Here’s the Star-Telegram’s endorsement for Keller school board Place 1 | Opinion
The Keller school district has seen enough rough-and-tumble politics for a while. What it needs now is for trustees to step up and confront the district’s difficulties, including the divide exposed by the proposal to split the district in two.
In the race for the open Place 1 seat on the school board, the candidate best positioned to do that is Scott Bruce. The 47-year-old, who works in the tech industry, impressed us in our interview with the candidates by focusing on student achievement and a desire to make decisions based on data, not politics.
Bruce, who lives in the Heritage neighborhood in Fort Worth, said he never saw the purported financial advantage to the plan to divide the district and couldn’t envision that changing in the future. He said that any such monumental decision should come with an election, a key pushback on the suspended attempt to create a new district without letting the voters have their say.
Opponent Randy Campbell, 65, is well-meaning and concerned about the district’s direction under an arch-conservative board elected in recent years. The retired airline pilot, who lives in unincorporated Tarrant County near Keller, deserves credit for correctly diagnosing and calling out the problem that helped lead to the divide proposal: the influence of the Patriot Mobile political action committee.
But we’re concerned how effective he can be in a community and board that’s substantially conservative. Bruce described himself as right-of-center politically, and that could come in handy in winning over colleagues and voters.
The third candidate, 36-year-old homemaker Marissa Bryce, has far-right support. Bryce, a resident of the Villages of Woodland Springs in Fort Worth, seems passionate about schools and kids’ needs, including in special education. But her perspective is already well-represented on the Keller board.
The candidate who takes the most votes will win a three-year term, though not necessarily with majority support. The Keller board has eliminated runoff elections in races with more than one candidate, a lamentable step that helps allow a small number of voters to control elections. Board seats are elected at-large, meaning all voters in the school district can vote in every trustee race.
The district, the third-largest in Tarrant County, contains all of the city of Keller and parts of north Fort Worth and several surrounding suburbs. Early voting is available April 22-29; Election Day is May 3.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
Members of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice, decide candidates and positions to recommend to voters. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bradford William Davis, columnist and editorial writer; Bud Kennedy, columnist; and Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How does the process work?
The Editorial Board interviews candidates, asking about positions on issues, experience and qualifications, and how they would approach holding the office for which they are running. Board members do additional research on candidates’ backgrounds and the issues at hand. After that, members discuss the candidates and generally aim to arrive at a consensus, though not necessarily unanimity. All members contribute observations and ideas, so the resulting editorials represent the board’s view, not a particular writer.
How do partisanship and ideology factor in?
We’re not tied to one party or the other, and our positions on issues range across the ideological spectrum. We tend to prefer candidates who align with our previously stated positions, but qualifications, temperament and experience are important, too.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 10:06 AM.