Diane Payne applies for school board vacancy

Longtime former Broughton High School Principal Diane Payne became the seventh and final applicant today hoping to replace Beverley Clark on the school board.

In her application, Payne stressed her lengthy career as an educator, including the nearly 13 years she spent as principal of Broughton High School in Raleigh until her retirement in 2005. Among the items in her application, she supports the Wednesday early dismissals and praises the diversity policy.

“If selected, I will bring both my varied background and my student-focused perspective to the Board and in so doing hope to do my part to achieve the Board’s [100 percent graduation] Goal,” Payne wrote in her application.

Payne said she would focus on recruiting and retaining outstanding teachers. She cited the Wednesday early dismissals and the resulting time for teacher meetings as "an example of how the Board shows teachers they support the important work they are doing."

Her second main strategy is to "encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning."

Her third strategy is to continue the diversity policy. She notes the recognition that Wake is getting from the National School Boards Association's Council of Urban Boards of Education and the praise from Gerald Grant's book "Hope and despair in the American City: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh."

"Research shows the positive benefits for students who attend schools in which there is a balancing according to family income," Payne writes. "Balanced schools typically have low teacher turnover rates, high parent involvement, fewer discipline problems, more rigorous courses, and higher overall student achievement."

Click here to read Payne's application.

The other applicants for the position are:
• Stacy A. Arch, a parent and community volunteer
• Christine C. Kushner, a parent and community volunteer
• George W. Morgan Jr., a retired Wake educator
• Carolyn Bond Morrison, a retired Wake principal
• Julie Nau, a retired Wake teacher and former president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators
• Etta Wilson, an unemployed Wake special-education teacher

School board members will interview the applicants on Sept. 8 and could make their choice that day. The newly appointed board member would finish out Clark’s term, which expires November 2011.

The board will have the choice of picking between a parent or an educator. Earlier this month, they went for a parent when appointing Keith Sutton to fill Rosa Gill's seat.

UPDATED JULIE NAU'S APPLICATION TO INCLUDE REFERENCES