A podiatrist, two tax planners and a trio of teachers all want the same job.

It's not the beginning of a joke. It's a partial look at the competition to fill the Garland school board seat vacated by G. Randall Clark, who resigned in July. His term expires in the spring.

The call for volunteers brought 14 applications. The school board will appoint one of the candidates.

"Looking at the résumés, I can see we are going to have a tough time picking a replacement," school board president Keith Montgomery said.

He said the problem is not a lack of talent but an overabundance of it: "It seems like they're all intelligent and successful people who are extremely active in the community. This is a very impressive list of candidates."

The hopefuls are:

• Patsy R. Aston, a lifelong Garland resident, attended public schools in the district and spent 33 years teaching at its schools.

• J. Diane Garza Cummings, who has lived in Rowlett for 22 years, is a lawyer who works as a senior compliance and risk manager at Bank of America.

• Bob Gharis, another district graduate, sells real estate through Re/Max. His four children attend district schools.

• Lawrence H. Glick, who has lived in Rowlett since 1984, recently sold the tax consulting business he started in 1975, but he still consults for the business.

• Selmore L. Haines, who spent three decades at Texas Instruments, has worked for the last nine years as business manager at North Garland Baptist Church.

• Julius C. Irozuru worked at the Lincoln Hotel and Neiman Marcus before becoming a teacher in the Dallas school district, where he has worked for 17 years.

• Robert A. Kittrell, another teacher, has taught high school students at Dallas County juvenile justice facilities and at Brown Schools.

• Gregory W. Mitchell, a lawyer who lives in Rowlett, worked for Tax Automation Inc. and Price Waterhouse Coopers in tax law before starting his own law firm four years ago.

• Minerva I. Moreno, who moved to the Dallas area 26 years ago, manages grant processing at the Texas Instruments Foundation.

• Suzanne M. Smith, a podiatrist, has practiced for 22 years, the last seven of them in Rowlett. She spent two years on the Rowlett City Council.

• James M. Spence, a Garland resident since 1952, retired after a professional life that included running a drilling company and selling cars, among other things. He served on the Garland City Council from 1994 to 2002 and was mayor from 1998 to 2002.

• Stephen W. Stanley of Sachse has spent more than two decades in real estate listing and sales, most recently at his own company, Stanley Realty. He served on the Sachse City Council from 1998 to 2004.

• Jesus A. Torres of Garland works as a tax administrator at the Internal Revenue Service.

• B.J. Williams is a human resources manager at the Social Security Administration, where he has worked for 36 years.

Nearly every candidate volunteers at several organizations. The candidate pool includes Rotarians, coaches, church leaders, fundraisers and civil rights leaders.

So far, in addition to proof of residency and basic biographical information, all of the candidates have submitted a few sentences about why they'd make good board members. All of them will get a chance to elaborate during the coming weeks, in an interview with current board members.

"We haven't scheduled anything yet, but we'd like to find a day that works for as many people as possible," Mr. Montgomery said. "We'd also like to do it as soon as possible because the term expires this spring."

E-mail asmith@dallasnews.com