Candidates were asked to keep their responses under 75 words, answer the provided questions and avoid attacking opponents. Answers may have been edited or cut for space, style and/or clarity.
* indicates incumbent
Find your local polling location below:
Johnny Flores
Experience:
I have been an educator who has taught at the university, high school and middle school level.
Occupation:
Teacher
Candidate Website:
http://www.johnnyforschoolboard.com
Contact Information:
N/A
What are your top three priorities if elected?
My top three priorities if I were elected are the safety of our school children, increasing mental health and academic support for our kids, and sustaining our valuable educators.
How should Hays CISD handle continued growth in the district?
This district is growing at a rapid rate. In addition to building new facilities for students, we must have the ability to deliver quality education to each and every student. This will require us to maintain enough staff and faculty to deal with an influx of students in the future.
What would you do specifically as a trustee to involve residents and business owners in decision-making processes?
An elected representative should always maintain communication with their constituents beyond a campaign. As a trustee, I will encourage more public town hall events with community members, hold informal monthly meetings with constituents, and work to strengthen the bonds between our schools and local businesses.
Esmeralda Pérez-González*
Experience:
Current trustee for District 2; educator for 38 years
Occupation:
Retired bilingual educator
Candidate Website:
https://dresmeraldaforhaysschoolboard.square.site/
Contact Information:
512-262-7643
What are your top three priorities if elected?
As a retired educator, I have contributed to the great strides Hays CISD has recently made. My top three priorities are academics, competitive salaries, and safety and security to include addressing mental health needs. We cannot afford to lose momentum given the challenges we are facing from lawmakers.
How should Hays CISD handle continued growth in the district?
This year, our district grew by nearly 600 students, and our demographer predicts that students will keep coming. We have a bond package during this election cycle that contains critical infrastructure projects to address growth. Rezoning will also need to be considered to mitigate growth.
What would you do specifically as a trustee to involve residents and business owners in decision-making processes?
As a trustee, I will invite community members to serve on various district committees. Our district is unique in that we encourage people from our community to weigh in on important decisions to increase transparency. We welcome public input at our board meetings and Taxpayer Tuesday events.
