Below is a list of candidates who filed to run for seats on the state school board. In districts with more than three hopefuls, an "X" denotes the candidates an advisory committee is recommending that Gov. Olene Walker consider putting on the ballot. Walker must choose two for each district:

l District 1: Theresa Theurer (incumbent), Phillip Geary

l District 4: Richard Sadler (unopposed)

l District 7: Karel Joy McDonough, John Pingree (incumbent), Jonathan George Jemming

l District 8: Janet Cannon (incumbent), Quentin Thomas Wells

l District 11: Mark Towner (X), Ronald Zeidner, Chet Linton (X), Bill Colbert (X)

l District 12: Mike Anderson (incumbent), Mark Cluff (X), David Lifferth, Vic Deauvono (X), David Adamic (X)

l District 13: Mossi White, Thomas Gregory (X), Brian Woodfield (X), Larry Oylan Finch (X)

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Residents of northern Utah County overwhelmingly voted Mike Anderson to the state school board in 2000, but come November they won't have a say in whether he stays.

Anderson won't be on the 2004 ballot because a newly formed advisory committee isn't recommending him to Gov. Olene Walker. And state law forbids her from picking finalists for the ballot unless they are tapped by the committee.

"I'm extremely disappointed, incredulous," Anderson said Wednesday from his Lindon home. "There is clearly an agenda here that is against those who support our public education system. I feel sick over this."

The Legislature established the 12-member committee this year, charging the panelists to recruit and nominate state board candidates with diverse talents, philosophies and professional backgrounds.

This committee also is required to narrow the field of candidates to three per district. (The state school board is divided into 15 districts.) This year, seats are up for election in seven districts, but the committee only had to narrow the field in three districts.

On Friday, Walker will winnow the list to two per district.

As mandated by the new legislation, Senate Bill 185, Walker appointed the committee members - six from education and six from business. But three committee members representing education were absent the day the committee settled on its candidate recommendations, giving the business representatives greater clout.

"There was a lot of lively discussion, and at the end of the day we didn't agree," said Jordan School District Superintendent Barry Newbold, one of the educators who did attend. "It wasn't hostile, but that's the way the process worked. The business representatives really had a stronger voice that day."

Chris Kyler, another committee member, said the selections weren't about promoting business interests.

"All of the candidates were quite impressive on paper and in person," said Kyler, CEO of the Utah Association of Realtors. "For me, it was a matter of matching up their background and experience and what the law encouraged us to think about."

SB185 orders the committee to select candidates with specific qualifications, such as business administration, higher education administration, economic development and public education instruction.

Even so, critics say the committee's recommendations confirm the fears they had when lawmakers were debating the matter earlier this year.

"If [Anderson] has been voted in once, then the citizens of his area have already made a choice," said Gayleen Gandy, a West Valley City mother who lobbied against a centralized advisory committee. "How can the committee overrule the choice the people of his district already made several years ago? I find that really, really disturbing." rlynn@sltrib.com