IIleana Garza-Rojas
Out candidate Ileana Garza-Rojas placed first among 5 candidates for a seat on CFBISD board
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Ileana Garza-Rojas was elected to the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD school board earlier this month when she placed first among the five candidates running. Voters were tasked with selecting three out of five people running, and Garza-Rojas brought in the most votes of any of the five.
Her victory makes her the first openly-LGBTQ person elected to the CFBISD board.
Garza-Rojas grew up in Garland. She is a first generation American who learned English when she attended public school. She and her wife, a NICU nurse, have lived in Farmers Branch for more than a decade, and they have two children — 4 and 7 years old.
Garza-Rojas said she got involved in the school board race after participating in a program called Leader and Me. Although the city is 60 percent Latinx, she said, she was the only Latina who took part.
“I was just a volunteer and a mom,” she said of her involvement. But others saw things differently: “You’re involved,” they told her.
Not only has she been involved at her son’s school, Garza-Rojas also been an active CASA volunteer. CASAs are court appointed special advocates who are assigned a child who has experienced abuse or neglect and is in the custody of Child Protective Services. CASAs help caseworkers, who Garza-Rojas said are overwhelmed with work.
She has worked with more than 10 kids, Garza-Rojas said, and each case takes about a year. So she brings a special skill to her new position as school board member. “I know how to work with at-risk kids,” she said.
Garza-Rojas said working as a CASA “can make a difference in one child’s life.” But what happens when politics gets mixed up in the process? “Now they’re working with trans kids?” she questioned. “What?”
So based on her experience, Garza-Rojas decided to run for the school board. And she was, she said, the only candidate who looked like that 60 percent of the city’s residents.
Noting that one of the two candidates who didn’t make the cut in this election CFBISD board incumbent, Garza-Rojas suggested the voters may have been signaling that they are ready for some change.
CFBISD has 26,000 students in 24 elementary schools, six middle schools, five high schools and three special learning centers. About 35 percent of the district’s students are native English speakers, while 55 other languages are spoken at home by the rest of the district’s students. About 11 percent of the district is white, and more than half is Hispanic.
Garza-Rojas talked about what change might look like at CFBISD, and even offering some “radical” ideas — like letting school librarians do their jobs and allowing them to choose books appropriate for the children in their schools.
“I trust our librarians to do their job,” she said. “We do them a disservice when we remove books. This takes away opportunities and different points of view.”
After all, Garza-Rojas said, the point of a public education is to let students learn to see the world from different perspectives.
After the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, the security and safety of students and teachers is her top priority, Garza-Rojas said, noting that the only way anything will get done is if all sides work together to come up with solutions.
Her school district, she continued, may have an advantage over some others. Since CFBISD covers not just Carrollton and Farmers Branch but also parts of Irving, Addison, Coppell and Dallas, she hopes police resources for each of those cities will collaborate.
As for the safety of LGBTQ students, Garza-Rojas said she hopes to talk to the district’s high school principals about where the schools stand with gay-straight alliances. The district established an Equity and Equality Task Force, indicating they’re already moving in the right direction, she said.
Should a “Don’t Say Gay” law come Texas’ way next session, Garza-Rojas said that would interfere with her son being allowed to talk about his two moms. Her son’s teacher told her he proudly talks about his moms in class all the time now. And recently, when his cub scout troop was delivering flags for the holiday, she saw that for herself. When one child commented that it was weird that he had two moms, her son responded: “Hey! Don’t you talk about my family that way.”
Garza-Rojas said public school is a place where kids should be exposed to a little bit of everything, because, after all, “It’s where you learn to be a better citizen.”
On the campaign trail, Garza-Rojas said, she ran into people on all sides of issues, and she learned to listen and take in all viewpoints. Her response, she noted, was often, “I appreciate your perspective.”
She was, she added, “elected to represent everyone,” even the voter who called her a “liberal, pot-smoking lesbian,” and the one who thought school librarians were letting children read pornography.
“Pornography?” she responded. “My kids are reading Curious George.”
As for any future political aspirations, Garza-Rojas said, “I want to just see how this plays out.”
Garza-Rojas was due to be sworn in on June 2. This interview took place before she took office, so she made it clear at that time, “My individual comments don’t reflect the views of the Carrollton Farmers Branch Independent School District.”
