The Ector County ISD Board of Trustees race Saturday resulted in upsets for the incumbents with Wayne Woodall beating longtime Position 3 incumbent Donna Smith and minister Bob Thayer defeating Dennis Jones for Position 7.
For the Ector County Hospital District 2 spot, Will Kappauf beat incumbent Mary Lou Anderson, according to unofficial results.
Just 673, or 1.98 percent of people in Ector County voted out of a possible 34,031 registered to vote in these races.
Woodall got 161, or 69.10 percent, to Smith’s 72, or 30.90 percent.
Thayer received 196, or 61.83 percent; Jones got 107 votes, or 33.75 percent; and John Rabenaldt got 14, or 4.42 percent.
In early voting, out of 110 votes cast early in the Position 3 school board contest, 63, or 57.27 percent, voted for Woodall and 47 or 42.73 voted for Smith.
For the Position 7 spot, an unexpired term, there were 142 votes cast with 80, or 56.34 percent, going to Thayer; 58, or 40.85 percent for Jones; and 4 or 2.82 percent for Rabenaldt.
Woodall, 45, is the lead Life Skills Teacher at Midland High School. His father is former board member Doyle Woodall and he has not run for school board before.
His father, Doyle Woodall, was forced to resign from the board following a controversy over social media posts he made.
”I am running for School Board because I believe being a teacher who is still currently working with students on a daily basis gives me a real life common-sense perspective that the current board is lacking,” Woodall said.
Thayer is the lead pastor at Odessa Bible Church.
“I have a desire to do my part to help our community be all it can be. When I think of how I can help Odessa be better, serving on the School Board seemed like a natural progression. I have worked with kids for a very long time. I’ve been on campuses leading after school programs on two of our elementary schools and I’ve volunteered at Reagan and STEM,” Thayer said.
He added that he works with youngsters in his church and has gone to camps, coached teams and was a board member at Jim Parker Little League.
Kappauf got 102 votes, or 84.30 percent to Anderson’s 19 votes, or 15.70 percent.
