Yeager handily won Carroll board seat. Williams said she plans to run again in May
Andrew Yeager easily defeated Stephanie Williams Tuesday in a special election for the Carroll ISD school board Place 7 seat.
Yeager received 65.4% of the vote while Williams got 34.6% in complete but unofficial returns.
Yeager said it felt “great” winning the school board seat.
“It was a tremendous team effort to do this. You have to have a huge group of volunteers,” he said.
Yeager said he knocked on every door in Southlake and went back to the homes where he didn’t get a response initially.
Yeager said he is a good listener, and will have an open door.
“I am representing everyone, taxpayers with kids in the district and taxpayers who don’t have any kids in the schools,” Yeager said.
When asked about the high numbers for the early vote totals, Yeager said he believes they set a record for turnout in Southlake.
He said “influencers” such as the mayor, city council and several former Southlake mayors endorsed him, which likely helped lead to his winning.
“This tells you how involved the community is. People are really concerned, I think,” he said.
He pointed out the controversy surrounding the district’s diversity plan and how “people woke up.”
The Cultural Competence Action Plan is on hold over an ongoing court case.
Yeager said he also plans to run in May since he is filling a term with six months remaining.
“My first priority is to be transparent and to listen,” he said.
Williams said it is time to get politics out of schools. “It’s distracting; it’s a lot of noise,” she said.
Williams said she is worried that students and teachers won’t feel comfortable and won’t feel protected with the changes taking place on the school board.
“We had fantastic conversations. We knocked on doors,” she said.
Williams said she believes voters were influenced by the powerful Southlake Families political action committee. But Williams said she won’t give up fighting for students and teachers.
“We are disappointed, we went into this (election) wanting to win,” she said.
Williams said she’s not going away. “We’re coming back in May,” she said, saying she plans to run again in the May election.
Yeager and Williams, who have children in the Carroll school district, ran for the Place 7 school board seat after David Alman resigned last summer.
The district and the school board election have been marked by division over a proposed diversity plan.
Both candidates have teaching backgrounds and said their experience is valuable for the school board.
Yeager, a media sales director and adjunct professor at the University of North Texas, moved to Southlake eight and a half years ago from Wilmette, Illinois.
Yeager said he decided to run because it was time to use his leadership skills and to give back to the school district that helped his children thrive in programs such as engineering and computer animation. He has two children who are graduates of the Carroll school system and one who is a senior in high school.
“I always played a leadership role in my personal life and in my kids’ lives,” he said.
But he added that when he heard about the district’s Cultural Competence Action Plan, or CCAP, that ratcheted up his involvement.
The plan was proposed as a starting point for dealing with complaints from students who were marginalized and who reported that they were bullied and intimidated because of their race or sexual orientation. The plan, which was designed to increase inclusion and track bullying, came about after videos of students shouting a racial slur went viral.
Williams, a former teacher, said she is running because she has a passion for education. Williams is a fitness instructor and an independent facilitator for the Love and Logic Institute. She has two children who graduated from Carroll and two who are still in school. Williams said none of the current trustees have classroom experience.
Williams said it was time for trustees to talk about students and their education.
“We’ve talked about hyper-political issues,” she said. “We should find some common ground, find consensus, and move our community forward. Most of us moved to Southlake because of the schools, and we need to find a way to make them better.”
Yeager also said he is not supported by a political action committee, but says on his website that he is endorsed by the Southlake Families PAC. Others who endorsed Yeager include Southlake mayor John Huffman and trustees Cam Bryan and Hannah Smith. Yeager said he was exposed to 40 different nationalities as he grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Williams and Yeager differed over mask mandates and COVID protocols.
Yeager said the school district should follow the governor’s order stating that school districts cannot issue mask mandates.
Williams said following science is key.
“An education organization needs to follow the experts. A hundred doctors recommended COVID protocols,” she said.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 7:07 PM.