RALEIGH - In their first joint meeting since fighting over year-round schools last week, Wake County school board members dangled an olive branch on Thursday that few county commissioners were present to grasp.

The boards were brought together by the Wake Education Partnership, an advocacy group for public education, to hear about the group's annual report on the state of the school system.

School board members asked commissioners to help them move beyond the debates over year-round school calendars and reassignments and work together on improving classroom education.

But only two of the seven county commissioners attended the meeting.

Last week, the school board voted to proceed with converting 22 schools to a year-round calendar despite the commissioners' vote to delay $3.4 million for the changes.

"We'd love to be able to turn our attention to making education better," said school board member Carol Parker. "We can't do it alone."

She was echoed by several of the seven school board members who attended the meeting.

But Commissioner Joe Bryan said the two boards have to resolve current issues before they ask voters to approve another school construction bond in the next two to three years.

"It's a major issue right now," Bryan said. "Reassignment isn't going away, just like the funding gap isn't going away."

One theme of the Quality Matters 2006 report is that issues involving growth have overshadowed those involving education.

The report praises the academic quality of the school system, including how 90.8 percent of students in grades three through eight passed state end-of-grade reading exams last spring.

But the report notes that test scores have been flat and that there is a large racial gap in graduation and dropout rates.

The report also notes that Wake has seen an increase in the number of special education students and those who speak English as a second language -- groups that don't do as well academically on average. More money is needed to help those students, the report said.

Although commissioners provided a "generous" $21.5 million increase to the school district last year, the report says it covered only growth and not new or expanded educational programs.

"Whether the community is willing to commit the money to improve rather than simply maintain the quality of classroom instruction in Wake County is not a shared resolve but an open question," said Jay Silver, chairman of the Quality Matters advisory committee.

Other recommendations include:

* Review existing education programs to make sure money is spent appropriately and effectively.

* Do a better job of reviewing how magnet schools are established, evaluated and shut down.

* Address the concerns of the 47 percent of voters who opposed the $970 million school bond issue in November.

* Find a way to allow the best teachers to remain in the classroom part time while also mentoring other teachers.

"The challenges immediately on the horizon require time, attention and even money -- all of which are in limited supply," Silver said.