It’s up to the voters to pick a replacement for longtime Fort Worth trustee T.A. Sims

The Fort Worth school district will hold a special election on Nov. 5 to vote on the replacement for former board trustee T.A. Sims.

The board voted 6-2 in favor of an election during a meeting Tuesday night.

The district announced on July 16 that Sims would be stepping down from his position. Sims’ resignation comes nearly two years before the end of his term in spring 2021. He served on the school board for more than 35 years. He represented District 4 in the southeastern part of Fort Worth ISD.

Sims has also served as a secretary, vice-president and president of the school board. He was the longest serving board member currently on the board and he has an elementary school in his namesake.

“For those that have followed the board over the decades, he had some really important contributions to make early on,” said former state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth.

Tuesday’s school board meeting began at 5:30 p.m. and lasted more than four hours. The board members spent over two hours in a workshop on “team building,” according to the agenda.

The executive session, which lasted more than an hour, was held to determine whether a new member would be appointed or elected.

Burnam was undecided on the best solution. He says that though an election may seem to be the right choice, he’s afraid of how low voter turnout could affect the results.

Burnam said that Sims has been “far less effective” in recent years, but commends him on his overall impact on the community he served.

In a public comment to the board, Bishop Kenneth B. Spears urged members to hold a special election to fill the vacant spot. However, he made it clear that he did not want the position but just wanted a say in it.

“I really would love that you would consider having some forum so that the community can participate in that process,” Spears said. “It really is important to us that we just don’t have a name [but] that we have someone who has the heart of the community.”

Sims’ resignation comes shortly after three other former incumbent board members, Christine Moss, Judy Neetham and Ann Sutherland, decided not to run for re-election in May.

This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 5:45 AM with the headline "It’s up to the voters to pick a replacement for longtime Fort Worth trustee T.A. Sims."