The League of Women Voters of Hays County held a forum for the Dripping Springs Independent School District earlier this month, introducing the candidates for the DSISD Board ofTrustees election in May Four candidates are currently running for two positions on the DSISD Board of Trustees. They are (in ballot order) threeterm incumbent Ron Jones, military veteran Rob McClelland, sales director Jeffrey Aylstock and educator and administrator Kim Cousins. The forum — held at Sentenia Vera Cultural Hub on April 13 — gave each candidate an opportunity to share their platform with the local community, in preparation for the election on May 6. Early voting runs from April 24 to May 2.
Currently, the positions up for election are held by Ron Jones and Barbara Stroud. Dripping Springs trustees do not represent “places.” The top two vote-getters on May 6 will be elected to the DSISD Board of Trustees, which consists of seven unsalaried district patrons elected to three-year terms representing all residents in the school district.
The forum was introduced by LWV’s president, Mary Earls, and moderated by another member of the local chapter.
Each candidate was given an opportunity to make a one-minute, opening statement. After that, questions were asked by the LWV, allowing a minute of response from each candidate and no opportunity for rebuttal. Forum questions for the candidates were prepared by the LWV with input from the community.
Questions asked covered a number of hot-button issues on local, state and national levels. These included, among other things, the proposed 2023 Bond Package; employee support, recruitment and retention; balancing student needs with taxpayer concerns; expanding school choice; school safety; fentanyl concerns; testing students with disabilities; teaching civil rights, gender diversity and history; and hiring retired military personnel.
Each candidate voiced firm support for the bond package — which is also on May’s ballot — citing an urgent need to increase district capacity.
“I always talk about the sea of portables,” Jones said. “They’re very expensive, and you can’t use bond money. Plus, there’s a security issue… and sometimes, that makes it more difficult to recruit teachers to teach in those kinds of environments.”
Candidates also seemed to be of one mind on school safety and fentanyl concerns, specifically touting the importance of school resource officers on campus. Still, the candidates did diverge on some topics.
Jones and Cousins took a strong anti-voucher stance, while McClelland and Aylstock took a more moderate approach to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s legislative priorities on school choice.
“Here’s what it comes down to: parents are responsible for their kids' education,” McClelland said. “The state needs to fund our public schools fully, but at the same time, there are potentially circumstances where it may be in the parents’ best interest to move a child into another school. I’m not for or against one or the other, but I’m open to opportunities to discuss what those things are.
“But bottom line, that’s up to the state,” he added. “What I care about is a strong Dripping Springs Independent School District, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”
Cousins gave a similar response on the teaching of civil rights, gender diversity and history, emphasizing that many of these politically popular or polarized issues are not under the purview of individual school boards.
“The state board of education dictates what is taught in Texas public schools,” she said. “That curriculum is sent out through the Texas Education Agency in what's called Essential Elements. I 100 percent support what [schools and teachers] are directed to do from the Texas Education Agency and all of those essential elements that are lined out by subject, especially history.”
Still, Aylstock said he believed it was important to, “teach history where it’s appropriate.”
“I am in favor of teaching history where it’s appropriate so that the age of the student is actually where they can consume the knowledge that we’re giving them.”
All candidates were given the opportunity to conclude with another minute-long statement.
A recording of the forum is available online at lwvhaysco.com/candidateforums. Part of the forum, including some of the candidates answers to the first question, is not included on the recording due to technical issues, according to the LWV.
For more information on voting, visit vote411. org. For more on the League of Women Voters, visit lwvhaysco.com.
