4 candidates vie for 2 seats on Georgetown ISD board
Voters in the Georgetown school district will choose between two candidates each in the Place 6 and 7 school board elections May 5.
In Place 6, newcomers Marcos Gonzalez, 37, and Stevie Jones, 35, are running to replace Greg Eady, who decided to step down after serving on the school board for nine years.
Gonzalez, is a Georgetown native who has 15 years of experience in the banking industry. He said his priorities would be ensuring the school district maintains high standards for teacher recruitment as it continues to grow. For current staff, he said teachers must have the “necessary tools” to succeed.
A common concern Gonzalez said he hears among parents is a desire for improved communication from the district. “I want to encourage more parental involvement and to find better ways of reaching out to and communicating with parents and staff,” he said.
Jones, said her “eyes flew open” to the problems facing the school district when she enrolled her son in school last year. Formerly an early-education teacher, Jones said she knows “what it takes to manage a classroom” and that she understands the struggles local teachers are facing.
She said a priority if elected would be addressing concerns from parents about bullying. She said the district has failed to acknowledge the extent of the problem and parents “feel they are simply dismissed” when they voice concern.
“We need better resources to deal with the bullying and violent acts of hate happening every day in the hallways of our schools,” Jones said.
Place 7 incumbent Ben Stewart, 39, replaced Trustee Ronna Johnson following her resignation in 2016. After serving for 17 months, Stewart is now running for a full threeyear term.
Jaquita Wilson, 38, a local parent and social justice advocate, will challenge Stewart for his seat.
In addition to serving on the school board, Stewart was on the Citizens Advisory Committee when it recommended the 2015 school bond. The bond passed and funded the construction of Wagner Middle School and Purl Elementary School. If re-elected, Stewart said he would continue working to improve communication with parents, while making sure the district remains fiscally responsible.
“Unfunded state mandates and school finance are our biggest challenges,” Stewart said. “We must continue to find ways to bring back local control of our district and answer to our community, not the state.”
Wilson said the discontinuation of the district’s free breakfast program in 2017 motivated her to run for the school board. She said one of her goals if elected would be to bring back the program and to expand it to all students “without income restrictions” by using federal grants.
The prevalence of bullying — especially racially targeted bullying — is a problem she said she would address as a trustee. She also said partnering with the city to plan for the district’s growth is critical to the district’s future.
“I would like to see strategic collaboration with city and county governments to manage growth in ways that are cost-effective for taxpayers,” Wilson said. “We need to focus tax dollars on education.”
Three candidates are vying for two open seats on the Hutto school board in the May 5 elections. Board trustees serve at-large, so the top two vote-getters will be seated on the board.
Two incumbents, Byron McDaniel, 49, and Phillip Boutwell, 56, are asking voters for another three-year term on the board, with Edgar Padilla, 39, challenging them for one of the seats.
McDaniel said if he’s elected to a fifth term, he would work to guarantee a quality education for all students, “whether it be college, trade school, serving in the military or going straight to work.”
McDaniel said a top priority in his fifth term would be helping facilitate the district’s rapid growth. He said cooperating with the city on mutually beneficial projects and monitoring key areas of the city’s growth were important to managing growth.
“We have to diligently keep an eye on our growth projections and plan adequately,” he said. “Based on those projections, the district will have to ensure there will be enough classrooms at the various campuses to accommodate new students.”
McDaniel also pointed out that if property taxes continue to rise in Hutto, the school district will soon be classified as a Chapter 41 school, which would mean some local tax revenue being “recaptured” and sent to other districts in need across the state. He said the board would “need to push our state Legislature to look for a better school funding system.”
Boutwell said he is running for a fourth term on the school board because he wants to bring continuity to the district as it undergoes executive staffing changes. Superintendent Celina Estrada Thomas was appointed last fall.
If re-elected, Boutwell said, he, too, would focus on managing growth and creating opportunities for students after high school graduation other than college.
He said placing too much emphasis on “college readiness” is detrimental to students who might be more successful pursuing a different career path.
“I prefer the term ‘post-secondary ready,’” Boutwell said. “College is not for everybody, and we need to make sure that our kids are prepared for the military, technical school or whatever option they choose.”
The challenger in the race, Padilla, has spent 10 years working in higher education, which he said would give him a unique perspective on the challenges Hutto will face in the near future.
He said he would use that experience to help “make difficult and prudent decisions,” such as how to fund facility construction projects and how to open “pathways to post-secondary success” for all students.
“We have the chance to sell the proud Hippo brand to private industry relocating to Hutto,” Padilla said. “Doing so creates affinity for the community and opens the door for sponsorship and scholarship opportunities like we’ve never seen before.”
Padilla also said helping to foster a “positive, cultured learning environment” would be a critical part of his mission on the board. If elected, he said, he would call for a review of the district’s anti-bullying efforts.
“The key is prevention and mitigation by ensuring our schools are safe from bullying,” Padilla said, “and that students feel safe to address concerns and state opinions.”