AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After no one candidate in the Austin Independent School District At-Large Position 8 race secured more than 50% of the vote in the general election, AISD residents will be asked to head back to the polls this December to select a school board member.
There are two at-large members for AISD, the remaining seven represent specific districts. Members are elected to a four-year term.
The two candidates vying for the spot are Fernando Lucas de Urioste, who received roughly 32% of the vote during the general election, and Lindsey Stringer, who received around 26%. Stringer received roughly 13,000 less votes than de Urioste.
The candidates are listed below in the order you will see them on your ballot.
Stringer is a lifelong Austinite, graduated from Austin High School and said she has been in education her entire career.
"I started as a fifth grade teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, an under resourced school, and have spent my entire career since then working to improve educational outcomes, especially for kids further from opportunity," Stringer said. "I'm also an AISD parent and volunteer in our public schools."
Stringer works for the National Math and Science Initiative serving as Technology & Business Operations, according to their website.
Stringer said her priorities include using data and community input to improve operations, including enrollment numbers, and improving student outcomes.
"Also just increasing family and community engagement. You know, I'm a mom of a kid with special needs, and so when I hear about initiatives from the school district around improving special education, I'm like, 'I haven't heard much,'" she said. "I'm just one person, but I hear that from lots of different people across the community."
After graduating from the University of Texas in 1996, de Urioste said he started his career as a substitute teacher for AISD, then became a paraprofessional educator, then full-time teacher. In that time, roughly a decade, de Urioste spent most of his time working in special education.
After that, de Urioste moved to education advocacy.
"So I started working more directly with families, and in that role I worked with families all over Texas. Eventually I became the Director of Advocacy Services at the Cirkiel Law Group, a civil rights law firm up in Round Rock, Texas," de Urioste said.
He is also the vice president of the Texas Organization of Parents Attorneys and Advocates (TOPAA).
"We were real active last session, fighting against vouchers and helping those initiatives. And then now I've decided to run for AISD," de Urioste said.
He said his priorities include special education, being a family advocate, improving communication with the community and supporting staff.
"I had the educators union endorsing me and a lot of elected representatives, but there was a lot of support afterwards [the general election], and I'm really happy about that," de Urioste said. "But I do want to make sure that it's clear that this is the community making the choice, and so the more people that come out and vote, the more it shows that it's the community's choice."
