This story has been updated.
Leaders in the North East Independent School District have tried to keep politics out of the district’s school board races this year, but local political groups are making their preferences known anyway.
School board races are technically nonpartisan, but candidates backed by conservative groups picked up two seats on the seven-member NEISD board last May in Districts 3 and 7 and narrowly lost a third in District 2.
Now the four remaining seats will all on be on the May 4 ballot, as well as a special election to fill the unexpired term of District 2 Trustee Terri Williams, who died in August.
Williams’ death left the board politically split — opening the door to the type of North Texas-style school board politics that have been threatening for years to infiltrate Bexar County.
While fights over sex education curriculum and parental rights in NEISD don’t hold a candle to the heated, often dramatic scenes at school board meetings in other parts of the state, this month’s election could dramatically change the board’s makeup.
Early voting begins April 22 and runs through April 30 in the May 4 race.
Two of NEISD’s longest-serving trustees, Sandra Hughey in District 1 and Shannon Grona in District 5, are retiring from the board after the May election. Both had been top critics of the board’s new conservative influence.
“School board races are nonpartisan by design,” Grona, the board’s current president, said during a candidate orientation earlier this year. “We should not impart our own political or personal beliefs or agendas as trustees.”
But that hasn’t stopped the endorsements. Conservative group Parents United for Freedom is backing candidates in two open races: Retired business attorney and math teacher Michael Gurwitz in District 1 and retired U.S. Air Force pilot Dick Rasmussen in District 5.
The PAC has also endorsed incumbent Steve Hilliard, a retired U.S. Air Force officer who the group called a “staunch defender/promoter of parental rights” for reelection in District 6. Hilliard was one of five candidates backed by a different conservative group, the San Antonio Family Association, in 2020, and the only one elected that year. He faces a challenge from Terri Chidgey, a retired educator.
This year the San Antonio Family Association’s PAC, called Texas Family Action, endorsed Hilliard and Gurwitz, as well as retired public school administrator Rhonda Rowland in District 2, cyber security professional Jack Hoyle in District 4, and construction equipment salesman Chris Evans in District 5.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Bexar County Democratic Party called on local activists Friday to help “save our NEISD School Board from the attacks by far-right PACs who are publicly trying to seize control of the board.”
The party’s newsletter listed endorsements from a Bexar County Champions for Public Education PAC, which is backing substitute and Parent Teacher Association president Lisa Thompson in District 1, business adviser Tracie Shelton in District 2, landscape architect David Beyer in District 4, Melinda Cox, who listed her occupation as “at home” in District 5, and Chidgey in District 6.
The party’s coordinated campaign is planning an April 6 campaign event to train volunteers to help its NEISD candidates.
Parents United for Freedom reported $21,000 on hand as of Dec. 31. Bexar County Champions for Public Education reported $4,500.
Parents United for Freedom endorsed consultant Jacqueline Klein for District 2 in 2022, but did not back her or any other candidate in that special election this year.
Here is a full list of declared candidates and their endorsements:
Trustee, Place No. 1 (Open race)
Michael Gurwitz — Backed by Parents United for Freedom, Texas Family Action
Lisa Thompson — Backed by Bexar County Champions for Public Education
Trustee, Place No. 2 (Special election)
Rhonda Rowland — Backed by Texas Family Action
Tracie Shelton — Backed by Bexar County Champions for Public Education
Jacqueline Klein
Trustee, Place No. 4
Jack Hoyle — Backed by Texas Family Action
David Beyer (Incumbent) — Backed by Bexar County Champions for Public Education
Trustee, Place No. 5 (Open race)
Dick “Raz” Rasmussen — Backed by Parents United for Freedom
Chris Evans — Backed by Texas Family Action
Melinda Cox — Backed by Bexar County Champions for Public Education
Trustee, Place No. 6
Steve Hilliard (Incumbent) — Backed by Parents United for Freedom, Texas Family Action
Terri Chidgey — Backed by Bexar County Champions for Public Education
Update: This story has been updated with endorsements from the Texas Family Action PAC.
