The option to move trustee elections from May to November is not in the cards for SMCISD.
After a discussion on the issue, the SMCISD board of trustees voted 4-3 against a measure to petition the Texas Legislature to change the election code and allow the district to hold its elections in November.
Trustee Miguel Arredondo said he requested that the item be put on the agenda because he felt voter turnout would be better if the election was held in conjunction with general elections.
“I think moving it to November, we have more people voting,” he said.
However, trustee Margie Villalpando worried that moving the election would change its nature.
November elections are partisan, she said, “and this is a nonpartisan body, just like the city council.”
Moreover, she said, “Sometimes when you’re at the very bottom of the ballot, people don’t vote all the way down. They’re interested in what they’re there to vote for.”
Villalpando noted that the people who turn out to vote in May are interested in the school district.
“Partisan politics is not part of the school district,” she said.
Some trustees voiced concerns that voting to petition the legislature to amend the elections code would require the district to revisit the 1993 court order that required it to have single-member districts and get permission to move the election.
In response, Arredondo said, “If this resolution were to pass tonight, it does not change the date of our elections. It does not change when they are held, it does not change the 5-2 single-member districts.”
Nevertheless, the board decided not to pursue the measure. In last year’s May school board election in which at-large trustees Anne Halsey and John McGlothlin won re-election, a total of 2,263 ballots were cast. In San Marcos City Council races, held in November in conjunction with the General Election, 20,098 votes were cast.
In related news, the board is expected to vote to cancel the May election for the District 4 and District 5 seats on the board. The incumbents for those seats, Kathy Hansen and Clementine Cantu, said they are both unopposed.
