SBISD Board of Trustees members Wayne Schaper Sr. and Mary Grace Landrum were sworn in for new, three-year terms on Tuesday after results of the May 10 election were canvassed and then certified during a special Board of Trustees meeting.

Trustees also elected new officers for the 2008-2009 school year, led by new Board President Susan Kellner. Serving as new Board Vice President is Theresa Kosmoski. Susan Mathews will serve as Board Secretary.

Re-elected to Trustee Position 1 with 1,321 votes, or 82 percent, was retired district administrator Wayne Schaper Sr. At the end of his third term, he will have served in Spring Branch schools for five decades as either an employee or Trustee.

His re-election opponents, Lindsey Lee, an engineer, and Marjorie Caldwell, a lawyer and writer, received, respectively, 175 and 114 votes in the May 10 election.

Also re-elected to Trustee Position 2 for a second term was Mary Grace Landrum, an employee develpment consultant, who begins serving a second, three-year term. She was elected with 1,421 votes, or 87.7 percent, of the total vote. Her opponent Mike Lee, a senior at Westchester Academy for International Studies, garnered 198 votes.

Outgoing Board President Mike Falick joined with other Trustees in congratulating and praising Superintendent of Schools Duncan Klussmann and his Senior Staff officers for jobs well done during a busy past year.

Among other recognitions, Falick cited the team effort involved in passage of the 2007 Bond proposal, progress on the district’s Five-Year Educational and Long-Range Technology plans, Financial Department honors and improvements, and recognition of the SBISD Trustees as a Texas Honor School Board.

Numerous special projects were also praised, ranging from the successful distribution of laptop computers to all district teachers to the explosive growth of the campus-based SpringBoard Mentor program, which has 800 adult volunteers and is still growing.

posted 05-21-08