13 apply for Gilbert district board

Thirteen Gilbert residents have applied to fill the vacancy on the Gilbert Unified School District governing board after board member Traci Klein abruptly resigned earlier this month.The deadline to apply was 5 p.m. Friday.

The person appointed by Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Sandra Dowling will fill the spot until the end of the year, when Klein's position expires.

If the appointee wants to continue on the board, he or she will have to run in the November election.

The following are the applicants for the open position:

Emma Jo "E.J." Anderson is a public relations manager at Rio Salado College. She spent 10 years covering the East Valley, including Gilbert schools, for a local newspaper, and still works as a columnist.

She also worked in marketing and public relations for the Chandler Education Foundation and worked in public relations and student services with the East Valley Institute of Technology.

Anderson plans to get her master's degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University in May. She has five children who have attended Gilbert schools, with the youngest child graduating in May.

Mindy Siegel Baggett worked in the district for 11 years as a teacher, assistant principal and athletic director at Gilbert Junior High.

She left the district in 1997 to become the director of sales for a Phoenix company, then a regional sales director and an education specialist at a Chandler company.

Baggett has also been a Parent Teacher Student Organization president at two Gilbert schools and was on the Superintendent Site Council.

She has a master's degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University.

Tamera L. Cameron is a senior office specialist at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute. She has 20 years of professional administrative experience.

She is a former office manager, administrative assistant to the principal and administrative secretary to the assistant principal at Gilbert High School. She was also a secretary in the counseling department at Mesquite High School and an instructional assistant at Houston Elementary School.

Cameron was the classified employee of the month in Gilbert twice.

She had two children graduate from Gilbert schools.

Debra Carr is a member of the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee, which is an advisory panel to the superintendent. She was chairwoman of Citizens for Excellence in Education, helping to pass school bonds and overrides.

She has also been the PTSO vice president at Quartz Hill Elementary School in Gilbert and president of the South Valley Junior High School PTSO.

Carr has a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Nebraska.

She has three children in Gilbert schools.

Julia Taylor McCleve served 16 years as a member of the Gilbert governing board, from 1984 to 2000.

She has been a board member for the Gilbert Fine Arts Association and the Lutheran Hospitals Foundation, and a fundraiser for the Friends of Gilbert Library Art Project.

McCleve has an associate of arts degree from Mesa Community College.

McCleve has four children who graduated from either Gilbert or Highland high schools. She also has six grandchildren, and three of them are in Gilbert schools.

Elizabeth Cress-Sweet is the chairwoman of the Gilbert Arts Advisory Board and the co-founder of the Gilbert Global Village Festival. She has been a PTSO officer and parent volunteer at Sonoma Ranch Elementary School.

Cress-Sweet has a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Texas at Austin. She also has her teacher's certification in Missouri and Kansas and was a theater instructor at a community college in Kansas.

She has a daughter in a Gilbert high school.

M. Laurin Hendrix is the owner of Stradlings Fine Cabinetry in Mesa. He has more than 22 years in management experience in manufacturing, construction and the automotive industry.

Hendrix is a homeowners association president, precinct committeeman in District 22 and an investment club manager who supervises $34 million.

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Irvine.

Hendrix has five children who have been in Gilbert schools.

Holly Reycraft was a guidance counselor and a special education department chair at Greenfield Junior High School, as well as a special-education teacher at Tempe High School and Nevitt Elementary School in the Tempe Elementary School District.

She is the facilitator for Supporting Autism Now through Education, a representative with Gilbert's special-education parent council and has been a PTSO member in Gilbert schools.

She has a master's in education from the University of Phoenix.

Reycraft has three children.

Blake Sacha serves as an executive in the electronics industry at Intel, where he's worked since 1988.

He is a board member of Communities in Schools of Arizona, and helped establish the boundaries for Quartz Hill Elementary School.

He has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Sacha has two children in Gilbert schools.

Shauna Seamons is a religion teacher at Higley High School Seminary.

She has been a principal and religion teacher at Adobe Junior Seminary in Mesa and a religion teacher at Mesa High School Seminary. She was also a science teacher at two school districts in Utah.

Seamons has a master's degree in religious education from Brigham Young University and plans to start her doctorate.

Adelaida V. Severson is president of Bushtex, a Gilbert company.

She is an adjunct lecturer for an international communication course at ASU and a former production manager and reporter at a television station in Hawaii. She was also the director of special events and a program coordinator at ASU.

Severson has a doctorate in public administration from ASU.

Joseph H. Thomas is a social studies teacher at Skyline High School in Mesa. He was also a teacher at the Mesa Vista Alternative High School.

He is on the School District Redistricting Commission, teaches with the Leadership Institute and is a member of the Arizona Council for the Social Studies.

Thomas has a master's degree in adult education and distance learning from University of Phoenix.

Lily Tram is a senior financial services manager for ASU. She has worked at ASU since 1989 as an accountant, director of fiscal and business services and financial accounting manager.

She has a bachelor's degree in management from ASU.

Tram has three children in the Gilbert district.