Meet the Candidates: College Station ISD School Board Place 5

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - It’s a three-way race to see who’ll take the Place 5 seat on the College Station ISD school board. Two first-time candidates are hoping to unseat the incumbent Kimberly McAdams, who’s served two terms on the school board.

Although this is Michael Martinez’s first time running for an elected office, he has a long history of service.

“After high school, I left to join the United States Navy, so I was active duty for four years, did a couple of deployments stationed on the U.S.S. Anzio,” Martinez said. “It was a cruiser ship in Norfolk, Virginia.”

Martinez said the decision to run for the Place 5 seat was a gradual process. He has a 9-year-old daughter, and being involved on her school campus gave him a behind-the-scenes look into the district.

“I’ve been very involved with them as a PTO member,” Martinez said. “I’m currently their treasurer and also a WATCH D.O.G. volunteer. D.O.G. stands for Dads of Great Students.”

If elected, Martinez plans to tackle issues like teacher pay and take a closer look at the VATRE, the Voter-Approved Tax Ratification Election.

“All that funds generated, if approved by the community will go towards teacher pay and increasing that, but I do think we need to take a harder look at what that looks like because out teachers definitely deserve more pay and more compensation,” Martinez said.

Opponent Morgan Mangan has two kids in College Station ISD schools. She said she’s ready and able to serve the district and community more.

This is the first time she’s running for an elected office. She’s the current precinct chair for Brazos County Precinct 73 but ran unopposed.

“The last couple of years have been crazy for everyone, and I think whether you liked how things were handled or didn’t, you realized our locally elected officials, they impact our lives,” Mangan said.

The mother of two and co-owner of Walsh & Mangan Premier Real Estate Group said she’s ready to impact lives in the classroom by focusing on things like academic excellence.

“We don’t need to try to meet the state standards,” Mangan said. “I think we need to be the ones that say look, ‘I don’t care what the state standards are. They may be here, we need to set the bar up here.’ And we have a reputation for academic excellence, so just kind of continuing to work towards that end.”

Like Martinez, teacher pay is also at the top of her list.

“We’ve got the VATRE on the ballot and so that’ll help, but I have teachers who are saying ‘look that’s great, but it’s not enough. We’re overworked. We need help,’” Mangan said.

Incumbent Kimberly McAdams said her work isn’t done on the school board. She’s seeking re-election because she believes in the power of education.

“If we do a good job educating all of our students to be productive citizens, then our whole community benefits,” McAdams said.

She wants to continue to work towards the goals set in the district’s Strategic Design Framework.

“Some of those are academic achievement goals. Some of them are more working with our community and partnering with our community businesses and universities.”

Teacher pay is also a top priority for McAdams.

“Not only do we need to, hopefully, pay them a little more but we just need to continue to support them throughout the schools and continue to let them teach in the classrooms,” said McAdams.

Unlike other elections, the candidate with the most votes on election night will take on the Place 5 seat.

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