreed on West Apex High School as the name. But the residents of the Friendship community want the school named after the community.

Now it looks like the compromise will be something like Apex-Friendship High or Friendship-Apex High.

The Wake County school system's PR campaign to retain control over school construction, maintenance and ownership is underway.

The video highlights the arguments that the district and its supporters have made about the experience Wake has in school construction that the county doesn't possess. The video says 42 new schools and 62 major renovations have been done since 2001 in "a process which requires careful planning, thoughtful oversight and responsible fiscal management."

The video notes how schools are designed with educational specifications in mind and that the district has won nearly 50 school construction awards since 1991.

The lobbying and negotiating over what projects to include in the next Wake County school construction bond referendum is already in progress.

As noted in today's article, the scenarios presented Wednesday range from $609 million to $2.3 billion. It's understood that the $2.3 billion, which lays out all the district's needs, isn't going to happen.

The question is which projects to still fund in a reduced bond amount.

More to come later, but Wake County school administrators laid out today five different school bond scenarios ranging from $609 million to $2.3 billion.

* Scenario 1: $2.3 billion for 32 new schools, rebuild 12 existing schools, major renovations at 16 schools and other projects.
* Scenario 2: $1.1 billion for 15 new schools, rebuild six schools, start planning on rebuilds of two schools.
* Scenario 2A: $1.1 billion for 15 new schools, rebuild six schools, start rebuilds on two schools, major renovations at three schools.

UPDATE

Click here to view the handouts for the scenarios.

Click here to view a handout of the description of the rebuilds/whole campus renovations.

It looks saving teacher assistant positions will be the major crusade by school leaders in Wake County and the rest of this state during this budget season.

As noted in today's article, school board members and administrators said Tuesday that Wake's loss of $12 million in funding for teacher assistants in Gov. Pat McCrory's budget would be "very detrimental." McCrory's budget would cut all $117 million in funding for TAs in grades 2 and 3, only funding them for K-1.

McCroy has touted how his budget would add 1,800 teaching positions. But Chief Business Officer David Neter said those positions are just to keep up with growth so they can't convert the positions to pay for TA positions.

The school bond issue is back on the agenda today for the Wake County school board's facilities committee.

The committee will discuss different bond scenarios, a preliminary step before the info is presented to the full school board and to the county commissioners at the next meeting. The scenarios would give a range of different costs and projects that could be funded.

For instance, school district staff said at the last joint meeting they'd develop scenarios that included no additional year-round schools and ones that did, including possible some conversions of traditional-calendar schools.

The committee will also discuss what major renovations entail and potential changes to the designs of M8, the new middle school that would be built on Leesville Church Road in northwest Raleigh.

The Wake County school board appointed Blaine Clark on Tuesday to be the new principal of Root Elementary School in Raleigh.

Clark, the assistant principal at Millbrook Elementary School since 2007, will receive a salary of $82,640. Clark starts at Root on Monday.

The Wake County school board approved tonight placing enrollment caps at 17 schools for the 2013-14 school year.

The elementary schools that are affected are Brooks, Cedar Fork, Fuller, Holly Grove, Farmington Woods, Hunter, Joyner, Lacy, Mills Park, Underwood, Walnut Creek and Wiley. Caps would also affect the elementary school grades at Hilburn Drive Academy, and Apex, Garner, Heritage and Holly Springs high schools.

Unless that school is already capped for this school year, newcomers who still move in after this late date can get in for the rest of the school year. But you've got a big problem, unless you already live in the school's attendance area, if you want to begin attending this fall.