Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013

Eight seek Wake school board seat

Wake County school board members will vote Feb. 5 on replacing Chris Malone, who resigned his board seat to take his new position in the state House. Prior to the vote that evening, the board will interview all eight applicants for the position.

The applicants are seeking the District 1 seat that represents Wake Forest, Rolesville, Wendell, Zebulon, part of Knightdale and part of North Raleigh.

The new member would finish out Malone’s term, which expires in November. Voters will decide in October who will win four-year terms to represent District 1 and three other seats on the ballot.

The applicants are:

• Tom Benton of Zebulon, a retired educator who was the former principal of Zebulon High School and Durant Road Middle School.

• Ben Clapsaddle of Wake Forest, a project manager and consultant for the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg who ran for the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners.

• Wendy Ford of Wake Forest, a retired account manager who served on a school board in upstate New York for 19 years.

• Hilda McCullers near Knightdale, a retired science teacher who taught at Broughton and East Wake high schools.

• David Menaker of Wendell, a developer and former mayor pro tem of Kill Devil Hills.

• Don Mial near Knightdale, a member of the N.C. Board of Victim Compensation Commission who ran for Wake County Board of Commissioners and state House.

• H. Wade Minter of North Raleigh, director of engineering for a software company and two-time candidate for state House.

• Shinica Thomas of Wake Forest, a project manager for a Raleigh-based nonprofit and a member of the District 1 school board advisory council.

Seven of the applicants are Democrats, and one, Ford, is a Republican. The board is officially nonpartisan but is led by a Democratic majority.

Among the important issues the new board member will vote on this year are the school construction bond issue that could go on the fall ballot, a new long-term student assignment plan and hiring a permanent superintendent.