2023 LOCAL VOTER GUIDE
COMPILED BY RENEE FARMER Candidates were asked to keep responses under 75 words, answer the questions provided and avoid attacking opponents. Answers may have been edited or cut to adhere to those guidelines, or for style, space and clarity.
Incumbent
Lamar CISD board of trustees, District 5
Lamar CISD board of trustees, District 7
Lamar CISD board of trustees District 4
JACCI HOTZEL
ALEX HUNT
JON WELCH
Occupation: small business owner Relevant experience: 3 children
Occupation: attorney Relevant experience: incum- bent and board president; former teacher; small business owner; founded foster care
Occupation: marketing Relevant experience: four years on the LCISD board of trustees
enrolled in LCISD; Campbell Elementary PTO board; fund- raising chair; vice president of George Ranch Choirs Booster Club; community volunteer 682-561-7565 • www.jaccihotzelforlcisd.com
jrwelch555@outlook.com www.facebook.com/WelchFor5
nonpro t; Gulf Coast Workforce Board; Arc of Greater Houston 346-298-3670 • www.alexhunttx.com
How do you think the district should plan on managing growth?
LCISD is expected to add over 30,000 students in the next 10 years. This growth requires long-term planning, which has been the district’s focus this year. In the four years before I joined the board, six new schools opened. In the next four years, we are on track for 17 new schools, most of which will relieve Purple Track campuses. I will continue to be a good nancial steward and will continue to encourage transparency.
By putting in place a speci c growth plan with details, as has now been done. When I joined the board, LCISD had gone years with a rural mindset, planning in a lackadaisical manner. Now, however, we’ve restructured our facilities department to meet our growth challenges. Also, we’ve passed two important bonds since my time on the board that provide the necessary money to purchase land and to construct buildings.
Record growth must be met with a scally conservative approach that places priority on students and teachers—not business interests. With 25 new schools projected to be opened in LCISD over the next decade, those schools have to be built on time, on plan, and in concert with our commu- nity’s projected growth to meet demand for generations. Growth is a blessing and must be harnessed e ciently to avoid overcrowding, overbuilding and overspending. Occupation: business owner Relevant experience: bond committee member; owner of construction company with 30 years experience; understands working within a budget; com- munity volunteer for decades 281-914-3690 • www. owcode.com/page/craiglet- ulleforlcisd CRAIG LETULLE
SUZANNE BOX
BRIAN MOORE
Occupation: director, Caring for Korah Relevant experience: LCISD mother; co-founder of nonpro t
Occupation: pastor Relevant experience: former LCISD employee; student pastor at River Pointe Church; parent of four children that attend LCISD schools
helping families break cycle of poverty through education; software development; booster club president suzanne4lcisd@gmail.com • www.suzanne4lcisd.com
How do you think the district should plan on managing growth?
Our district needs to focus on better long-term planning. I would like to see LCISD begin purchasing smaller tracts of land where we can build individual campuses in various locations as opposed to waiting for larger tracts where mul- tiple campuses are built. Seeking out smaller, more available tracts of land could eliminate the legal battles and wait time associated with eminent domain and signi cantly shorten the time spent on the school building process.
Grow paraprofessionals into teachers and teachers into admin. I think the district is doing a pretty good job of talking with demographers and seeing how the district is going to grow.
My experience as a commercial construction contractor makes me the best candidate for LCISD Trustee, Position 4 because LCISD is facing exponential growth. The district needs to look at the best, most cost-e ective solutions to manage growth while prioritizing the importance of the learning environment provided to our students and teachers.
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KATY EDITION • APRIL 2023
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