Crane to hold forum for superintendent hopefuls

Five candidates will be interviewed Monday for the top job in the Crane School District, the district said in a news release, and the public is invited to meet them.

The five candidates were selected Feb. 11 during an executive session that lasted nearly five hours, said board President Dan Farar at February’s regular meeting. The current superintendent, Bob Klee, plans to retire June 30.

The governing board will hold a community forum Monday evening for the community to meet and hear from the candidates. The forum will be at 5:30 p.m. at Crane’s Pueblo Elementary School, 2803 W. 20th Street, in the multipurpose room. Overflow parking is available at Centennial Middle School, which is across from Pueblo.

Steve Highlen of the Arizona School Boards Association, the firm selected to perform the search, will moderate the event. Following the question/ answer period, guests will have a brief opportunity to personally speak and engage with the candidates, Crane’s release noted.

The candidates are (in alphabetical order): Crane’s Assistant Superintendent Laurie Doering (AZ); Acting Superintendent of the Winslow, Arizona, Unified School District Cyndie Mattox; Timothy Mayclin, the former superintendent at Northland Community Schools in Remer, Minnesota; Jasvir Sethi, former superintendent at Pinon (Arizona) Unified; and Cochise Superintendent Karl Uterhardt.

Doering, a graduate of

Arizona State University according to her LinkedIn profile, has 33 years of experience in education, including 12 years as a teacher, two years as a professional development coach, four years as an assistant principal, eight years as an elementary principal and five years as a middle school principal. In 2014, she was named a Rodel Exemplary Principal, and was part of Crane’s superintendent program, which trains principals in the district on being better leaders, the inner workings of the district office and helps prepare them for the position in the future, according to an article from Jan. 10, 2014.

Mattox holds two master’s degrees from Northern Arizona University, according to LinkedIn. She was named the acting superintendent of the Winslow Unified School District through April 1, when she will become the interim superintendent, according to minutes from its Jan. 19 governing board.

She has been a librarian; an elementary, middle and high school teacher; she was chosen as an Intel, Teach to the Future Master Teacher, among others. At Winslow, which she joined in 2005, she has filled positions as the federal projects/curriculum director; spent four years in various principal roles; and became assistant superintendent in July of 2014, according to her LinkedIn page. She is also a finalist for Winslow’s superintendent search, according to its website.

The Winslow Unified School District is in Navajo County in Arizona. According to data from the Arizona Department of Education, the average daily membership is about 2,060 students in preschool through the 12th grade.

Mayclin was superintendent of Northland Community Schools for just over two years starting in January of 2014, according to minutes from the governing board, and lasting through Feb. 6 of this year. He is also a finalist in the Winslow Unified School District superintendent search. Northland Community Schools is in Remer, Minnesota. The district has approximately 300 K-12 stu- dents.

Sethi is the former superintendent of Pinon Unified School District in northern Navajo County, Arizona. Pinon Unified has three schools and an enrollment of about 2,000 students, according to data from the Arizona Department of Education.

Uterhardt, superintendent of Cochise Elementary School District, spent eight years as superintendent of Tombstone Unified School District, according to articles in The Tombstone News. Cochise Elementary School District has one school and about 83 students, according to data from the state education department. The Tombstone district has about 760 students.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Uterhardt has

served as a vice principal at the St. David Unified School District in St. David, Arizona; was the superintendent of the Valley Union High School District from 2003 to 2006 in Elfrida, Arizona; was a vice principal at the Douglas Unified School District from July 2000 – June 2003; and worked at the Bisbee Unified School

District as a special education teacher from August of 1995 to June 2000.

He holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) in educational leadership and administration from Western New Mexico University; and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in special education/secondary education from WNMU, where he was a member of the

football team. He earned an associate degree in social sciences from Arizona Western College in 1989, where he also played football.

Crane Elementary School District No. 13 educates nearly 6,500 students in 11 schools in grades preschool through eighth grade.