Five seats on the Austin Independent School District’s Board of Trustees are on the ballot. The role of the school board is to oversee the AISD superintendent and district administration. Members serve four-year terms.
District 1 | District 4 | District 6 | District 7 | District 9
District 1
Results: LaTisha Anderson beat incumbant Ted Gordon with 61 percent of the vote.
Background: Here are the candidates on the ballot.
Ted Gordon is the incumbent for District 1, which covers much of East Austin. During his tenure on the board, Gordon has advocated for equity for East Austin students and schools. He was vocal about changing the names of district building linked to the Confederacy.
LaTisha Anderson is a native Austinitewho attended AISD schools, including Austin High, Lanier and LBJ High Schools. She currently works as a caregiver for the elderly. Like Gordon, she wants to see more equity in the schools in her district. One change she’d like to see is training for teachers working with minority and low-income students.
District 4
Results: Kristin Ashy wins with 66 percent of the vote.
Background: Here are the candidates on the ballot.
Kristin Ashy is a career educator and parent of two AISD students. She taught pre-K for more than 20 years and took this year off to run for school board. She has been a PTA member and was on the Facilities and Bond Planning Advisory Committee, which was charged with evaluating every school building and creating long-term plans for schools. Its report led to many of the plans in the 2017 bond.
Zachary Price is a 20-year-old junior studying government UT Austin. He’s a graduate of Anderson High School in District 4, and has a younger brother in elementary school in the district. Price says the school board needs to do a better job involving more people in policy decisions and improve its community engagement. He thinks sexual assault awareness and reporting, mental health services, and closing the achievement gap are the most important issues.
District 6
Results: Geronimo Rodriguez, the board's president, ran unopposed.
District 7
Results: Yasmin Wagner, the board's vice president, ran unopposed.
District 9 - At Large Position
Results: Carmen Tilton garnered 40 percent of the votes. Arati Singh followed with 36 percent, and Sam Russo has 23 percent. None of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote, so the race will go to a runoff between Tilton and Singh.
Background: Here are the candidates on the ballot.
Arati Singh is a teacher turned education program consultant. For the past 20 years, she has been working as a consultant and evaluator of college access and STEM programs. She has two children in AISD schools has also served on the Austin Council of PTAs, working with parent-support specialists throughout the district. Singh said she wants the district to be clear about its priorities as it faces budget issues.
Carmen Tilton has lived in Austin for 20 yearsand currently works in education policy. She is the senior executive policy adviser for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She previously worked for former state Sen. Wendy Davis, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and other lawmakers as an education policy adviser. Part of her work at the Statehouse included working with Gov. Greg Abbott on pre-K legislation. One thing she wants to see the board improve is outreach to the community, including potential students.
Sam Russo is a native Austinite and longtime AISD volunteer. He has volunteered for 15 years as a mentor at Govalle Elementary and Lamar Middle School, and served on a campus advisory council and the district advisory council. He says his three priorities as a school board member would be customer service, climate and consistency in the district. Other areas he says he is concerned about are declining enrollment, budget shortfalls and getting kids on grade level.
