Here's a recap of the interviews from Wendy Ford and Hilda McCullers for the District 1 vacancy on the Wake County school board.

Ford repeatedly stressed that she knew what the board was going through having served on a school board in upstate New York for 19 years. She said she's done everything the board now faces, including being involved in two superintendent searches.

Another thing that Ford frequently mentioned is that Wake needs to deal with competition from the popularity of charter schools, especially parents who are dissatisfied with the district.

Hilda McCullers contends that her 30+ years as a classroom teacher and being a lifelong resident of Eastern Wake make her the best choice to fill the vacancy on the Wake County school board.

In her application, McCullers, 63, writes about having lived all her life in eastern Wake, going from being a student in the district to later a teacher. The Democrat taught science from 1975 to 2006, the majority of the time at Broughton High School.

"I have seen this area transition from mostly rural farm land to a more urban area as the population increased," McCullers writes in the application for the District 1 seat. "This gives me firsthand knowledge of the changes and challenges in District 1 both as a a parent and as an educator."

The eight applicants for the Wake County school board vacancy are giving their views on diversity, armed guards in schools, the choice plan, performance pay for teachers, the school construction bond issue and charter schools.

The answers are part of an article in this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, which focused on their views on diversity and armed guards. The diversity responses run the gamut from support to opposition to its use in student assignment.

On one end are these people whose views on diversity seem to be the closest in line to the board majority.

My eventual goal is to do separate blog posts for the six applicants who filed Friday for the Wake County school board District 1 vacancy, similar to what I did when the first two applied.

But for now, I'm including links so people can view the applications that all eight applicants submitted. Some tout their K-12 education experience, or their business experience or their military experience.

The applicants also bring up an interesting list of references, including current state legislators, past and present mayors, past school board members and leaders of community groups.

Pencil in Feb. 5 for the date when the Wake County school board will fill the vacancy for the District 1 seat.

The school board will hold 30-minute interviews with all eight applicants that day. The vote will come toward the end of that day's regularly scheduled meeting.

It was a bit of a compromise.

We've got the names, but not yet the application packets, for the people who filed Friday for the open District 1 seat on the Wake County school board.

The applicants are:

* H. Wade Minter, a Democrat from North Raleigh, who unsuccessfully ran in 2002 and 2004 as a Libertarian candidates for state House.