Six months after a team of Wake County school administrators began working behind closed doors to develop a new student assignment plan,many questions remain about how it will work.

Nonetheless, Wake's school board is poised to take a vote on the proposal Oct. 18, Wake Superintendent Tony Tata said Thursday.

The hotly debated proposal, if approved, would radically change how the county determines which students attend which schools.

Critics of the proposal argue that the vote would be too soon because the proposal is incomplete.

But leaders of the state's largest public school system say it's important to get a vote on the proposal because they need to give staff enough time to have it ready for the 2012-13 school year.

"It's not going to be rushed, but neither does it need to be delayed," school board Chairman Ron Margiotta said. "Staff needs time. It's a major change."

Tata decided on the Oct. 18 date after meeting with Margiotta and Vice Chairman JohnTedesco.

The vote on the proposal would come a week after the Oct. 11 election, when five school board seats are up for grabs. If the board is changed radically, then much of what has been approved could come undone.

"Just because there's an election doesn't mean we stop doing the board's business," Tedesco said.

Indeed, questions still exist about the plan, including whether some neighborhoods would lose current school assignment patterns and whether the plan can avoid creating low-achieving schools.

Tata said many of the questions will be answered Tuesday, when he presents the final version of the plan to the board. He also has shared details of the proposal's evolution with the public since May, making adjustments after getting feedback from the school board, parents and other members of the public.

The school board also will host a public hearing about the proposal at 5 p.m. Oct. 13 at Broughton High School in Raleigh.

"We feel the plan is pretty close to being done," Tedesco said. "The superintendent feels we're pretty close to being done. The board feels it would be advisable to allow a little more time to hear from the public."

Critics of the Republican board majority say they want a new plan but not at the expense of passing one that's not complete.

"What I have asked is for them to slow down on a plan that hasn't been totally vetted and fixed," said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the nonprofit Great Schools in Wake Coalition. "None of it's been voted on. Nothing is set in stone. We have a plan that seems to be changing daily."

Tedesco and Margiotta said parents and others have had plenty of opportunities to have their say. Tata's student assignment task force held 19 public meetings about the proposal.