Eight candidates are running for three open seats on the Round Rock School Board; only Place 6 has an incumbent. While some candidates were public bond supporters and some were opponents in the last bond election, all agree that given the overwhelming opposition to the $349 million package, the bond the new board of trustees puts together must be smaller.
Place One
Yvette Sanchez: A high school and college instructor, and a longtime RRISD volunteer in PTAs and campus committees, Sanchez promises fiscal conservatism and budgetary “discipline.”
Karla Sartin: Sartin is a self-employed consultant who served on the Voight campus committee and the Project KIDS committee that helped develop the bond package. She presents herself as a mediator who can bring together the district’s diverse stakeholders.
Vivian Sullivan: A former FBI agent and neighborhood activist – she helped keep part of Highway 183 from being converted into a toll road – Sullivan decided to run for the school board because she was “scandalized” by the size of the bond proposal. She also wants line-item authority to cut wasteful spending from the budget. A “Sensible.”
Place Three
Diane Cox: Cox has been active in her PTA and site-based committees, and served on several RRISD committees focused on technology planning, high school design, the education foundation, and Chapter 41 (i.e., statewide school finance). She wants to do a better job of bringing nonparents into discussions about how to best plan the district and its growth.
Debbie Bruce-Juhlke: A longtime PTA activist with a background in social work, Bruce-Juhlke is running on a ticket of fiscal conservatism and a smaller bond. Of particular concern is making sure the district values diversity and inclusiveness. A “Sensible.”
Phil Denney: Withdrew from the race in early April.
Place Six
Raymond Hartfield: Incumbent trustee has served on the RRISD board since 1994, and served on site-based and district committees before that. He wants to keep “personal, private, or political agendas” out of board decisions. A former teacher, Hartfield now works on educational projects for SBC.
Mark Maund: Maund is an attorney and former PTA president who decided to run for the board because of the size of the bond package and concerns about how it was put together. He wants the district to do a better job answering community questions, and tolerating dissent.
Dan McFaull: Independent businessman McFaull promises to bring a businesslike approach to running RRISD affairs. He decided to get involved in school politics because of the bond, and like the other Sensibles, he promises to shrink the bond and scrub the “top-heavy” budget.
Also on the ballot in Williamson Co.:
• Round Rock: Mayor and two City Council seats• Cedar Park: Mayor and four City Council seats
• Georgetown: Mayor, two City Council seats, four propositions
• Leander: three City Council seats
• Hutto: three City Council seats
• Jarrell: two propositions
• Leander ISD: two school board seats
• Georgetown ISD: two school board seats
• Four Williamson Co. EMS District propositions
For complete Williamson Co. election info, see wcportals.wilco.org/elections.
The Round Rock ISD election Web page is at www.roundrockisd.org.
This article appears in April 29 • 2005.