The Wake County School Board will interview seven candidates to fill the seat of a resigning member, board members said Tuesday.

Member Beverley Clark said last week she will resign her seat. Clark's term as the representative of District 6 expires in 2011.

The interviews will be Tuesday, Sept. 8, and will be open to the public.

District 6 represents central Raleigh, but also includes Reedy Creek Elementary and Middle Schools in Cary. Clark held the post for a decade before resigning in August.

Candidates for the post include:

Stacy Arch, community volunteer and WCPSS parent
Christine Kushner, consultant and community volunteer, also a WCPSS parent
George Morgan, former WCPSS teacher and assistant principal
Carolyn Morrison, former WCPSS teacher and principal, former college professor
Julie Nau, former WCPSS teacher and former president of Wake NCAE
Diane Payne, consultant, former WCPSS teacher and principal
Etta Wilson, former WCPSS teacher


This is the second time in a month that the Wake Co. Board of Education has gone through the unusual step of electing a candidate to fill an unexpired term on the board. Keith Sutton was selected by the board to fill the District 4 seat after former chair Rosa Gill's resignation earlier this summer.

Prior to that, the Board of Education had not had to select a replacement to fill an unexpired seat in almost a decade.

Clark said it was time for her to move on to other responsibilities.

"During my three terms, this board has remained committed to the vision of a quality of opportunity and success for every student in every school across Wake County," she said in a prepared statement to the board. "My goal has always been to keep the board steered in the direction of fairness and equity for all of our students."

Her resignation follows the departure of Rosa Gill, who left the board in June to move on to the N.C. House of Representatives. Clark said she and Gill were part of the "original change gang" elected in 1999, which also included former board members Susan Parry and Tom Oxholm.

"When I declined to continue as vice chair last year, I knew that other obligations awaited me," she said. "Now it is time for me to turn my attention to those other activities and to bring my ten years of public service to a close."

In other news, school teachers in Wake County will not be getting any raises this year.

The board gave final approval Tuesday for the plan to keep employees at their 2008-09 salaries.

In addition, the following are in effect for 2009-2010:

1). Certified employees who were at the highest step of the 2008-2009 salary schedule will not receive a top of the scale bonus.

2). Substitute teacher rates remain at 2008-2009 school year levels.

3). No ABC bonus payments will be made in the fall of 2009 from meeting or exceeding test goals in the 2008-2009 school year

4). No bonus leave provisions are included with the 2009-2010 budget Fiscal Implications: $420,000 in local funds will be required in order to allow certified employees to move to the higher supplement percentages at steps 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25.

This enables WCPSS to maintain a local salary supplement structure consistent with past years and sustainable for future years. Recommendation for Action: Please approve as presented.