Nekosi Nelson was elected to Place 3 on the Leander ISD board of trustees in the Nov. 5 election.
Place 4 and 5 incumbents Anna Smith and Sade Fashokun were re-elected to their positions, respectively.
The results
For Place 3, Nelson led with 51.23% of the vote, or 36,279 votes, against challenger Jim Sneeringer, who received 48.77% of the vote, or 34,538 votes, according to unofficial results with all precincts reporting.
Smith won re-election to Place 4 with 48.8% of the vote, or 34,954 votes, over Brandi Burkman, who garnered 38.42% of the vote, or 27,521 votes. Place 4 candidate Zach Zayner received 12.77% of the vote with 9,150 votes.
Fashokun was re-elected to Place 5 with 55.89% of the vote, or 39,434 votes, against challenger Gerald Prater, who received 44.11% of the vote, or 31,124 votes.
LISD board of trustees races do not go to runoffs, instead the candidate with the most votes wins.
All results are unofficial until canvassed.
What they’re saying
Nelson told Community Impact he will focus on family and community engagement, supporting educators and providing personalized education opportunities for students.
“It’s not really about the personal achievement. It really is [a] collective victory with students, families, educators,” Nekosi said about the election results. “It reflects a commitment to centering the needs of our children and supporting their daily journey through their educational experience.”
In her next term, Smith said she will continue prioritizing special education as the district identifies more students, work to ensure the district’s 10-year plan best serves students as its enrollment growth slows and advocate for local control at the Texas Legislature.
“Thank you for voting for public education supporters,” Smith said. “We’ve got a hard fight ahead of us in regards to vouchers. Our community’s amazing in regards to supporting our local schools.”
Fashokun said she will continue working on the district’s internal audit process and issues with facilities, helping improve academic outcomes for students and advocating at the legislature to provide teacher raises.
“I’m excited and thankful for the opportunity that has been given to me to continue the work,” Fashokun said.
Something to note
About 69% of registered voters in Williamson County participated in the Nov. 5 election with 309,997 ballots cast, according to county data.
In Travis County, 63.31% of registered voters cast a total of 586,185 ballots.
Posted Nov. 5, 8:30 p.m.
Nekosi Nelson and incumbents Anna Smith and Sade Fashokun are leading for places 3, 4 and 5, respectively, on the Leander ISD board of trustees, according to early voting results from Travis and Williamson counties.
What you need to know
LISD places 3, 4 and 5 were on the ballot for district voters during the Nov. 5 election.
For Place 3, local business owner Nelson is facing Jim Sneeringer, a retired software developer and former LISD board member. Unofficial early voting results show Nelson narrowly leading with 51.65% of the vote, or 31,150 votes. Sneeringer has 48.35% of the vote, or 29,161 votes.
Place 4 incumbent Smith, a community recruiter for Girls Scouts, is facing Brandi Burkman, who works in network management, and Zach Zayner, a program manager and former teacher. Smith is leading with 48.93% of the vote, or 29,822 votes, followed by Burkman, who has 38.65% of the vote, or 23,556 votes, early voting results show. Zayner has 12.42% of the vote, or 7,573 votes.
Place 5 incumbent and small business owner Fashokun faced Gerald Prater, a former U.S. Air Force member and corporate internal audit manager. Fashokun is leading with 56% of the vote, or 33,686 votes. Prater has 44% of the vote, or 26,470 votes.
The background
Place 3 incumbent Christine Mauer, who was elected in 2020, told Community Impact she did not seek re-election, because her youngest child recently graduated from the district.
Smith has served on the board since 2020, while Fashokun was appointed to the board in 2021, after her predecessor Jim MacKay resigned, and was later elected to the seat in 2022.
Learn more about the candidates by reading their Q&A responses:Also of note
Over 262,00 ballots were cast in Williamson County during the 12-day early voting period from Oct. 21-Nov. 1, representing nearly 60% of registered voters in the county.
In Travis County, more than half of registered voters participated in early voting with 480,364 ballots cast.
Voting results from Election Day have not been released yet as polls were open until 7 p.m., or until those in line cast their vote.
Stay tuned
This article will be updated as Election Day vote totals are released. All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Visit Community Impact’s voter guide to view results for all local races.
