Two newcomers vie for Bryan ISD's District 2 board seat as early voting opens, with staff pay and the tax-rate vote in focus

Early voting opens Monday in Brazos County, and Bryan ISD voters in Single Member District 2 will find an open board seat with two first-time contenders on the ballot.

David Sessum and Chris Cartwright are running for the Place 2 seat on the Bryan ISD Board of Trustees, KBTX reported in a candidate profile published Saturday. The district's own election page lists Single Member District 2 and At-Large Place 6 as the trustee races on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The candidates

Sessum told KBTX he moved to Bryan from Splendora in 2003 and got involved with the district through his children's school PTO. He works in Texas A&M AgriLife's veterinary science program, and his children are in 4-H.

He named higher staff pay as a top priority, telling the station that the district is among Bryan's largest employers and that holding on to teachers has become more urgent as state funding has been cut.

Cartwright said he grew up in Bryan in the 1970s and early 1980s, graduated from the district and returned about four and a half years ago after roughly 30 years running a storm and water restoration company in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

For the past four years he has volunteered with Bryan ISD athletics as a life coach focused on character development at the high school and middle school level, a role that grew out of a coaches mentoring program and led to seats on several district steering committees. He told KBTX he sees the district's diversity as a chance to rally the community behind its schools.

The tax-rate election on the same ballot

Both candidates said they are watching the district's voter-approval tax rate election. Cartwright said he expects the money to go to teacher raises as well as security and maintenance. Sessum said programs including career and technical education, mariachi and band could be at risk of cuts as state funding falls.

According to the district, the measure would raise the maintenance and operations tax rate by two cents, to $0.6968 per $100 of taxable value, and bring in about $5.5 million a year for day-to-day costs such as staff pay, programs, supplies, utilities and transportation.

It would not create debt or pay for buildings, and the district says none of the new money would be subject to state recapture. The district's example puts the cost at about $42 a year for a home with a $350,000 market value and roughly $210,000 in taxable value after the standard homestead exemption.

Early voting runs from Monday, Oct. 19, through Friday, Oct. 30, ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Sources

KBTX

bryanisd.org

KBTX

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