The Marana Unified School District has more candidates running for seats on its school board than any other Pima County school district.
Eight people will compete for three open seats in the county's largest school board race, which will be decided on Nov. 4.
Marana, Amphitheater Public Schools and the Flowing Wells Unified School District will be among the 17 districts electing new board members in November.
Marana incumbents Dan Post and Maribel Lopez are joined by Amy Autret, Suzanne Hopkins, Joe Koellisch, Kathryn Mikronis, Albert Siqueiros and Dean Spencer in their pursuit of one of the three seats. Board members serve four-year terms.
Lopez was first elected in 2004. That year the field consisted of 12 candidates bidding for just four seats.
Current Marana board member Patricia Teager is not seeking a new term.
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Incumbents Kent Barrabee, Diana Boros and Linda Loomis are uncontested in the Amphitheater Public Schools Governing Board race.
Flowing Wells resident Bobbi Patterson is challenging incumbents Thomas Jacobs, James Love and Jeretta Douglas for one of the three seats open in the Flowing Wells district.
Patterson is a lifelong resident of the Flowing Wells district and graduated from Flowing Wells High School in 1975.
Her two children also attended Flowing Wells schools.
Patterson has either volunteered or worked as an educator or social worker for about 30 years. She's a certified special-education teacher and is a long-term substitute teacher for the Tucson Unified School District.
"I'm a newbie to all of this, but I'm excited about all of this," Patterson said. "I've always been very involved. I felt that maybe I could do even more."
Another TUSD employee is running for a spot on the Marana board.
Siqueiros, an assistant superintendent of student services at TUSD, won a seat on the Marana school board in 2004 when he was elected to fill a vacancy. Because he filled a vacant seat, Siqueiros served for only two years and did not seek re-election in 2006.
Other candidates seeking a spot on the board are parents with children in the district.
Koellisch and Mikronis both have children at Coyote Trail Elementary School. Koellisch also has a child at Marana Middle School.
Mikronis has a 3-year-old son with autism who attends the Pre-School Education and Enrichment Center at Estes Elementary School.
"It's my catalyst for running," Mikronis said about being a voice for special-needs children. "I decided it was better to be proactive than be one of those parents who sits around and complains."
Amy Autret gained an interest in school board politics when the district was considering changing Ironwood Elementary School's boundaries.
In March, the board voted to change the boundaries in an effort to ease overcrowding at the school. The move would send more than 100 Ironwood students to Quail Run for the 2008-09 school year.
Autret's children were not affected by the decision. She has three children at Ironwood and a 4-year-old at home.
"It drew my attention to the board," she said about the Ironwood issue. "Then I started to observe their other decisions and what was going on in the district as a whole."
Autret wants to have someone on the board who will look out for the interests of people living in unincorporated Pima County, which is where about half of the Marana district's schools are located. Autret was surprised to see seven other people running for the board, but she said residents of the district always have been committed to education.
"We have an incredibly involved district," she said. "A lot of people care about education and want to be involved in the process."
