RALEIGH - Two North Raleigh sites and one in Apex have made the Wake County school system's short list for a potential share of a $59 million pot to build new schools.

The Wake school board agreed last week to spend $2.4 million to start designing a new northwest Raleigh middle school, a new elementary school in Apex and another one in northeast Raleigh.

The challenge facing the school board over the next year will be deciding which ones to build because they've only got money for two of the sites.

The 6-2 vote split the board majority, which has held together on most issues since taking office in December.

Members of the board's usual four-member minority faction provided most of the votes to approve spending the money for the designs.

"The money is just sitting there so we can move forward with the design process," said school board member Keith Sutton, who typically is on the minority faction.

But some members of the majority coalition objected to the sites selected.

Some said other areas are more in need of new schools.

"If that money is sitting there, there doesn't need to be a compulsion to spend it," said school board Vice Chairwoman Debra Goldman, typically a member of the majority coalition.

The sites that got the go-ahead for the design work are:

A middle school near Leesville Road and Interstate 540 in northwest Raleigh

An elementary school near the closed North Wake Landfill in North Raleigh

An elementary school at the intersection of Scotts Ridge Trail and Apex Barbecue Road in Apex.

What happens next

Wake County commissioners also must sign off on spending the money for the design work.

They're expected to vote next month.

Wake has enough money to build both elementary schools or the middle school and one elementary school.

The money comes from $59 million accumulated from projects coming in under budget from the district's ongoing $1.056 billion construction program.

Don Haydon, Wake's chief facilities and operations officer, said a decision on which two sites to build won't have to be made until this time next year.

But he said starting the design work now means they could get the elementary schools open in 2013. The middle school would open in 2014.

Southeast Raleigh

But Goldman and board member John Tedesco, also normally part of the five-member majority, complained that none of the sites is in or near southeast Raleigh.

They said new schools need to be built there if Wake is to have enough room to allow southeast Raleigh children to return to schools in their communities while still leaving open enough seats at area magnet schools.

Joe Desormeaux, Wake's assistant superintendent for facilities, said they had identified sites in areas where crowding will be a problem in a few years and where the district already owns land it can quickly build on.

Sutton, whose district includes southeast Raleigh, said they can't afford to slow down on the construction of new schools.