With all votes tallied, Elizabeth Santos and Bridget Wade have won two Houston ISD board seats covering parts of the Heights, River Oaks and Montrose areas, while incumbent Sue Deigaard has retained her seat covering the Bellaire, Meyerland and West University area.
Unofficial results show Santos narrowly defeating Janette Garza Lindner in the race for District I with 50.5% of the vote, or 2,210 votes to Lindner's 2,169. All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Meanwhile, Deigaard won her race against Caroline Walter with 63.8% of the vote, or 8,519 votes to Walter's 4,834.
Wade defeated incumbent Anne Sung in another close race, receiving 53.8% of the vote. Wade received 6,668 votes in total to Sung's 5,729.
HISD's District VI also went to a runoff election, within which challenger Kendall Baker defeated incumbent Holly Flynn Vilaseca. Baker received 50.7% of the vote for the district, which covers Briarforest, parts of Eldridge/West Oaks, Braeburn and Sharpstown.
Updated 10:30 p.m. Dec. 11
With votes tallied from 39 of 46 voting centers in Harris County, incumbent Sue Deigaard is on track to win her runoff election for District V on the Houston ISD board of trustees while Bridget Wade, a former PTO president and first-time candidate, has broadened her lead over incumbent Anne Sung in the race for District VII.
Meanwhile, the race for District I between incumbent Elizabeth Santos and Janette Garza Lindner remains too close to call, with Santos leading with 2,178 votes to Lindner's 2,147.
Deigaard, who was first elected to the board in 2017, has maintained a lead from early voting over challenger and mom of three Caroline Walter. Deigaard has 65.6% of the vote, or 6,960 votes to Walter's 3,654.
In a Q&A with Community Impact Newspaper prior to the November election, Deigaard said her priorities include achieving goals established in 2020 for literacy, math, college-career readiness and special education; continuing to strengthen the board governance foundation; and recruiting high-quality teachers.
Although Wade's lead over Sung after early voting was 15 votes, election day ballots helped her boost her lead, which now stands at 5,454 votes to Sung's 5,002.
In a Q&A with Community Impact Newspaper, Wade said she believed the biggest challenge the district faces is debt, arguing that the district needs to "reduce spending on bloated contracts, central office staffing [and] legal retainer fees." Wade has also spoken out against the district's mask mandate.
All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Posted 8 p.m. Dec. 11
With early voting results reported, incumbent Sue Deigaard is leading the race in the runoff election for District V on the Houston ISD board of trustees while incumbents for each of the other seats up for election are locked in very close races.
Deigaard leads with 67.1% of the vote, or 5,105 votes, against challenger Caroline Walter's 2,509 votes. District V covers the Bellaire, Meyerland and West University areas.
In the race for District I—which covers Northside/Northline, Independence Heights, Garden Oaks and Greater Heights, among other areas—incumbent Elizabeth Santos leads Janette Garza Lindner, who works as a management consultant, by 28 votes, 1,382 to 1,354 votes.
And in the race for District VII—which covers Greater Uptown, Upper Kirby, Afton Oaks/River Oaks, Lazybrook/Timbergrove, Montrose and the Washington Corridor—Bridget Wade, a homemaker and volunteer, leads incumbent Anne Sung by 15 votes, with 4,038 votes to Sung's 4,023.
Santos, Deigaard and Wade all came out on top of their races in November, with the gap the narrowest in District VII, where Wade was ahead of Sung by just under 600 votes. Runoff elections take place in races with more than two candidates and where no no candidate exceeds 50% of the vote.
The HISD election takes place as the school board faces a number of challenges, including making up for learning loss that was seen during the coronavirus pandemic. District officials released a plan in July on how they will spend more than $1 billion in federal dollars designed to help schools recover from the pandemic. The district also brought on Millard House II as its new superintendent this summer.
Two other board seats are also up for election this year. One of those, District VI, also went to a runoff in which incumbent Holly Flynn Vilaseca leads Kendall Baker in a close race with 1,682 votes to Baker's 1,677. The race for District IX was won outright by incumbent Myrna Guidry in November. HISD trustees are up for election every four years.
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All results are unofficial until canvassed.
