SAN MARCOS CISD
San Marcos CISD Trustee Margie Villalpando will be vacating her seat, but no one has thrown their hat into run for the position in the upcoming election, forcing the board to appoint a new trustee or leave the seat vacant.
The board approved a plan during the March 23, meeting to launch an application process to fill the vacant District 2 seat, which aims to appoint a new member by May while allowing flexibility in the timeline to ensure a strong candidate pool. The applications are now open until April 15, and the board hopes to consider appointments at the following April meeting, even though they have 180 days from May to do so.
The District 2 seat represents a large portion of the eastern part of the district.
According to the Texas Education Code, the remaining trustees must fill a vacancy by appointment until the next trustee election, and they must fill it within 180 days of the vacancy, which will begin in May. Elected board members serve three-year terms, while the appointment has been set for one year.
Superintendent Michael Cardona proposed an application process based on Medina Valley’s school district, which has a similar makeup to SMCISD’s board with five Single Member Districts and two At-Large seats.
According to the Board documents, interested candidates will fill out an application with a resume or letter of interest. Interviews will be conducted in an open public meeting, but the appointment may be discussed in closed session, where the applicant with the most votes will secure the seat. The appointed person will serve until the next trustee Election.
The discussion turned to whether the appointed person would serve from May 2026 until the November 2026 Election or for a full year, until the Election in May of 2027.
“I think that it’s fair to put them in for a year and let them serve the full year and be up for the regular election cycle.” Board President Anne Halsey said. “It would seem odd to me to make an exception of one person who is coming in in this kind of capacity to put them into the November Election when everybody else is in May.”
The board agreed to have the appointed person serve for a full year, from May 2026-27.
Trustee Miguel Arredondo asked if the board might be interested in including a question on the application about whether the appointed person might be willing to run for the position in 2027.
Trustee Sandra Sepulveda Lopez responded that “wanting to serve and then actually getting behind this bench and doing it are two very different things” and she’d like to give them that full year to decide.
The board decided to ask that question during the interview process.
Applications may be submitted in person at the San Marcos CISD Felipe Reyna Central Administration Office, 1331 Highway 123, or by email to Alicia Guenther at alicia. [email protected]. The application and more information can be found at smcisd.net/Page/6581.
