Georgetown ISD board of trustee members Scott Stribling, left, and Andy Webb wait for election results to come in May 7.[/caption]
Updated at 9:50 p.m. May 7
With 25 of 27 polling locations reporting, Andy Webb has been re-elected to the Georgetown ISD board of trustees place 3.
According to unofficial results, Webb received 1,659 votes, or 60.6 percent of the vote. His opponent, Paula Trietsch Chaney, received 1,082 votes, or 39.5 percent.
Webb said he has learned much during his first term and said the votes of his supporters showed that they approved of the work he and the school board have been doing.
"It's been an incredible first three years," he said. "To be able to continue that—it's an honor."
Posted at 7:19 p.m. May 7
Unofficial early voting results released May 7 show Andy Webb is leading in the race for Place 3 on the Georgetown ISD board of trustees.
Webb is leading with 60.1 percent of the vote, or 1,359 votes. His challenger Paula Trietsch Chaney follows with 39.6 percent of the vote, or 892 votes.
Chaney is a former lab administrator at Newform Development laboratories and has served as a substitute teacher in GISD schools for six years.
Incumbent Andy Webb is vying for his second term on the board—he was originally elected in 2013. Webb is a partner at Watkins Insurance Group, and he volunteers with various community groups in Georgetown and the surrounding area. Both candidates have two children in GISD schools.
In April for
Community Impact Newspaper’s candidates Q&A, Chaney said her top priorities would be to change policy to elect board members from single-member districts, address that GISD has hired staff at the administration level for almost double the number of positions compared with districts of GISD's size in the region and the state, and advocate that GISD should join with other school districts in Texas to fight against the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR test.
Chaney said she does not believe students and teachers in GISD are given the resources they need and said she has witnessed decisions at the administration level that convinced her to run.
“Those kinds of decisions made me want to be a voice for our students and for our teachers, because I’ve been in the classroom, and I know what it’s like and I know the kinds of challenges they’re facing,” she said. "And I’m also a parent, so I want the best possible education my children can receive.”
In the April candidates Q&A, Webb said his top priorities were preparing children to be leaders for a 21st-century workforce, leading through future growth, and keeping children and their families in the forefront of every decision the board makes.
He said GISD schools have been a part of a number of important projects during the past few years, and he is happy that he has been a part of the district.
“We hired a new superintendent; we’ve brought on incredible new programs; we’ve done strategic planning; and we’ve taken a district that was really good and we’re getting it on a course to be an incredible, dynamic model in a fast-growth community,” he said. “So to be a part of that is really cool.”
School board members serve three-year terms without term limits. All results are unofficial until canvassed.