Dustin Marshall won the district 2 trustee seat on the Dallas Independent School District school board Saturday over competitor Mita Havlick.
The seat was vacated last December when former board member Mike Morath was appointed to Texas Education Agency commissioner.
Marshall, CEO of Hazel’s Hot Shot and and Preston Hollow resident, has experience working and volunteering with education nonprofits, like Reading Partners’ North Texas board until he announced his candidacy, according to Advocate magazine. In December, he told the magazine his top three priorities as a board member are early childhood education, effective teachers and school leadership. Full mission statements and agenda issues are available on his website.
The win against Mita Havlick, a community and school volunteer, was very close — 42 votes, according to The Dallas Morning News. A total of 5,814 ballots were cast in the runoff election. Based on unofficial results, Marshall had 50.4 percent and Havlick had 49.6 percent of the vote, according to the Morning News.
Marshall will finish the rest of Morath’s unexpired term, which ends in May 2017. The board has nine members, and regular terms run three years.
Saturday was also a runoff election for Dallas County Community College District. The two open seats were filled by Dorothy Zimmerman in district 3 and attorney Monica Lira Bravo in district 4, according to The Dallas Morning News.
