Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Susan Evans are both pulling in substantial amounts of cash in the District 8 race, including money from the Popes, Bob Luddy and the Campbells.

The new campaign report filed today by Margiotta shows he had raised $40,367.33 as of Aug. 30 with $34,111.23 on hand. The new report for Evans shows she had raised $26,406.43 as of Aug. 30 with $21,405.30 on hand.

The biggest donors for Margiotta in his new report are the $4,000 apiece from conservative businessman Art Pope, his wife Katherine Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

The 22 former Wake County school board members who gathered together today were officially diplomatic about the changes being made by the new board majority, but it was clear they were personally unhappy with what's happening.

The former members talked about wanting "to ensure an equal opportunity for a sound basic education for every child in Wake County Public Schools." It was clear from their two-page statement that they feel "equal opportunity" is based on keeping the school district's longstanding busing for diversity efforts.

"For over 30 years, the Wake County Public School System has been a model for school districts around the nation," according to the statement read at today's press conference. "Because research consistently shows that challenges to success for all students in high poverty and racially isolated schools are greater, we have worked hard to prevent the creation of such schools."

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.

The clock will soon start for people to formally submit their names for consideration for Rosa Gill's seat on the school board.

As noted in today's article, the board agreed Tuesday to seek applications from the public through noon on July 20. The application window will begin once Gill's resignation becomes official, which is expected to take place by Thursday.

The board went through a lengthy review of the process. The upshot of it is that you shouldn't expect a guaranteed interview from the board.

The school board will soon have to determine a procedure for naming a replacement for Rosa Gill, who was tapped by the leadership of the Wake County Democratic Party to fill a vacancy in the state House.

Board policy is rather brief on the process. The policy just says that the board needs to pick a replacement who is from that person's voting district to fill out the rest of the term.

But the board could go with the process that was used in 2001 when the last time a vacancy opened up.