The high-stakes — and high-dollar — trustee election for the North East Independent School District returned San Antonio’s second largest school district to a solid moderate board majority.
Voters gave decisive victories to all five moderate candidates on the ballot, ending a year of stalemates between three moderate and three conservative trustees, and likely bringing years of heated debate over culture war issues like masks, library books and curriculum down to a simmer.
The divided board was unable to agree on whom to appoint to the board after their colleague Terri Williams died in August, requiring them to place her seat on the ballot alongside the four usual trustee races.
Conservatives would have only needed to win two of the five races in order to gain the board majority. Right-wing trustees already hold the only two seats not up for election this year.
Instead, even conservative incumbent trustee Steve Hilliard was unable to maintain his seat, winning less than 40% of the vote. Terri Chidgey, who retired from NEISD in 2018 after decades with the district, including serving as the founding principal of Stone Oak Elementary, will take his seat on the board.
“Never did I expect that all five would win. That, of course, was a goal, but it was just beyond excitement,” Chidgey said. "This is what my hope was. But, even when I [was] asked to comment [Saturday] night, I was slow to do it. I wanted to see more of the numbers just to be sure, because it just was too good to be true."
Despite her surprise at the across-the-board sweep, Chidgey said she'd met a lot of educators over the past two weeks who told her they voted in a school board election for the first time.
"The teachers wanted something different. And lots of teachers came out. Lots of teachers texted their friends, they brought their husbands. They brought their 18 or older children," Chidgey said. "There were so many kiddos that came out and said, 'I cast my first vote for you.' And that was very, very special. It touched my heart. And so I think there was more involvement, more talk about it. Still a very low turnout."
The high-stakes election attracted a crowded ballot, with 7 conservative candidates in addition to the five moderates. It also created an at-times contentious campaign, especially for the trustee seat representing the Roosevelt High School cluster.
Tech manager and small-business owner Tracie Shelton defeated two conservatives to win that seat. In an interview before the election, Shelton said fearmongering was being used as a tool by the opposition.
"As I listened to some of the rhetoric and some of the blaming that's happening, [it broke] my heart," Shelton said. "It really does, because it suggests to me that those people aren't committed to the students. They're committed to maybe the fight or maybe winning or something else."
Chidgey, Shelton and the other new trustees said they hope their win lets the district shift its focus back to student success and away from politics.
“I also think the negativity and the just constant battling back and forth at the board meetings will hopefully slow down a little bit,” Chidgey said.
The election attracted a record amount of campaign donations — including the attention of three political action committees.
Meet your new trustees
Single Member District 1 — Churchill High School cluster
Lisa Thompson, a former NEISD teacher and current “PTA mom,” won 70% of the vote to represent the Churchill High School cluster.
Thompson said she was running for trustee because she’s proud of NEISD and was worried about the division on the board.
“I really love public education. I believe in it. It's kind of the great equalizer,” Thompson said in an interview before the election. “My priority is taking care of our children and taking care of our teachers and families. I want everybody to feel connected to their schools and engage with their schools.”
Long-serving moderate board member Sandy Hughey decided not to run for reelection this year, leaving the seat open.
Single Member District 2 — Roosevelt High School cluster
Tracie Shelton, a small-business owner and a manager at a cloud computing company, won 57% of the vote in a three-way race against two conservative opponents.
Shelton said she decided to run for trustee because she saw she was needed.
“For me, this is 100% about: How do we build a future for these children,” Shelton said. “And our students, our children, deserve people that will sit and earnestly consider them — all of them — as they make decisions. The ones that look like them and the ones that don't.”
Single Member District 2 is an unexpired term left open after the death of Terri Williams and will be on the ballot again in two years.
Single Member District 4 — MacArthur High School cluster
David Beyer, a landscape architect, won 70% of the vote to represent the MacArthur High School cluster.
Beyer was the only moderate NEISD incumbent running for reelection this year. He was appointed to the seat in 2019 and won his first election in 2020.
“We can get lost in a lot of things that you read on Facebook and you might see perpetuated in the news that become the big talking points. But there are very big things that we have to be careful of: budgets, keeping our teachers happy, making sure our students are graduating, going into careers, going into the military, going into college. Making sure that we're keeping property tax rates low."
Beyer said he wants the board to spend less time on controversial social issues and more time on things that enable student success.
Single Member District 5 — Johnson High School cluster
Melinda Cox, a “PTA mom,” NEISD volunteer and former Valero employee won 54% of the vote in a three-way race against two conservative opponents.
She said she ran for trustee because she loves public education and was concerned that, in recent years, some board members seemed to have “agendas that weren't necessarily in the best interest of all the students.”
“I value diversity, and I'll sit on that board, and I will work for every single student,” Cox said. "I want to figure out ways somehow that we can continue to come up with initiatives to help teachers, encourage teachers, figure out ways to make them feel more appreciated and valued and treat them like the professionals they are.”
Shannon Grona, a long-serving moderate trustee and the current board president, decided not to run for reelection this year, leaving the seat open.
Single Member District 6 — Reagan High School cluster
Terri Chidgey, a retired NEISD principal and central office administrator, won 64% of the vote to represent the Reagan High School cluster, defeating incumbent conservative trustee Steve Hilliard, who was first elected to the seat in 2020.
Chidgey said she ran for trustee because she did not see the same level of cordial respect on the board that she saw when she was an administrator.
““The last eight years of my career [at NEISD], I was required to sit in every board meeting, and they did not always agree, but they disagreed respectfully, and I just am not seeing that now,” Chidgey said in an interview before the election.
“I completely agree [that parents are the first educators of their children], but I also trust the experts,” Chidgey said. “I also want to validate teachers and honor teachers and listen to what teachers have to say and put teachers and parents in the same room to make quality decisions on behalf of children."
For a look at where the winners of the election stand on culture war issues, visit TPR's NEISD voter guide.
Editor's note: This story has been updated. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified both single member district 5 and single member district 6 as the same high school cluster.
