Five Navarro ISD candidates make final pitch to voters
Editors Note: With Election day fast approaching, the Seguin Daily News reached out to each of the five candidates seeking one of four at-large positions on the Navarro ISD Board of Trustees. Each were offered an opportunity to answer why they are running for a seat or seeking re-election. Navarro ISD voters are reminded that in this race, they have the ability to vote up to four times for a candidate or they can spread their vote across four different candidates. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3
Kristen Green
“I decided to run for the school board mainly because I have three kids in the school district and I was finding myself unable to help participate in things in the middle of the day. So, I started looking around and seeing what was available — to participate in school related activities and do something to support my kids in some way. And I started finding committee meetings. Most of the committee meetings are long range facilities planning, bond oversight meetings — there is a DEIC (District Educational Improvement Committee) meeting as well. All of those just piqued my interest even more. And so as I’m participating in all of those, I started going to school board meetings as well. I spoke to the school board twice because of those committee meetings and it really, again, piqued my interest quite a bit. The next step was really to go and start seeing what it meant to be on the school board. So, over 2 years ago now, I started going to every single meeting and just participating and being there, listening to what was going on. And so, next up for me is really to be on the school board and help make changes as they’re needed,” said Green.
Hilarie Forester
“Beyond being a parent with children in the district, which most of the trustee candidates do have — we have children here, and that’s one of the main reasons. I was a teacher in this district. I’m a certified math teacher at the high school level. I have a business certification for teaching and I also have a special education certification. I dedicated four years of my teaching experience here to Navarro and it gets a little emotional — I made one of the hardest decisions this summer to resign from my position. I needed to take the time to refocus on my family. A lot of people don’t understand the long hours and the dedication that teachers have — weeknights, weekends, just honing their skill and doing what they do best. That refocus has left me on a new path. I was actually encouraged to run for school board by one of my former colleagues. She said, your experience would be a great asset to the board. And at first, I thought, ooh, I don’t get involved in politics. I’m not doing this for political office or gain elsewhere. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that my experience can be beneficial to Navarro ISD and the inside view of how policies affect our teachers. I want to be involved in Navarro and bring that common sense, that practical approach to things, knowing how things are on the inside. We also had 3 out of 4 of our current incumbents not seeking reelection. And so I think it’s important that we have people who are dedicated and willing to continue the momentum that they’ve established for us. Navarro’s growing and like it or not, we have a lot of people coming here and we have to have teamwork throughout the board to continue making those good decisions to steer our district in the right way. We just have to have common sense. I look forward to working with the group. I think we have a strong CFO who directs us financially. But it’s also being able to get in there and look at the numbers. I have accounting and finance degrees from Texas A&M and I worked in the corporate field for an energy company for 12 years and left that job to stay at home with my daughter. I love digging into the numbers and nerding out like that and I think the combination of being a mom and my business experience and my teaching experience will lend well to being a trustee for the board,” said Forister.
Dan Reinhard (Incumbent)
“Running for reelection was important because the, we’ve had a lot of great progress in the district, hiring Dr. (Mandy) Epley, and then dealing with the growth, and so just to keep the stability on the board. I knew three were not going to be returning. And so, there’s an opportunity to have a big change. So hopefully, I can stay on to continue the consistency of the board in the direction that we’re heading,” said Reinhard.
Noah Webster
“I’m running and asking voters to trust me with our our most precious resources, education for our kids. I’m a father of two students at Navarro ISD. My wife is a teacher there, and we chose Guadalupe County in this school district on purpose five years ago. It has the highest quality education available that fit our household needs and budget and the community is phenomenal. But over the next four years, as our district continues to grow, we’re going to be struggling to keep the I&S rate at that 50 cent cap. That’s not a choice the school board makes. That’s state law. And the Texas legislator, if we believe, is going to take up the issue of property tax in the next legislative session. And any changes to property tax is immediately going to impact how schools are funded. So those funding streams are going to land on who is on this elections board. That’s where it will land. I want the board that has to manage that task to ask the hard questions and in the open — make those decisions transparently and as openly as possible to ensure that the voters, the people paying the taxes, just like me, just like everyone else, fully understand, ‘hey, we’re asking for this’ or ‘we’re doing this,’ and ‘here’s the underlying why’- (and) I think that’s going to serve us well as we look at the future over the next four years as property taxes are amended,” said Webster.
Jared Gallini
“I’m running because Navarro is home. I’ve spent two decades in this community. My kids go to school here. I have 11 children. I have three who are no longer here roaming the halls of Navarro, but I have eight that are still in the school district. And I want to serve this district the best way I can. I figure since I have this many children here — my wife is a teacher at the junior high — that I can utilize my skills, my education to improve home. I’ve spent my career managing big budgets, complex projects, and I’m good at asking the hard questions and trying to disseminate that down to clear answers. I’ve worked my career in working with hyper-growth and right now, Navarro is in a big place of hyper-growth and I don’t want to lose our culture and traditions in the process. So, that’s really what inspired me to run and hopefully serve on the school board,” said Gallini.
Pair of candidates seeking Seguin City Council District 5 seat
Editors Note: City of Seguin residents in District 5 will be the only voters who will see a contested council race on their ballot this Tuesday, Nov. 3 The Seguin Daily News reached out to the two candidates seeking the spot on the Seguin City Council. Both were asked to explain their reason for running for the seat. Friday, Oct. 30 is the final day for early voting in the Nov. 3 election.
Forrest Fletcher
“I grew up here in Seguin, you know, in this community, and it really helps shape who I am today. I, as you know, am a husband, a proud husband, proud father. I’m a local business owner, and thankfully, I’m also a nonprofit founder myself for suicide prevention and PTSD. I want to strengthen our families. I want to reinvest in our aging neighborhoods, and I want to create more opportunities for our youth and for our small businesses. I think they’re both extremely important. For me, strong family values, you know, that means responsibility. It means respect, hard work, and really looking out for one another. Through the Brighter Futures Foundation, our nonprofit, and by coaching young people, I’ve been able to make these values part of how I serve our community. I’ll tell you one priority of mine is helping move the reopening of the activity center forward. I want our youth to have access to a safe and welcoming place where they can participate in extracurricular activities, connect with mentors, and really build confidence. And so that stepping stone for me was coaching and being involved in youth development –– an opportunity for not only kids, but for our underserved community members across the city.”
Chris Aviles
“When I had run for District 3, I think about 4 years ago, from 2018 to 2022, I learned a lot from that particular role and time when I was there, particularly because that was the time when COVID had come through. There were a lot of challenges that were brought to us. And with that pandemic, of course, I was the chief of police at the time in Nixon. And then, of course, I was here as a city councilman. So I kind of got to see from both sides how it affected not only from a chief of police and law enforcement side, but also as a city councilman making, you know, decisions as a leader. And this go around what really sparked my interest: District 5 is one of the, or the 2nd, I think, more of a historical district. And I’ve seen that District 5 has a big need for not only a lot of the dilapidated homes, but the infrastructure such as roads and drainage that has been neglected and basically just put aside. And what I’ve seen is that Seguin has grown so fast in the past 8 years or 10 years that the newer purchasing gains are looking good at this point, but the older parts are seen or not. And that happens a lot when we have these growing pains. There’s got to be a balance of old and new. And I’m seeing that that balance is kind of swaying more towards the new, a little less to the old. So District 5 is one of those older districts, and you can definitely see that there is a need not only for the roads, but for the neighborhoods themselves, because we have a lot of low-income housing in particular in District 5. And we have the Seguin Housing Authority area there with some of the low-income housing. And there’s definitely a need for improvement and revitalization. The people in that area definitely need some representation that’s going to be people-focused and focused on their needs and the community needs. Because District 5 is largely historical, and I am running because I love it. I have a love of humanity in my heart. I actually said that in my opening statement to the city when I announced that I was going to run. And I am people-focused and community-focused for everything that we need, as far as our infrastructure, our utilities, our law enforcement, our emergency services, everything that encompasses what our taxpayers need.”
Texas House District 44, State Representative
Editors Note: This Nov. 3, voters in Guadalupe and Gonzales Counties will see a rematch on the ballot from two years. Appearing on the ballot in the Texas House District 44 race will be Republican incumbent Alan Schoolcraft and Democratic challenger Eric Norman. Below, voters will find the responses from each candidate explaining why they are seeking or wanting to claim hold of the position for State Representative. Friday, Oct. 30 marks the final day for early voting. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Eric Norman
“I ran in 2024 for the first time in opposition to the vouchers because my belief is and we will start to see that more and more every year, that the vouchers are an injustice. They are pulling money from our public schools, which are in badly need of more support, not less support, and while the funding does come from two distinct places, there is an impact on our public schools and they need more help, not less. So that’s why I ran in 2024 and kind of on the theme of fighting back on things that are not good for the community. That extends right now to the data centers that a lot of Texans feel like came out of nowhere in 2024. Nobody talked about this at all. And in a year and a half, in two years, it’s gone from nothing to suddenly they seem to be everywhere and we are told that there’s really nothing we can do to stop them and we’re made to feel that way, but that’s not true. I think people are just frustrated by the fact that we are being asked to commit our public resources of water and clean air to supply these data centers with tax abatements. And there was really very little discussion about our willingness or desire to make them possible. That’s what it’s about for me — just pushing back and having some representation based in reality of what I see in the community, because I’m very active in the community. So for me, that’s what this is all about,” said Norman.
Alan Schoolcraft
“We had some really, really great results last session, and there’s a lot left to get done, and I’m just excited to go back and keep working on it,” said Schoolcraft.