With all precincts reporting, results in Hays CISD show Byron Severance winning with 57.43% of the vote in District 4, incumbent Esperanza Orosco winning with 64.23% of the vote in District 5 and the bond election passing with 51.30% in favor.
By the end of the night, Hays County Elections office reported a 9.8% voter turnout across the county and HCISD reported a handful of votes from the parts of the district that stretch over Caldwell and Travis counties.
Speaking to Community Impact Newspaper, HCISD Superintendent Eric Wright, said the bond will help address growth in the district.
“We're very excited. Obviously we're one of the fastest growing school districts in the state of Texas and it was necessary for us to pass so that we can keep up with our growth,” Wright said. “I'm really appreciative of all the people that came out and voted and really, really proud of our facilities and Bond Oversight Committee, because they have to educate the community and and then of course, they will oversee all the projects and make sure that we're upholding our covenant to the voters and making sure that everything is transparent from this point forward, because we want to make sure that our community trust and trust us and and we do what we say we're going to do, because we know we're going to have future bond elections forthcoming.”
Orosco told Community Impact Newspaper that she and Severance were the most qualified for the board and excited that voters chose them.
“We are the best qualified, most experienced folks and that's what won our election. So I'm very proud of the work that we have done, and we didn't fall into that partisan politics trap,” Orosco said. “My track record has proven that and it is very unfortunate that people tried that, that trick from the playbook about making partisan politics ... Instead, they voted for two people completely different in the political spectrum. But we're the same when it comes to putting kids first and volunteering at our schools and doing what's best for kids investing in the community.”
Severance said that he is excited to be joining the school board.
“I'm telling you, I really am proud of the way that Esperanza [and I] kind of ran this campaign. It wasn't supposed to be partisan, right?” Severance said. “But it turned into that but we prevailed. We stuck together, it's gonna be right for the kids for our district. I'm super excited about just getting to work and sort of managing the growth that we got going on. There's a lot to do and I'm really, really excited to be a part of it.”
Election results are unofficial until they are canvassed and certified.
