Challengers take three seats on BISD school board
Unofficlal election results have slate of challengers headed for victory for three seats on the Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees, apparently defeating a pair of incumbent trustees they had vowed to unseat and leading for a third, hotly contested seat.
Challenger Enrique Escobedo Jr. was leading incumbent Ruben Cortez Jr. by 1,308 votes for the Position 2 seat on the board. With 33 of 40 precincts reporting, the Cameron County Department of Elections reported that Escobedo had polled 7,903 votes to 6,595 for Cortez.
Escobedo was he Position 1 incumbent but ran for Position 2 to challenge Cortez.
Luci B. Longoria, a former BISD employee and first-time candidate, was leading incumbent Richard “Rick” Zayas by 1,744 votes for Position 4 on the Board. Longoria had 8,308 votes to 6,564 for Zayas, a Brownsville attorney.
Zayas, a business partner of Cortez, was elected to a shortened two-year term in 2008 when he defeated longtime board member Pat Lehmann.
Christina L. Saavedra, a retired BISD teacher, was leading three others for Escobedo’s former Position 1 seat. She had 5,684 votes to 3,735 for former board member Herman Otis Powers Jr., 2,545 for retired BISD auto mechanics teacher Daniel Peña Jr. and 3,075 for Eric Garza.
The BISD board meeting that had been rescheduled for Nov. 9 has been cancelled. A special board meeting will be held at 5:30p.m. Nov. 10 in the BISD boardroom at 1900 Price Road to canvass the votes, administer the oath of office, and reorganize the board.
