To the winners go the congratulations, so we wish the best to three newly elected Port Arthur Independent School District trustees and a returning member of the City Council.
If the new trustees devote as much time and energy to the district as the former trustees did, they will see a lot of good going on in PAISD. If they do their homework and study the issues coming before the board as diligently as the previous board members did, they will be well equipped to make decisions in the best interest of the students of PAISD.
As we congratulate the winners, we also want to thank the previous board members for their service. Gregory Flores devoted about 15 year to the board. Lloyd Marie Johnson has been a board member for a decade. Dianne Brown put in three years. They all did many hours of board training on top of many hours of prepararing for and attending board meetings. On top of that, they each attended many district functions and discussed concerns with many district patrons.
Congratulations also go to returning Councilman Willie “Bae” Lewis. His margin of victory was slim, but it only takes one vote. He won by five in the unofficial returns. No announcement has come from his challenger about requesting a recount. We encourage Councilman Lewis to use his new term to work as a member of the council to get some of the good things on his platform accomplished. At the same time we encourage him to avoid using his seat as a platform for divisive politics.
The close council race once again reinforced how important each vote can be in our local elections. Just a few more voting or a few staying home might have altered the election result. Saturday’s winners have three years to convince the voters they made the right choices. That’s when the voters will once again have the final say at the polls.