School trustee will stand down

Vice president of Newport-Mesa board intends to volunteer and serve as mentor to local children.Linda Sneen, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s trustee for the Costa Mesa High School zone, has announced that she will not seek reelection when her first term ends this year.

Sneen, 45, joined the school board in 2002 and presides over the area that includes Costa Mesa High and Paularino, Killybrooke, Davis, College Park and Sonora elementary schools. Her term will end in December. She serves as the vice president of the board.

A homemaker and the mother of a student at Costa Mesa High, Sneen said she wanted to step down so she could have more time to volunteer in the Newport-Mesa community. After leaving the school board, she said, she plans to work at district events and serve as a mentor to children.

“I believe you have to do what feels good for you, and what feels good for me is the contact with kids,” Sneen said. “I know I can make a difference in the lives of kids. If I’m not counseling them, I may be being the mom they don’t have.”

Both of Sneen’s sons -- Garrett, who graduated last year, and Elliott, a sophomore -- have attended Costa Mesa High. During her tenure on the board, Sneen has pushed for nutrition and physical education programs at schools, frequently volunteered at the high school’s service fairs and helped to conceive the district’s strategic plan for the next five years.

Board members and others in the Costa Mesa education community said they were saddened by news of Sneen’s departure.

“She has done an excellent job, and she’s always been someone parents can go to when they have a concern or if they want to find out about something,” said Councilwoman Katrina Foley, whose children attend Sonora Elementary. “She’s very responsive. I am very, very disappointed that she’s not going to seek reelection.”

“She’s a great advocate for children across the board,” said Ann Brown, a counselor at Costa Mesa High. “She’s leveled the playing field for children of all walks of life.”

Born in Garden Grove, Sneen graduated from Orange High School and attended Santa Ana College before getting married. She has not held a full-time job since starting a family and said she did not plan to seek one after leaving the board.

“It’s harder to grow up now than it was when I was growing up,” she explained. “You can’t get volunteers at school because everyone works. I don’t work. The last four days, I’ve been baking snacks and taking them down to the drama rehearsal.”

Sneen said that she hoped her replacement on the board would be an advocate for arts programs in schools and continue to work for better student health. She added that she would welcome a board member who was Latino or bilingual.

Apart from Sneen, three other members of the Newport-Mesa school board will finish their current terms this year.

Tom Egan and Serene Stokes both said they had not decided yet whether to run for reelection; Judy Franco could not be reached Monday.

Stokes noted, however, that she might seek another term to ease Newport-Mesa’s transition to a new superintendent this July, when current leader Robert Barbot steps down.

“Because we’re going to have a new superintendent, we need to have as much stability on the board as we can,” said Stokes, a trustee for 11 years.

“I think it would be very difficult to have a new superintendent and three or four new board members.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714) 966-4617.

20060207h6vlyxkfDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Linda Sneen won’t seek reelection as the Newport-Mesa Unified School Board trustee for parts of Costa Mesa.