All San Felipe school board candidates face voters at forum ahead of early voting

San Felipe Del Rio parents and taxpayers will choose four school board seats on May 2, and the sharpest divide at the candidate forum was not over slogans but over how aggressively the district should spend to keep teachers and support students. All seven candidates running for the board took part in the Southwest Texas College and The 830 Times forum in the SWTXC Auditorium, giving voters one place to compare the Place I, III, IV and V races before early voting runs through Tuesday, April 28.

Josh Overfelt, a Southwest Texas College associate professor of government and one of the forum sponsors, welcomed the audience and reminded them that early voting had begun Monday. Because he serves on the school board himself, he turned moderation over to the reporter, and each candidate was given three minutes to introduce themselves, answer questions and close. The ballot includes Jesus Emilio Galindo against Priscilla Cassandra Aguilar in Place I, Linda Guanajuato-Webb against Edward Guerrero in Place III, Bryan Weston unopposed in Place IV, and Rebekah Becky Luna-Chavez against Leonel Leo Cavazos in Place V.

The budget question for the 2026-2027 school year produced the clearest policy differences. Nearly every candidate said the district has to balance its books while still recruiting and retaining strong teachers, supporting students and addressing facility needs. Cavazos said the district should look for ways to grow the budget, while Guerrero argued that teachers should not be expected to do more with less. That distinction matters in a district where trustees adopt the budget, levy taxes to support it and decide whether future bond issues go to voters.

The candidates also split on how much freedom teachers should have in the classroom and how the board should respond to student needs. Aguilar said teachers should be allowed to teach in ways that fit students, while Guanajuato-Webb pointed to campus-level committees that can help identify what students need. Most of the candidates said board members need to listen more closely to teachers, a point that echoed across questions about academics, staffing and support services.

Those debates will land directly in a district that serves roughly 9,744 to 9,907 students in 14 schools, with most students Hispanic and 72.2% classified as economically disadvantaged. The district’s 2025-2026 proposed budget totals $125,367,412, with an estimated fund balance of $28,688,948. Its adopted tax rate is $0.9363 per $100 of taxable value, including $0.7486 for maintenance and operations and $0.1877 for debt service.

For Del Rio families, the next board will decide not just who gets elected, but how much the district spends on classrooms, staff and facilities in a year when every tax dollar and every teaching job will matter.