By Tom Blodgett
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A veteran board member and retired educator is the next president of the Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board. 

Sheila Rogers Uggetti was the unanimous choice by the board Tuesday after being put into nomination by outgoing President Lori Wood at a special organizational meeting for the year. 

Chad Thompson, starting his second year on the board, was elected the board clerk. 

Uggetti was elected to the board in 2016 and retained in 2020.  

She has worked 52 years in public education, including her unpaid service on the governing board. 

Uggetti worked for 40 years for GPS as a teacher, interim human resources director and, for 21 years, the principal at Gilbert Elementary School. 

She later was superintendent of the Douglas Unified School District in her hometown of Douglas, Arizona, retiring in 2015. 

In addition to choosing its officers, the board voted to continue with its established rules of order and meeting times and divvied up liaison assignments. The assignments are:  

• Legislative representative: Thompson; Jill Humpherys alternative; 
• Town of Gilbert liaison: Humpherys; 
• City of Mesa liaison: Wood; 
• Gilbert Education Foundation liaison: Ronda Page; 
• Insurance Trust representative: Uggetti; 
• Audit Committee representative: Humpherys.

We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

Meet Tom
Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.

Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.

Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism. 

Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.  

Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).