San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
College district welcomes two new trustees after runoff
The Alamo Colleges District is slated to welcome two new members to its board of trustees after Lorena “Lorraine” Pulido and Leslie Sachanowicz defeated their opponents in their runoff races.
In District 4, Pulido, 50, defeated José “Joe” Gallegos, 67, with 78 percent of the vote. Pulido will replace Board Chair Marcelo Casillas, who is stepping down.
In District 9, Sachanowicz, 63, edged out incumbent Joe Jesse Sanchez, 72, with 51 percent of the vote. Sanchez was appointed to the board in 2017.
The board is expected to canvass the votes and make the results official next week. Pulido and Sachanowicz will likely be sworn in during a special meeting, for a which a date has not yet been set. Trustees serve 6-year terms.
Pulido is a communications manager for VIA and has taught at local colleges, including Palo Alto College, for 20 years. In the Nov. 3 election, she received about 4,800 more votes than Gallegos. Both of them received more votes that Robert A. Casias, 70, and Connie Prado, 71.
As a student at Harlandale High School, Pulido was enrolled in dual-credit courses offered by Palo Alto College. She became a mother as a teenager and raised her child while earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
“I am absolutely elated and honored that I will have the opportunity to serve the Alamo Colleges,” she said. “I’m going to work tenaciously. I’m ready to get started, and I’m just grateful to (the voters) for their support.”
Pulido has said she wants to ensure long-term funding for the Alamo Promise program, increase student retention rates and expand the district’s workforce training programs through community partnerships.
Sachanowicz is a former Bexar County assistant district attorney and has taught government and law at San Antonio College and St. Mary’s University. He received about 8,500 more votes than Sanchez on Nov. 3. Michael John Good, 53, came in third at the time.
His legal experience and outside perspective will be an asset to the board, he has said. He wants to take a critical look at the district’s budget, which totals more than $380 million this year, and to improve the district’s student advising and support services, especially for students with learning disabilities.
“This is a testament to (the fact that) perseverance does pay off, and not to be discouraged,” Sachanowicz said. “I feel great. I think this is kind of something that’s good for the small guy.”
Sanchez, a lifelong educator and the only incumbent participating in the runoffs, said he wishes Sachanowicz success in his new role, and hopes Sachanowicz will help sustain the progress the Alamo Colleges has made in recent years. He said he will not run again but will continue to be involved in public service.
“This election is really about the Alamo Colleges, and it’s about the momentum the Alamo Colleges has,” he said. “It’s about students — the vision that we have for putting students first and producing productive citizens in this area.”
All four candidates expressed some frustration about the difficulties of getting voters to the polls more than a month after the original election and during the peak of the pandemic. More than 65,000 people voted in each of the two races in the Nov. 3 election. Less than 8,000 people voted in the runoffs.
“We have the concern of voter fatigue,” Pulido said as she was campaigning. “It’s a lot harder to get people to come out to vote when there’s only one item on the ballot. We’ve had to take it up several notches to help increase awareness first and foremost, and then ask for their vote.”
The candidates spent the last several weeks putting up signs, posting on social media, mailing flyers, calling voters and hosting virtual meetings with community groups to promote the election and their individual platforms.
“This is a very, very important election,” Gallegos said during early voting. “It should not be minimized, and we need to ensure that the future of our community, our students, is recognized and represented and impacted.”