Valerie Ganelon Beals wins the race to represent the Franklin High School area on the El Paso Independent School District board with 52% of the vote.

In the other EPISD board race, Alex Cuellar is the winner with 59% of the vote. His opponent Will Veliz has 41% of the vote.

In the Ysleta Independent School District race, Chris Hernandez will win as he has 65% of the vote. Debbie Torres, who previously ran for City Council,  has 35% of the early vote.

In the EPISD District 6 race, which is the Franklin High area, Beals received 52% of vote, while her opponent Jacqueline Martinez received 48%.

Freddy Khlayel-Avalos previously held EPISD’s District 6 seat before stepping down in October, leaving it vacant for the last eight months. EPISD’s District 6 covers the Franklin High School feeder pattern, which includes Guerrero Elementary, Herrera Elementary, Kohlberg Elementary, Lundy Elementary, Polk Elementary, Tippin Elementary, Hornedo Middle School and Brown Middle School.

Martinez is a teacher with the Canutillo Independent School District with a sizable social media following. Her TikTok account @latexasadvocate, has over 50,000 followers and over 1.5 million likes. 

Beals is a stay-at-home mom and small business owner. Though Beals did not want to disclose the nature of her family’s business during an interview prior to the race, public records filed with the Texas Secretary of State show her as the owner of Beals Family Management Plan. Records also show her husband, Shawn Beals, as the owner of Agave Dental Care East and Beals Family Dentistry.

Burges-Jefferson area race

Alejandro Cuellar

Though Cuellar and Veliz were the only candidates running for the District 2 seat during the May election, a third candidate — Enrique Herrera — appeared on the ballot. After joining the race, Herrera decided to drop his campaign, but was unable to withdraw in time before the deadline.

With all three on the ballot, none of the candidates were able to secure 50% of the vote triggering a runoff.

District 2 covers the Burges High School and Jefferson High School feeder patterns, which includes Cielo Vista Elementary, Hawkins Elementary and MacArthur Elementary-Intermediate School, among others. The district’s previous seat holder, Al Velarde, chose not to run for reelection.

Cuellar is an Assistant El Paso County attorney who has worked for the county since 2010. Veliz is a self-employed Realtor and the owner of Veliz Real Estate. He previously ran for El Paso City Council District 3 in 2019 and 2020, losing both times to Cassandra Hernandez. 

Ysleta High School area trustee

Christopher Hernandez

YISD’s District 6 seat was previously held by Sotero Ramirez Jr. He was ousted during the May election after receiving the least number of votes. 

The district covers the Ysleta High School feeder pattern, which includes Ysleta Middle School, Capistrano Elementary, Pasodale Elementary, Presa Elementary and Ysleta Elementary.

Torres, the self-described educator, worked as a paraprofessional at YISD before becoming a program manager at UTEP.

Hernandez is an organizer working for political campaigns, nonprofit organizations and elected officials.