Plano City Council and School Board Election 2023
Voters Guide
Election Day Saturday, May 6
Election Day Voting Locations in Plano ( see map)
You can vote at ANY location if you’re registered in Collin County
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Bethany Elementary School 2418 Micarta Drive
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Bowman Middle School 2501 Jupiter Road
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Carpenter Middle School 3905 Rainier Road
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Carpenter Park Recreation Center 6701 Coit Road
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Collin College Plano Campus 2800 E. Spring Creek Parkway
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Davis Library 7501-B Independence Parkway
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East Plano Islamic Center 4700 14th Street
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Haggard Library 2501 Coit Road
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Haggard Middle School 2832 Parkhaven Drive
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Harrington Library 1501 18th Street
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Hendrick Middle School 7400 Red River Drive
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Huffman Elementary School 5510 Channel Isle Dr.
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Parr Library 6200 Windhaven Parkway
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Plano ISD Admin. Building 2700 West 15th Street
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Robinson Middle School 6701 Preston Meadow Dr
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Schimelpfenig Middle School 2400 Maumelle Drive
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Tom Muehlenbeck Recreation Center 5801 W. Parker Road
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Wilson Middle School 1001 Custer Road
Voting Locations in Dallas, Murphy, Parker and Richardson
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Haggar Elementary School 17820 Campbell Road, Dallas TX 75252
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Renner-Frankford Library 6400 Frankford Road, Dallas TX 75252
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Murphy Community Center 205 N Murphy Road, Murphy TX 75094
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Parker City Hall 5700 E Parker Road, Parker TX 75002
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Aldridge Elementary School 720 Pleasant Valley Lane, Richardson TX 75080
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Miller Elementary School 5651 Coventry Drive, Richardson TX 75082
Lookup your Voter Registration Card online using the Voter Registration Search application.
You may also find the sample ballot for a specific location by using the Ballot Address Search.​
Keep Plano #1 Recommended Candidates
Keep Plano #1 endorses candidates that we believe will Keep Plano #1 putting the focus on the programs, services, leadership, and development issues that have a direct impact on the quality of life and livability for our citizens, workers, and visitors.
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Please note that our Candidate Reviews and Recommendations represent the views of the Keep Plano #1 candidate review committee for city council and school board members. Our reviews are based on the best information available to us at the time and are subject to change or correction if additional information comes to our attention.
See recommendations and reviews below.
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- Candidate Reviews -
Candidates for Plano ISD School Board Trustee, Place 7
Katherine Chan Goodwin - Recommended
Simon Salinas - Not recommended
Cody Weaver - Not recommended
Katherine Chan Goodwin
We strongly recommend that you vote for Katherine Goodwin for Place 7. Keep Plano #1 is endorsing Katherine Chan Goodwin for Plano ISD’s Board of Trustees, Place 7, because we believe she has the experience and values to be a great trustee. Unlike the incumbent, Cody Weaver, Goodwin does share our values. She believes in: Making student achievement the goal of our School Board
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Doing everything she can to achieve full funding for public education,
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Not spending valuable time and treasure hashing over politically motivated distractions.
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Not taking funds from public schools in any type of voucher program for private education, and Making PISD welcoming to all students.
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She sees that trustees must focus on the business of educating our students and putting student achievement back on track.
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She can help put an end to the political stunts, drama, falsehoods, and distractions that the incumbent so often brings forth to undermine confidence in our schools.
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Goodwin has the necessary PISD experience to be effective from day one.
She has served for 16-years on the Executive Board of every Plano ISD school’s PTA that her children attended, and, even though her kids are grown and out of college, she continues to serve as Barron Elementary PTA Treasurer. Goodwin is the proud recipient of the Texas PTA Lifetime Membership Award. She has served on the Council of PTA’s antiracism committee and, at the district level, on Plano ISD’s Diversity Committee. She makes the bi-annual trips to Austin to lobby the legislature for our school children.
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Goodwin earned a B.S. in Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in Dispute Resolution at Southern Methodist University. She is certified in Mediation and Executive Coaching, and currently consults and speaks on change management for employers and other organizations. These are important skill needed on Plano’s ideologically divided Board of Trustees. Professionally, Goodwin has extensive business and big budget experience as well, having founded and served as CEO of a commercial real estate company for 24- years, as well as a long tenure at EDS in personnel management.
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Goodwin is a graduate of Leadership Plano and serves on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of both the ArtCentre of Plano and the Plano West Rotary Club. Katherine is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, and was honored with the Rotary International, District 5810 - Service Above Self Award.
Simon Salinas
​Simon Salinas is an 18- or 19-year-old recent high school graduate, with a Collin College associate degree in applied sciences, earned through the career preparation programs offered at Plano Senior High Schools. Simon is currently substitute teaching and left a 4-year degree program to run for school board trustee.
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Simon feels that the School Board would benefit from the perspective of a former student. We question his logic.
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Everyone on the School Board, the administration, and the teachers and other employees in the school district are all former students. Many of them are former Plano ISD students. Simon Salinas is a novelty candidate. Sadly, by throwing his hat into the ring,
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Simon poses the risk of serving only as a “spoiler,” diverting votes in an important election where we must defeat an incumbent whose views differ from the enthusiastic supporters of Plano ISD.
Cody Weaver ​
Keep Plano # 1 believes in the right of every child to have the very best public education available. We are fortunate that Plano ISD provides this at an exemplary level.
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We are concerned about Cody Weaver the current Place 7 Board members' views on public education and its continued availability at the high level that Plano ISD provides. As a probable fan of charter schools with a family background in the private/charter school business, we have to wonder about his sufficient commitment to the PISD type of public education.
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We wish he were as dedicated to educational improvement, coming out of the COVID years, as he seems to be about ​divisive political topics. At a recent Board of Trustees meeting, he voted against the installation of classroom security doors and safety film for the windows in our elementary schools, conceivably putting the youngest PISD students in harm's way. (Alleged consent agenda explanations of this just don’t pass the credibility test.)
Thus, we strongly recommend Katherine Goodwin over Mr. Weaver in this contest. As he likely seeks higher political office, we hope he will do so in an arena other than Plano ISD.
Candidates for Plano ISD School Board Trustee, Pl. 5
Michael Cook - Recommended
Khalid Ishaq - Not Recommended
Greg Jubenville - Not Recommended
Michael Cook
Michael Cook
When Michael and his wife decided to give back to the Plano public schools that were giving so much to his three Plano ISD elementary students, he set his sights on becoming a very well-prepared candidate for School Board Trustee. We think he succeeded.
One of his first preparatory steps was enrolling in the North-Texas Leadership ISD program that prepares candidates to run for trustee through issues education, leadership training, and coalition building. Cook is the only PISD candidate in this election cycle to graduate from this program.
Cook is ready to step into this position advocating best-in-class board governance strategies, education policy, and a commitment to provide every Plano ISD student with the opportunity to have access to a high- quality education.
Over the past two years, Michael has contributed to the Plano ISD community by serving on the Plano ISD Future Funding Commission, where he helped guide the funding recommendation for $1.4B for Plano schools. As a member of the infrastructure committee, he assessed the needs of each school in the district and created a short-term and long-term renovation and maintenance plan totaling $1.1B.
The Plano ISD Board of Trustees also appointed him to the Special Education Advisory Board where he provided support and advice on Plano’s Special Education services, including specific recommendations to reimagine the annual Plano ISD special education symposium.
As Michael says at every opportunity, “My first priority is to improve student academic achievement.” He wants the district to work diligently and deliberately make up for all the damage the pandemic did to our school children’s progress.
This will require more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. He wants to make significant improvements to the parent-teacher relationships – which have suffered and contributed to stress on both sides, as students and families have struggled. He also recognizes that, post pandemic, Plano ISD has seen a significant increase in reports of mental health issues. While the ISD has responded by adding a small number of additional counselors, Cook believes that approach hasn’t fully addressed the challenges facing teachers and students. He sees a need to provide more mental health resources to aid students, teachers, and parents as they continue to deal with mental health challenges in and out of school.
Cook has succeeded in becoming not just a well-prepared candidate for Trustee, but the best prepared in Place 5.
Khalid Ishaq
Khalid Ishaq
The first thing you’ll see when you go to Khalid Ishaq’s candidate website is “Bring Plano Schools Back to Excellence.” Granted, there are many improvements more money, greater parent involvement, more teachers, and less political drama could add to our schools, but to say they are not currently “excellent” compared to schools throughout our country, in our opinion, is going a bit too far.
Ishaq does have significant PISD involvement, and an enthusiastic attitude. He is a 22-year resident of Plano with three children, all of whom attended and graduated from PISD schools. He served on several PISD committees including:
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PISD Diversity Advisory Council (Two Terms Currently Serving)
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PISD - Career and Technical Education Board
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PISD - Special Education Advisory Committee
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Plano ISD Task Force
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Plano ISD Leadership and Ambassador Program
Ishaq also has over 33 years of leadership experience managing budgets of $100 million in the technology sector and two decades of teaching experience as an adjunct professor. His tech experience seems to drive his ideas for Plano Schools, he emphasizes the need to incorporate additional digital literacy and computer science education into school curriculums at all grade levels. He believes that such changes will lead to more job possibilities outside of college education. While admirable, and desirable,
curriculum is controlled at the state level. The Board of Trustees can only make minor changes in the way subjects are taught. The State controls what is taught, and often how it is taught, in our schools.
Further, the Plano Board of Trustees has already given the green light to a new technical and career education program which will be developed and added to our schools in the near future. Ishaq has some good ideas, but perhaps technology is not the answer right now in our school children’s time of significant need to catch up and excel.
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While Ishaq is a strong candidate, we believe that Michael Cook has a better handle on the immediate needs of our students.
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Greg Jubenville
Greg Jubenville came to Plano in 1994 and ever since, “his life has revolved around Plano through both personal and business interests” including a number of community organizations. Gregg and wife Trudi (a retired nurse), have three children, two of whom graduated from Plano East SHS. Their youngest, whom they adopted from an orphanage, is currently a PESH senior enrolled in the Special Education (SPED) program in Plano ISD.
Jubenville is attempting to distinguish himself as a candidate by leaning on a few current political dog whistles. He’s calling for the removal of so-called PISD “policies” teaching critical race theory (CRT) and adopting a more “pro classics” curriculum.”
Jubenville justifies these emphases because, he says, “School districts have significant local control over instruction and the selection of academic materials.” That’s largely inaccurate.
The majority of control over curriculum rests with the State Board of Education and the State Legislature, which has aggressively narrowed the ability of local districts to choose materials and construct their own curriculum in recent years. Critical Race Theory is NOT taught in Plano schools; CRT was formally outlawed from public school curriculums by state decree. Jubenville is disingenuous in implying this matter is under local control. We cannot recommend him to Plano voters.
Candidates for Plano ISD School Board Trustee, Place 4
Tarrah Lantz - Recommended
Lydia Ortega - Not Recommended
Margaret Turner-Carrigan - Not Recommended
Tarrah Lantz
Tarrah Lantz
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Every so often a candidate for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees will come along that is clearly a great fit for the position. Tarrah Lantz is one of those. A caring and involved parent of Plano ISD kids who has embraced PTA as a calling, and become a regional expert on our school system, funding, and programs.
She has been involved just about everywhere – from Trustee meetings to the state legislature in Austin – advocating for our kids and improving their education and environment.
She has served on numerous committees aiding our school children from Health and Safety to the Future Forward Task force, which shaped the recent bond election.
There is no better qualified candidate for Trustee in Place 4.
Margaret Turner-Carrigan
Margaret Turner-Carrigan
Margaret Turner Carrigan describes herself as an Attorney, Mediator, a Bible School teacher and a Certified Hearing Officer. She has been a Plano resident since 1993 who moved here due to the stellar reputation of the Plano Independent School District. She has a daughter who went through the Plano schools from 4th grade to honors graduate in the 2nd graduating class from Plano West Senior High School.
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She has served as a member of the PTA, PTA Board, Booster Club member, and PTA President. However, she has no demonstrable experience working directly with the Plano ISD on committees, attending School Board Meetings, or participating in the ongoing effort to help Plano weather the school funding crisis.
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She believes she is prepared to fulfill the duties of a Trustee. However, in this election, we feel she is not the best qualified for the position.
Dr. Lydia Ortega
Dr. Lydia Ortega has a doctorate in economics and is a retired University teacher with some 30 years’ experience. She joined us from California just a short few years ago. She clearly has opinions on students in higher education but has indicated no experience with elementary and secondary education.
In fact, after an unsuccessful run for Mayor of Plano two years ago, she has set her sights on finding all of what’s wrong with Plano ISD, beginning with our selection of books. While there may well be a few controversial publications in our school libraries, there is also a solid process for concerned parents to contest them.
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Ortega is bringing issues into Plano’s extraordinary school system and administration that sidestep the agenda which the Plano ISD School Board must address.
We cannot see fit to recommend her.
Candidates for Plano City Council Place 3
Rick Horne - Recommended
Colleen Aguilar-Epstein - Not Recommended
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The KP1 Board Recommends Rick Horne for City Council, Place 3
Rick Horne
There is no contest with this recommendation. We strongly recommend Rick Horne. Rick Horne is not only one of Plano’s most prolific civic volunteers, but he has also gained many years of city government experience by serving on the Parks and Recreation Commission and on the Planning & Zoning Commission.
If you’ve paid attention to the proceedings of these commissions, you know that Rick has made it his mission to study the proposals thoroughly and to make carefully considered recommendations in the best interest of the city.
He is not swayed by special interests.
Rick has the future of Plano clearly in view, unlike his opponent who would like to turn back the clock.
Colleen Aguilar-Epstein boasts “speaking before City Council” as her primary accomplishment in preparation for serving on Council. She is indeed the most prolific speaker before the City Council, Yet offers very little in the way of solutions.
In fact, if there is renewal, multi-family housing, or just about anything that might attract a few new folks to Plano – you can count on Colleen to campaign against it.. Of course, not all proposals are good for the city and the taxpayers. However, a blanket “no” vote is not a good direction for a City Councilperson.
We say No to any Recommendation for Colleen Aguilar-Epstein.
Plano City Council, Place 5
Shelby Williams - Plano City Council Member, Place 5
Brett Cooper - Candidate for Plano City Council, Place 5
Councilperson Williams came to office without Keep Plano #1’s support due to positions that were not consistent with our mission and values. Especially early in his term, he cast votes on women’s health care and COVID-19 that our Board thought were not guided by the community values of most residents of Plano.
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This said, he has demonstrated a high level of communications with the citizens and has diligently researched topics and proposed many solutions for contentious issues. While he has performed well in these situations, we still have some concerns.​
Dr. Brett Cooper likely offers a better fit with KP1’s mission and values. However, his lack of experience with City governance, including with Plano Boards and Commissions make him possibly not prepared to serve from day 1. As a former City Councilperson often stated, “Plano City Council is not an entry level position.”
We hope that Dr. Cooper will be very involved with Plano city government, other civic organizations in Plano, and with our residents, and that he will seek office in the future with this experience under his belt.
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As a result, the KP1 Board is not making a recommendation in this race.
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We hope that Councilperson Williams, if he prevails, will continue to broaden his views and work for all residents of Plano. We hope that Dr. Cooper will gain needed experience quickly if he prevails, or for service in the future.
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For a ride to the polls call 888-977-2250
https://rideshare2vote.com/request-a-ride
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Maria Tu
Plano Deputy Mayor
Pro Tem, Place 1
Maria Tu's parents had lived through the ravages of Chinese communism. To them, America was the greatest beacon of hope and opportunity on Earth. When the opportunity came to go to America, Maria's parents decided to go alone and leave her and her brother behind until they were established financially. They told 9-year-old Maria that she would have to stay behind with her grandparents. The tenacious Maria called a family meeting and told her parents she wanted to live the American Dream and that she would not be a financial burden-Maria promised that she would work hard and pay her own way. A month later she was with her family in America. Professional Life After college, at age 19, Maria campaigned for Senator Daniel J. Evans and followed him to Washington D.C. when he won the United States Senate seat. Later, she came back home to go to law school, and after passing the Washington bar, Maria was hired by one of the top six Washington law firms to develop legal representation in the area of international business transactions between United States and Asian companies. Moving to Texas Maria was successful, but she wanted something that would challenge her more. She left Washington State and came to Texas to start anew. When Maria arrived in Plano, Texas, she had no money in her pockets, but because of Plano, Maria and her husband became pioneers of a brand-new market-they founded the first company to sell sushi directly in grocery stores across North Texas. Eventually, the Tu's sold their company. Maria went back to the practice of law. Then a non-practicing attorney, Maria sat and passed the Texas Bar exam and was hired as a prosecutor for the Collin County District Attorney's office. She successfully prosecuted hardened criminals and helped make our community safe. Today, she owns her own law practice-serving Plano families. Community Services For 25 years, Maria has served the Plano community on various organizations, including: Collin County Lawyers Association Leadership Plano - Class 36 Plano Chamber of Commerce Texas Bar Foundation Texas Diversity Council She was recently awarded the Top Achievers' Heart of a servant award for 2019. Accolades 2015 Recognized for excellence by American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys Selected as Nation's Top One Percent by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel 2018 Honored as one of the Top Women in Law by the Texas Diversity Council 2019 Recognized for excellence in Criminal Defense Law by Lawyers of Distinction Awarded the Heart of a Servant award by Top Achievers 2020 & 2021 Selected by Plano Local Profile as one of the Top Lawyers in Criminal Law 2021 Recognized for her service to the Community by Pak America Business Forum
Julie Holmer
Plano City Council Member, Place 7
Commitment to Plano Julie Holmer loves her hometown and wants to give back. She graduated from Plano Senior High School and has been a community advocate ever since. That includes volunteer stints with the Historic Downtown Plano Association, the Parks Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Farmstead Museum among others. Julie is a graduate of Leadership Plano, Plano Citizens Police and Plano Citizens Fire Academy. Julie believes that Plano’s people are its greatest assets. She has a strong commitment to public service and public safety and works to better support small businesses and promote arts programs through city grants. Her belief is that Plano should be everyone’s neighborhood. She vows to make sure that all efforts to attract businesses would prioritize keeping Plano a city that is inclusive and accepting.