This story has been updated.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday in the first of two May elections this year.
The May 4 election includes a number of municipal races, new seats overseeing the Bexar Appraisal District and several school board races.
(Roughly three weeks later, on May 28, voters will be asked to weigh in on primary runoffs, since Republicans and Democrats still need to determine their nominees for some local, state and federal contests this November).
Balcones Heights, China Grove, Elmendorf, Grey Forest, Kirby, Leon Valley, Live Oak, Shavano Park, Somerset, St. Hedwig, Terrell Hills and Universal City will hold their municipal elections on May 4.
The mayors of Balcones Heights, Elmendorf, Grey Forest, Leon Valley and Somerset face contested races, while Terrell Hills residents are being asked to decide on a property tax freeze for seniors.
North East, Southwest and Medina Valley ISDs will hold school board races May 4, with hotly contested seats once again drawing lots of political interest in NEISD, and big money will be on the ballot with Medina Valley’s school bonds.
In Alamo Heights, which typically elects half of its City Council and school board in even-numbered years, candidates will automatically be sworn into each of those seats due to uncontested races.
A sample ballot for Southwest ISD races can be found here. A sample ballot showing all other Bexar County races can be found here. Voters can choose from any of the 244 voting centers located across the county.
These are the contests and initiatives the reporters and editors of the San Antonio Report are watching on May 4:
Bexar Appraisal District
For the first time, Bexar County voters will get to elect three seats to the Bexar Appraisal District’s board of directors this month. They’ll work with the five existing board members who were appointed by the various taxing entities.
The new positions were created as part of a major property tax overhaul that voters approved in November, aimed at giving voters more insight to the appraisal process.
The inaugural races drew candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds, including real estate professionals, a former CIA official, a longtime aide to former Texas Speaker Joe Straus and the founder of Boerne Stage Airfield.
The seats are at-large and nonpartisan, but most of the candidates reside on the North Side and political groups are certainly watching these races with interest.
Learn more about the new positions and the nine candidates running here. You can also read what the candidates had to say about themselves in the League of Women Voters’ voter guides for Place 1, Place 2 and Place 3.
North East Independent School District
Conservative groups have had some luck filling school boards with their allies elsewhere in the state, but have yet to truly break into Bexar County. If they do, North East ISD, where two candidates backed by conservative groups were elected in 2022, will be the first stop.
This year, five NEISD races are on the May 4 ballot, and political groups on the left and right have made their favorites clear.
Three of the races have no incumbent. Long-time trustees Sandra Hughey in District 1 and Shannon Grona in District 5, both critics of the board’s new conservative influence, are retiring after the May election. A third trustee, Terri Williams in District 2, died last fall, and the board decided to hold a special election for her seat at the same time as the races in districts 1, 4, 5 and 6.
Here’s a look at the candidates in all of these races, as well as the outside groups supporting them.
Balcones Heights
Longtime mayor Suzanne de Leon, who was first elected in 2008 and presided over the municipality’s 2021 partial acquisition of a former shopping mall, faces a challenge from former mayor Johnny Rodriguez, who was in office from 2000 to 2002. Rodriguez has been attacking de Leon over the deal.
There are two contested races for Balcones Heights City Council. Retired television director Jack Burton is running against incumbent Stephen Lara, an architect, for place 1 on the council. Retirees David Sellars and Gloria Cantu, the incumbent, will face off for place 2.
Alamo Community College District District 6
The Alamo Colleges District board of trustees, which governs Palo Alto College, Northeast Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College, St. Philip’s College and San Antonio College, has just one contested race this year.
In District 6, longtime trustee Gene Sprague faces a challenge from Nicolette Ardiente, president of the Bexar County Young Democrats.
Sprague teaches medical terminology and anatomy and physiology at UTSA, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Alamo Community College District’s Northwest Vista College. Ardiente is a community engagement manager for Asian Texans for Justice who is well-known in Democratic Party circles.
In District 2, Northside ISD trustee Gerald Lopez is running unopposed for a seat vacated by long-serving trustee Roberto Zárate.
Terrell Hills property tax freeze
This year, the candidates for city office in Terrell Hills face no competition, but voters will get to decide on a proposition to freeze property taxes for people 65 years and older.
San Antonio has a similar policy in place for seniors, but the math works much differently in a residential community like Terrell Hills, which has a population of roughly 5,000 residents and receives almost all of its revenue from property taxes.
A group of residents petitioned to get this on the ballot, and the issue is pitting older residents against younger ones, who say they would have to absorb the higher taxes if the cost of city services rises.
Other notable initiatives and races
Voters in Medina Valley ISD will decide on two school bond propositions totaling $290 million. One proposition includes $249 million for school facilities and land, while the other includes $49 million for stadium facilities.
In Southwest ISD, three incumbents and three challengers are competing for three at-large seats on the school board.
Universal City is also electing a new mayor to replace John Williams, who is not seeking reelection. Tom Maxwell is the only candidate running to replace him. Six candidates are also running for three at-large seats on the city council. Two of them, Paul Najarian and Phil Vaughan, are incumbents seeking reelection.
Reporter Shari Biediger contributed to this report.
