Jake Leforte beat a longtime incumbent on the Port Neches-Groves School Board in Place 7 in Tuesday’s election.

Leforte beat incumbent Darren McCutcheon 55.7 percent to 41.3 percent or by 189 votes.

This is a shakeup for the board as McCutcheon has served for the past 15 years and he is the board president. Leforte is a political novice.

Neither Leforte nor McCutcheon were immediately available for comment.

Derek Knepp, another political novice, also ran and he got just under 3 percent of the vote.

Incumbent Rusty Brittain won his race for Place 6, though he ran uncontested.

The election also included seven state constitutional amendments and, closer to home, a tax hike at Sabine Pass Independent School District and a large bond proposal at the Jefferson County Water Control Improvement District 10.

In Sabine Pass, voters there passed a tax hike that will put the district’s ad valorem tax rate at $1.227167 per $100 valuation in Sabine Pass ISD for the current year, a rate tat is $0.335354 higher per $100 valuation than the school district rollback rate.

That vote passed with 83.7 percent of the vote or with 36 votes.

Voters in the water district approved a $5.44 million dollar bond proposal for improvements to the sanitary sewer collection system, water distribution system and for water treatment plant improvements.

That vote passed by 76 percent or with 64 votes.

Across the county voters approved all state constitutional amendments. Those amendments will allow new property tax exemptions, allow homeowners to borrow equity from their home, allow sports teams to hold raffles, change rules for governor appointments, mandate courts to alert lawmakers of potential legal conflicts in pending legislation and allow credit unions to award prizes to promote savings.

The statewide numbers for the constitutional amendments is not known by press deadline.