DALLAS — If Tuesday's results were any indication, school bond and board votes just got more interesting. Many of the school board votes across North Texas were hotly contested and many races that people thought were slam dunks were not.
"Schools boards have always been their quiet thing, not anymore," said Vinny Minchillo, who was worked many campaigns over the years and specializes in political advertising.
On Tuesday, there were 15 school bond and school tax rate elections on the ballot across North Texas and a staggering eight of those propositions failed.
Three propositions failed in Fort Worth Independent School District. Prop B,C, and D would have accounted for $280 million to help build new stadiums, recreational facilities, and also update fine arts buildings and auditoriums.
Fort Worth's Prop A, the $1.2 billion bond that did get approved, passed with only 42 votes and it's still not official. School officials told WFAA they still have to count provisional ballots and some absentee ballots. The ballots will then go the ballot board for counting.
On the other side of North Texas, both school bonds, totaling $23.6 million, would have funded school building upgrades along with updates to recreation centers and turf improvements.
"This is a symptom of a couple years of bad blood between parents and administrators," said Minchillo.
Mask mandates, remote learning, COVID protocols, and even critical race theory had many parents and parent groups threatening a vote-down on bonds. Many parents on both sides of the aisle were vocal about those plans over the last several months.
"We're seeing in a lot of polls parents don't feel like administrators are listening to them," said Minchillo.
Minchillo told WFAA that this phenomenon over contentious school board and bond races is not over and may last several more cycles.