2 newcomers join Round Rock school board, but none from conservative coalition

Three Round Rock school board members won reelection on Tuesday and two others were ousted, while a coalition of conservative candidates all finished a distant second in each of the five races.

Amber Feller won her reelection bid for the Place 3 seat, while Amy Weir and Tiffanie Harrison also won back their Place 5 and 6 seats, respectively. Newcomers Estevan Zarate and Alicia Markum defeated incumbents Kevin Johnson and Cory Vessa.

Five of the 15 candidates in the at-large races were members of conservative coalition called Round Rock One Family that sought to take control of the board. The coalition candidates — John Keagy, Orlando Salinas, Jill Farris, Christie Slape and Don Zimmerman — said they were in support of trustees Mary Bone and Danielle Weston, who have had a contentious relationship with the rest of the board since they were elected in 2020.

The group ran on a platform that calls for more oversight of library materials, the teaching of biological male-female differences and not of gender identity, and the prevention of critical race theory from being taught in taxpayer-funded schools.

In the end, however, voters rejected that message. Zimmerman, a former Austin City Council member, had nearly 38% of the vote, the highest percentage of any One Family candidate.

In an email to the Statesman on Wednesday, Zimmerman compared the election results with two biblical cities known for their wickedness.

"The RRISD majority clearly voted for Sodom and Gomorrah, and they will get it," he said. "We will be following the wise lead of innumerable supporters I had in 2014 who left the Austin area and moved to a conservative county in a state called Texas."

Place 1

In Place 1, Zarate, a 47-year-old teacher and actor, won with 35,538 votes, or 49.1%, while Keagy, a 41-year-old engineer, took second with 20,423, or 27.6%. Incumbent Kevin Johnson had 13,237 votes and Yuriy Semchyshyn, a 37-year-old software engineer, finished fourth with 4,941 votes. Johnson was appointed to the seat on July 25 following the resignation of Trustee Jun Xiao. The winner of the Place 1 race will be up for reelection in 2024.

Zarate said he would seek to build and expand relationships with business and organizations within the district, expand student access to therapists and social workers, and continue to volunteer with parent teacher associations to understand the issues they care about.

Place 3

In the Place 3 race, Feller, 49, received 39,475 votes, or 52.4%. Salinas, a 35-year-old chief financial officer at Zoom Contracting and Consulting, had 28,022 votes, or 37.2%. Maryam Zafar, a 20-year-old English major at the University of Texas, had 7,824, or 10.4%.

In a statement on her campaign Facebook page, Feller thanked her supporters and volunteers.

"Thank you to everyone for your massive support and for the hundreds of volunteers that helped out," she said in the post. "We have a lot of work to do over the next four years but as a community we have proven nothing is impossible."

Feller has said her goal is to fight for an increase in basic funding allotment from the state, a cost-of-living adjustment on recapture and to provide more incentives to retain and recruit teachers and staff. She said she will work to learn from what happened during the pandemic to make improvements and adjustments.

Place 4

Markum, 39 and a stay-at-home parent, claimed the Place 4 seat with 32,474 votes, or 43.2% of the vote in a four-way race. Farris, a 38-year-old homemaker, finished second with 19,247 votes, or 25.6%. Linda Avila, 53 and an educational diagnostician, was third with 17,020 votes, while Place 4 incumbent Vessa finished fourth with 6,430 votes.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Markum thanked her supporters and voiced her commitment to help the children of the school district.

"The people of Round Rock ISD have used their voices and their votes to declare that we will not be taken over by outside interests and we will not tolerate division and fear mongering," she said in the post. "Integrity, transparency, and strong leadership must be paramount in order to move beyond the distractions that have plagued the board for the past two years. And at the center of all decisions that I make as a trustee will be the crown jewels of Round Rock ISD and the district community: the students, teachers and staff."

Markum has said that if elected, she would focus on empowering students to choose their own path after graduation and to partner with stakeholders to ensure communication between them and the district.

More:Round Rock trustee: Campaign opponents touting forged letter

Place 5

Weir won her reelection bid for the Place 5 seat with 41,383 votes, or 56.3%. Slape, a 50-year-old professional organizer and former teacher, was second with 22,218 votes, or 30.2%. Stefan Bryant, a 51-year-old grants manager, had 6,193 votes and Joshua Billingsley, 40-year-old business intel analyst, had 3,768.

Weir, the current board secretary, said that if reelected she would continue the work she has done while on the board, such as compensating teachers, improving student learning outcomes, attending all meetings and advocating for the Title I campuses.

It's been a hard few months for our community with a lot of misinformation being spread, but there were hundreds of parents who volunteered so much of their time and energy to show the true spirit of Round Rock ISD," Weir said in a statement to the Statesman. "We have an amazing community, and I am so very thankful to the voters of Round Rock ISD for the support they have shown me. I look forward to continuing my service on the Board and putting the focus back where it belongs, on our students and teachers."

Place 6

Tiffanie Harrison, 36 and the school board vice president, received 47,811 votes, or 62.4%, in the Place 6 race. Zimmerman, 62 and a high-tech systems engineer, had 28,777 votes, or 37.6%.

Harrison has said if reelected she will continue to build on the work she has done as a trustee by focusing on ensuring all students have access to the resources they need, regardless of their circumstance or ability, and transparency.

In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Harrison thanked everyone who helped her campaign, her fellow trustees for the knowledge and help they provide her. She also congratulated newcomers Zarate and Markum.

"I am looking forward to growing together as a community," Harrison. "I am looking forward to the stability and peace we can and will bring for the students and staff of Round Rock ISD. I am looking forward to working towards healing and restoration of this amazing school district."

In a news release on Wednesday, district Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez thanked Vessa and Johnson for their service to the Round Rock community and said he looks forward to working with the entire school board.

“I want to wish our new trustees a warm welcome and congratulate them on their election to these vital positions and, of course, express my unending gratitude to our returning trustees for their incredible dedication to Round Rock ISD,” Azaiez said in the release. “Our Board of Trustees plays a large role in our progress as a school district, and I look forward to working together to provide the best resources, opportunities and educational system possible for our students, staff and stakeholders.

The winners of the races are likely to be sworn in on Dec. 13 after votes are canvassed on Nov. 22, according to Jenny Caputo, a district spokesperson. Results are unofficial until canvassed.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 2 newcomers join Round Rock school board, but none from conservative coalition