By Edmond Ortiz
Six San Antonio-area school districts held contested board elections May 2, and victory was declared in all but one race, which heads to a June runoff election.
Meanwhile, voters in a Northeast Side suburban school district approved a bond package there.
Alamo Colleges District
District 9 will have new representation as trustee Leslie Sachanowicz narrowly missed out in qualifying for a June 13 runoff election, which will involve the two top vote-getters, business owner Robert Garcia, and Carolyn DeLecour, a past ACD professor and a current certified grief educator.
A Northwest Vista College graduate and the owner of a local accounting practice, Garcia tallied 29% of the vote to finish first. He was closely followed by DeLecour who got 28.9%. She spent 27 of her nearly 50 years in education at Palo Alto College.
Sachanowicz, an attorney who has taught government and law as an adjunct professor at San Antonio College and St. Mary’s University, has spent the last six years on the ACD board. He received 28.2%. Former educator and past board member Joe Jesse Sanchez finished fourth.
Election rules stipulate that a candidate must clear 50% of the vote to be the outright victor and avoid a runoff election.
District 9 covers a sliver of northeast San Antonio and neighboring suburbs such as Live Oak, Universal City, Selma and Windcrest.
District 4 trustee Lorena “Lorraine” Pulido and District 8 board member Clint Kingsbery booth ran unopposed.
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District
Voters passed all three propositions contained in SCUCISD’s $295 million bond.
Proposition A, which was approved with 68% of the vote, will set aside $230.7 million for renovations, expansions, and security, transportation, safety and technology upgrades at existing facilities.
Proposition B, which passed with 60%, will allocate $55.3 million for improvements and expansion at Lehnhoff Stadium, and new artificial stadium turf at the Steele High and Corbett Junior High schools.
Bexar County voters living in SCUCISD narrowly rejected Prop B, but Guadalupe County voters overwhelmingly made up the difference.
Proposition C, which was approved with 69%, provides $9.1 million for new computers, iPads, and Chromebooks for students and staff.
No new standalone construction projects are planned in what was the first SCUCISD bond election in 10 years.
District officials have said they do not anticipate any property tax rate over the first two years of an approved bond program.
Alamo Heights Independent School District
Place 3 trustee Ty Edwards, a financial planner, collected 62% of the vote against Lindsey Saldana, an assistant principal in the Edgewood ISD.
Place 4 trustee and real estate executive Hunter Kingman tallied 64%, defeating data scientist Bianca Cerqueira.
Boerne Independent School District
Place 7 trustee Rich Sena won another three-year term with 62% of the vote, beating back a challenge from business owner/publisher Michael Ethridge.
Place 6 incumbent Kristi Schmidt drew no opposition.
Medina Valley Independent School District
Current school board President Nathan Fillinger and incumbent Blane Nash won two available at-large Medina Valley ISD board seats.
Fillinger is a Hondo resident and an information technology architect with USAA. Nash, a Castroville resident, owns and runs a construction company, and is a former paramedic and firefighter.
Toby Castillo Walters, a Northside Independent School District academic dean, and an adjunct English instructor in the Alamo Colleges District, rounded out the field, followed by Castroville resident and Medina Valley High School teacher Andrew Carawan.
North East Independent School District
Insurance investigator and Castle Hills resident Michael Wulczyn received 58%, winning the District 3 board seat, ousting Diane Sciba Villarreal, a San Antonian and a small business owner.
Villarreal was a key part of a social conservative surge on the NEISD school board earlier this decade. A U.S. Naval veteran, Wulczyn has worked in education, law enforcement and information technology.
Stay-at-home parent Caprice Garcia won the open District 7 with 66% against realtor Cheryl Ettinger. Garcia succeeds Marsha Landry, another social conservative board member, who chose not to pursue a second term.
District 2 incumbent Tracie Shelton, a San Antonian representing the Roosevelt High School cluster, ran unopposed for a full four-year term.
Southwest Independent School District
In its first election held jointly with Bexar County, Southwest ISD saw the re-election of two incumbent board members.
Jose Diaz, a trucking owner-operator and SWISD parent, and James Gonzalez, a Frito-Lay sales representative and a Southwest High School graduate, each won a second term with 35% of the vote.
Yolanda Garza-Lopez, a management assistant at the Center for Health Empowerment and a Southwest High graduate, finished third, followed by former SWISD trustee Pete Bernal.
Bexar County reported 3% voter turnout while 7% of voters in Kendall County took part in elections there.
