The Naples Daily News, Monday, April 24, 2000
By Dave Breitenstein

    The race for two Lee County School Board seats has heated up during April, with six candidates now having declared their intentions to help lead a 56,000-student system.

    Seats in District 2, which represents central Fort Myers, and south Lee’s District 3 are up for re-election. Candidates will run on a nonpartisan ticket for the first time, and voters countywide can elect both positions.

    Candidates for District 2 include Jeanne Dozier, Bob Lisenbee, Sonya Paige and T. Rankin Terry. Incumbent Lanny Moore has yet to decide whether he'll seek a second term. Jane Kuckel and incumbent Pat Riley plan to run for the District 3 position, although Riley has not opened a cam- paign account.

    "We're probably going to see more come out in both of these races," said Lee County Super- visor of Elections Philinda Young, who's received about 10 calls from people considering the seats. "Now that it's a non- partisan position, we'll see more interest."

    Candidates for School Board do not officially file paperwork with the elections office until July 17-21. The election is scheduled for Nov. 7, although primaries this fall will whittle the field down to the final two candidates for each position.

    The four residents who have opened campaign accounts for the District 2 seat are:

    E Dozier, 48, a law education and American history teacher at Riverdale High. She has spent 11 years in Lee County schools, serving as assistant principal at Michigan Elementary, Suncoast Middle and Mariner High, where she also taught. Her 24 years in education include time-spent teaching in Alabama, where the Daughters of the American Revolution named her National Teacher of the Year. She received her bachelor's degree in 1977 from Troy State University in Alabama and a master's from Nova Southeastern University in 1994. She is married with two children.

    Dozier said she wants to improve communication between the district and community, remedy the transportation system and reduce class sizes. Dozier's daughter also is a Lee County teacher, but possibly for not much longer.

    "She's looking at moving out of the county because of all the problems," Dozier said. "I don't want to see that happen."