Keith Sutton is your newest Wake County school board member.

The school board moved so quickly through the interview process today that the vote wasn't held off until tomorrow. Board members tapped Sutton, legislative affairs program manager for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, for the District 4 vacancy in Southeast Raleigh.

Sutton will serve out Rosa Gill's term through November 2011. Whether he runs for a full four-year term remains to be seen.

UPDATE

For those who want one-stop shopping, click here for Sutton's application.

The process for filling Beverley Clark's seat on the school board isn't quite as clear cut.

Wake has posted information on its web site on what should be included in the applications before the Aug. 27 deadline. But the district won't officially seek applications until after Clark steps down Aug. 12.

The delayed resignation will allow Clark to participate this week in the vote to fill Rosa Gill's vacant seat.

The person who eventually takes Clark's seat will finish out her term, which expires November 2011. Clark's "Central Raleigh" Distict 6 includes North Hills and the Ridge Road area inside the Beltline.

Barring any holdups, the school board should decide this week who will take Rosa Gill's vacant seat.

The plan is to meet from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday to interview all nine people who want to fill the District 4 opening caused by Gill's appointment to the state House. The board is slated to meet from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday to make a final selection.

The new board member would be sworn in on Aug. 18 and finish out Gill's term, which expires November 2011.

(The applications for all nine candidates are listed in this post.)

Will Beverley Clark became the next school board member to give up her seat?

Rumors are swirling that Clark will resign her seat in August, allowing her to stay on for a little while longer to vote on the applicants for Rosa Gill's vacant seat. Clark has served the longest of any of the board members. She was first elected in 1999.

Clark was non-committal about her intentions.

Lynette Aytch, a director in the state's Smart Start program, became the fourth person to apply for the vacant seat on the school board.

In the application submitted today, Aytch said her four policy priorities would be high quality preschool programs, specialized services for students with disabilities and special learning needs, classroom diversity and inclusion and community and families partnerships.

"The public school system has a social and educational responsibility to advance policy that promotes and sustains classroom diversity and inclusion," Aytch said in her application.

A third former educator, Samuel Greene, wants to fill the vacancy on the school board for the District 4 seat in Southeast Raleigh.

Greene, who spent 33 years as an educator and was a principal at West Millbrook Middle School in North Raleigh, submitted his application today. In addition to his professional experience, he cites his lengthy history of community service.

"As a Wake County Public School board member, I would exhibit a strong commitment to working with other board members towards the common goal of providing the best possible education for the children in our district," Greene writes in his application. "My entire professional career has been in the area of working with children, parents and the community."

Retired educator Lillian Lee has got some pretty prominent backing in her bid to fill the vacancy on the school board.

Lee, who submitted her application Monday, included reference letters from former Superintendent Bob Bridges and former principal Johnny Farmer. This could give Lee's application some weight as the board weighs who will fill Rosa Gill's District 4 seat in Southeast Raleigh.

"Mrs. Lee appears to be a clear thinker and is confident in her abilities," Bridges wrote in his reference letter. "I believe that the current state of affairs in her life will permit the commitment of time and energy required to serve on the school board."

UPDATED TO INCLUDE LEE'S APPLICATION, WITH REFERENCE LETTERS, AT END OF POST

A woman who lost to Rosa Gill for a seat on the Wake County school board in 1999 now hopes to replace her.

Doris Burke, a retired educator, is the only applicant so far to fill the vacancy caused by Gill taking a seat in the General Assembly. Gill had beaten Burke to win her first term on the school board.

"I would welcome this opportunity to continue to help meet the elementary and secondary educational needs of Wake County by serving in this position," Burke wrote in her cover letter.

The response has been really overwhelming so far to replace Rosa Gill on the school board.

As of Thursday afternoon, school administrators said they hadn't received a single application for the District 4 Southeast Raleigh vacancy on the school board. The deadline is noon on July 20th so there's still time.

The last time there was a vacancy, 10 people applied in 2001 for the opening in District 8 in southwest Wake. Applicants included a former Wake school board member, the president and president-elect of the Wake County PTA Council and the chairman of the Wake County Planning Board.

People aren't exactly rushing to fill the vacancy on the school board.

School officials say they hadn't received any applications as of Monday afternoon. You've got until noon on July 20th to get your application into the hands of the school district.

There are people who've expressed interest in filling the District 4 seat in Southeast Raleigh that was vacated when Rosa Gill left to join the General Assembly.