Saturday, May 7, is Election Day and a number of candidates are asking for your vote in the race for the Garland Independent School District board of trustees. All elections are important and exercising your right to vote and make a difference is equally important. This race is no exception.
With 58,000 students, Garland ISD is the second largest district in Dallas County and the board of trustees has the responsibility to not only make decisions about what is best for the district’s students, but also to oversee the use of $455 million in bond money. There are reportedly additional issues to be researched including spending, low staff morale, teachers’ workloads and lack of transparency.
It is the responsibility of voters to take time to research the candidates and go out to the polls and vote.
Links to candidate interviews are below:
Place 2 – Rob McAngus
Place 2 – Johnny Beach
Place 2 – Charles Axe
Place 3 – Linda Griffin
Place 3 – Jody Luna
Place 4 – Jed Reed
Place 4 – Wes Johnson
Requests for interviews with Jose Flores and Michael Latham were not answered.
Serving on the board of trustees is a volunteer duty and the term is three years.
The term for the candidate elected to place 4 will be one year only and will complete the term of Dr. Cindy Castaneda who resigned the seat. Veronica Martinez-Cantu was selected to replace Castaneda until the May election and she stated at the time she was selected that she would not be running for the seat.
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd U.S. President)