Mansfield school board declares candidate ineligible

The Mansfield school board on Thursday declared Place 2 candidate Angel Hidalgo ineligible for the May 4 election.

The decision during a special meeting comes after the Star-Telegram reported last week that employees and school board members knew for months that Hidalgo was likely ineligible.

Hidalgo will remain on the May 4 ballot, according to board president Courtney Lackey Wilson. If he prevails in the election the spot will remain vacated and filled by a board appointee. Early voting starts Monday.

The district had previously stated Hidalgo would stay on the ballot because the Feb. 23 deadline to remove him had passed, however emails obtained by the StarTelegram show a Tarrant County elections administration worker asked the district if it had decided whether to keep Hidalgo on the ballot weeks after the deadline.

Pasquel Lee, an attorney hired by Hidalgo’s opponent Jandel Crutchfield, said in a statement sent to the school board and reviewed by the StarTelegram that if Hidalgo remained on the ballot and prevailed on election day, he and his law firm would advice Crutchfield to exercise “all rights and remedies under the law.”

In addition to the offer to remove him after the deadline was declined by the district, text messages show Wilson and school board member Desiree Thomas said in a text exchange on Feb. 7 that Hidalgo was not registered to vote in Tarrant County.

Records also showed Lackey Wilson instructed Hidalgo to use a personal email address because he had used Tarrant County College email for campaign purposes, which is illegal under Texas state law.

During the public comments portion of the meeting multiple parents spoke, many criticizing the board for not acting sooner, speaking out against the board’s ability to appoint a candidate if Hidalgo receives more votes and some even calling on them to resign.

“What happens to a student when they do something against school policy or break the law completely? They are suspended or expelled. What kind of example are y’all setting for our children?” said Caroline Ferguson, who has children in the district. “If y’all want to acknowledge the truth, If y’all won’t acknowledge the truth about Dr. Hidalgo, at least acknowledge the message you are sending to the students and our community.”

Ferguson also said that “each and every “board member should step down from their positions because they “have no integrity.”

Preston Horn, with three daughters in the district, brought his laptop to the meeting and worked remotely so he could be in attendance.

He steeped away from work for a few minutes to speak.

“This is all so embarrassing,” Horn said. “God, it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that it’s even happening. It’s embarrassing that it’s gotten this far. It’s embarrassing that MISD is in the news. It’s embarrassing that there’s a reporter here right now. I noticed the Vision 2030 banner outside it says ‘students first, continuous improvement, Integrity.’ is that what we’re doing here? Is this Circus with Dr. Hidalgo? Any of those.”

Crutchfield was in attendance for the meeting and told the Star-Telegram she was glad the board declared Hidalgo ineligible but that it needed to find a way to inform voters before they cast their ballots.

“I’m glad that voters will know going to the polls that the candidate is ineligible,” Crutchfield said. “Dr. Hidalgo is ineligible. I’m the only eligible candidate on the ballot I do think, unless that message is sent out in some systematic way to all 100,000 voters in Mansfield ISD, it hasn’t gone far enough.”

Crutchfield also said she feels that the board should not have the authority to appoint someone for an elected position.

“I understand when people have to step down, or there’s a sickness, the appointment makes sense in that case but not in the case of an ineligible candidate being on the ballot and that being the reason that you’re appointing somebody,” Crutchfield said.

School board members were not available for interviews following the meeting.

Hidalgo was not at the board meeting. He hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment.