EPISD School Board: Voters in District 7 oust Loweree; 2 races to be decided in runoff

Two races in the El Paso Independent School Board election will have to be decided in a runoff election after the candidate with the most votes failed to secure more than 50 percent of the vote.

Voters in districts three and six will have to return to the polls later this year. Voters in district seven ousted incumbent Mickey Loweree.

Here are the final results for the May 4, 2019 election with 100 percent of the precincts reporting:

DISTRICT NO. 3: (will be decided in a runoff)

Josh Acevedo 635 (48%) Rene Vargas 482 (37%) Cindy Cooper 104 (8%) Ben Mendoza 93 (7%)

DISTRICT NO. 6: (will be decided in a runoff)

Freddy Klayel-Avalos 1,603 (49%) Tom Hicks 853 (26%) Gary J. Berglund 799 (25%)

DISTRICT NO. 7

Daniel Call 2,468 (77%) Mickey Loweree 724 (23%)

The district seven race was surrounded by controversy after the El Paso chapter of the American Federation of Teachers questioned Loweree’s background.

Loweree, the incumbent, was appointed by a previous board to fill the seat vacated by Dori Fenenbock, who sought another office.

Loweere claims she taught at the district for ten years, but documents obtained through an open records request did not support her claim. She also claims she received a bachelors of science degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. ABC-7 spoke with the registration and records office at UTEP, which has a record of a Laura Michelle Loweree attending UTEP in the fall of 1990, but never graduating.

Call told ABC-7 he hopes to reinstate trust in the EPISD board. “Teachers feel unappreciated. teachers are leaving us in droves. However, the bigger issue is that there’s no trust in the community in EPISD. We need to make EPISd the first choice for parents in the district wanting to send their kids here,” said Call.

When asked how he plans to build trust in the district, Call said it will take efforts by individual board members and greater transparency across the district. “I plan on having regular town hall meetings with the constituents so that we can coordinate and we can properly communicate with the voters in the district, and the parents in the district. I think that’s where it all starts,” said Call.