9 apply for open seat on Mat-Su school board

PALMER — After extending the deadline for candidates to apply, the Mat-Su Borough School Board has a list of nine candidates interested in replacing recently resigned board member Tiffany Scott.

Board members will interview candidates and vote among themselves to decide who will fill the open seat when the body meets next month.

Candidates include, among others, a former school board member, a former school district department head, an entrepreneur, and a former Frontiersman reporter. A tenth candidate, former board member Erick Cordero, withdrew his name between the first deadline and the extended deadline.

Here are short bios of each drawn from their application letters and the resumes they attached:

Sabrena Combs

A lifelong Valley resident and University of Alaska Anchorage graduate, Combs is a parent who said she wants to help maintain the quality of local education.

Combs works for the Matanuska Electric Association as a programmer analyst in its digital mapping department. She has worked with United Way, Mat-Su Baseball Inc., Cash Mob Palmer, the March of Dimes, and the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce.

Henry Cottle

Another lifelong Mat-Su resident, Cottle notes in his application letter, “the only time I have been away from Alaska was while serving in the U.S. Army as a military police officer in Germany.”

His three children graduated from Mat-Su schools.

Cottle began his career working for the Mat-Su Borough School District as a janitor in 1981. He moved through the ranks to become Director of Maintenance, Operations and Transportation from 2007 to 2011.

Andrew Ford

A 2010 Wasilla High School graduate, Ford graduated last year from Gardner Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He said he would bring the perspective of a millennial, a member of, in his words, “the next generation.”

He’s the office manager for Rep. Lynn Gattis — a Republican who moved from the school board to the Legislature — and has interned with the Alaska Redistricting Board and worked for the Mat-Su Business Alliance.

Heather Fussell

A home-schooling parent who works through Twindly Bridge Charter School, Fussell focused her application letter on budget challenges the district faces.

According to her resume, she’s worked as a doctor’s assistant and has done quite a bit of community service including on the board of directors of Alaska Right to Life and the Valley Republican Women’s Club. She’s also a Sunday school teacher.

Neal Lacy

A small engine mechanic who founded a program that continues to teach kids to work on boats, lawnmowers, snowmachines and all-terrain vehicles at Colony High School, Lacy served on the school board from 2010-13 when he was unseated by Donna Dearman during the most recent election cycle.

“I talk to many graduates of our programs, including my former vocational training program, and they all say the same thing: The education I received trained me for a living wage job in the community I want to live in. These results are what the board of education should be the most proud of,” he writes.

Jeaninne Milne

A clinician and outreach coordinator at Alaska Family Services, Milne has experience as an educator.

“I have a strong passion for seeing youth succeed and truly believe that the experience children and youth have in school is very important to their success,” she writes.

Milne has degrees from Dean College in Massachusetts and Longwood University in Virginia. She moved to Alaska in 2013 and works in the domestic violence, sexual assault and tobacco prevention programs at Alaska Family Services.

Michael Rovito

With one child in kindergarten and one on her way to borough schools, Rovito said education is important to his family.

“It will be advantageous for families like mine to have someone on the board going through exactly what they are,” Rovito writes.

He is currently Director of Member and Public Relations for the Alaska Power Association. Before that he was the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority’s legislative liaison and before that a chief of staff to Sen. Linda Menard, R-Wasilla. He also is a former Frontiersman reporter.

Jessica Steele

Owner of the Beehive Beauty Shop and Be Vintage — a rental service offering antiques and vintage items for weddings or parties — Steele has dabbled in reality television and founded a magazine as well as invented beauty products that are available nationally. She is a Palmer High School graduate, has kids in district schools and is married to a special education teacher.

“It is important that we as a community can offer our future generation many educational options,” Steel writes.

Kelsey Trimmer

Another business owner, Trimmer bought A-Two Septic in 2012, according to his resume, and was able to double its winter revenue in a year.

Trimmer is attending classes online through the University of Alaska Southeast. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and Colorado Army National Guard with experience as an equipment operator; a health, safety and environmental specialist; and as a train conductor.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.