SMCISD Board Postpones May Election

Staff Reports

On Friday, the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees voted to postpone the May 2 school board elections until November.

The decision was made during a special meeting at 5 PM on March 27 in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Three Trustees, District 1, District 2 and District 3, will be on the November ballot.

The motion to postpone the election passed 4 to 3 with trustees Kathy Hansen, Margie T. Villalpando and Lupe Costilla voting against.

Hansen said she was not ready to make a decision on the election as of yet and hoped to postpone the decision for a later date in order to allow for further discussion. 

The trustees who voted for the postponement shared a consensus that moving forward with the election was not in the best interest of the district’s employees and administration’s health during this “unprecedented time.” 

“I feel very strongly that we move it to protect our voters, to protect our citizens and to protect all of our school people,” Trustee Clementine Cantu said. 

Cantu noted in the past she would not have supported such a decision, but since the current pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime situation, she did not believe the district should put its voters at risk. 

Gov. Greg Abbott is allowing municipalities, school districts, and other taxing entities in Texas to delay elections scheduled for May until November 3.

However, Abbott’s order did not change the candidate filing period, which closed on March 23. Elections were also allowed only to be postponed to “uniform” election dates such as the November General Election.