The meeting in Wendell on Thursday was the seventh of eight being held throughout the county over the past two weeks to give the public an update on a drafted student assignment plan developed for the 2012-13 school year, pending school board approval.

Schools officials referred to their 90-minute stop as an "informational session" during which those in attendance could ask written questions.

"It's a choice-based plan that has elements from the base plan," said Susan Pulliam, a member of the student assignment task force.

The school board majority that took office in 2009 voted last year to eliminate the diversity policy that assigned students based on socioeconomic data to balance income levels at individual schools. The change led to protests, arrests at school board meetings, a federal civil rights investigation and an inquiry that could threaten the accreditation of Wake's high schools.

The plan developed by Tata's student assignment task force would fundamentally change the way students are assigned. It would let families choose from several schools, instead of having every address assigned to a specific school. Every family would also have the option of attending a high-achieving school with some priority being given to students from historically low-performing areas.

Despite drastic changes in the proposed plan, task force members received few questions from the small group that showed up at East Wake High.

The most common frustration among parents seemed to be the session format. Some said they preferred to ask questions aloud - and did so during the meeting - instead of writing their questions down on comment sheets.

"I was expecting more definitive information ... a side-by-side comparison of the previous plan and the proposed plan," said Mike Spears, whose son attends East Wake Middle. "And I didn't like having to write down my questions. What if I have more than one? It's too lengthy of a process. I'd prefer a discussion."

Wake officials said they preferred written questions so that the comment sheets could be analyzed and archived with others from across the county.

Most of the questions asked by parents had answers that could have been found on the district's website.

But the task force has had continuous trouble garnering feedback from those in eastern Wake County - online or in-person.

In June, 10 parents attended a similar informational session at Knightdale High. Recent meetings in other parts of the county have drawn more than 300 parents.

Also, of hundreds of responses to an online Wake County schools' survey earlier this summer, only six were from ZIP codes in eastern Wake County.