The money, part of a 2006 bond issue, had been earmarked for school construction projects. About $30 million had been set aside for specific projects - land purchases, design work, moving classroom trailers and replacing aging equipment.

The school system will be able to set new priorities, particularly building three new schools with the rest covering other construction projects. Such requests have been approved routinely by past boards of commissioners, but the recent requests drew questions from one Democratic and one Republican commissioner.

With Erv Portman and Joe Bryan in opposition, the commissioners agreed 4-2 to allow the money to go to projects including the conversion of Hilburn Elementary to a K-8 school, renovations at Cary High School and the new single-gender academies proposed for the William Peace University campus. In addition, about $60 million would go for design and construction of a new high school in Apex.

"Have we done what we need to do to be ready three and four years out?" Portman, a Democrat, asked.

"We feel like we can make do for the first couple of years if we have a bond by 2014," assistant Superintendent Joe Desormeaux answered.