AISD School Board Trustee Election 2026
As part of our goal to advocate for policies and people in support of the arts and creative learning, MINDPOP sent out surveys to the AISD School Board Trustee candidates who are on the ballot this fall. Read their responses below.
Cheryl Bradley
Candace L. Hunter
District 7
Jimmy Counihan
Laurie Solis
Edward M. Bradfield
Tricia Mitchell Kim
Jessica Neufeld
At-Large Position 9
Cynthia Soliz
Kirk Becker
Pamela Mathai
District 6
Sarah Dille
Alex San Martin
Marie Lebron
District 1
Cheryl Bradley
No response at time of publication
Candace L. Hunter
1. How have the arts and creative learning impacted you – in your career, education, or life experience, if at all?
Arts literally kept me off the streets of East Austin. My mother enrolled my in everything the Rosewood Community center offered. Including dance, tap, twirl, and ballet.
2. What value do the arts, creative learning, and the Creative Learning Initiative have for students and teachers in Austin ISD, if any? (e.g. student engagement, academic achievement, and preparation for college, career and life)
The reality of education is most kids don't come to school for core instruction (English, Math, Social Studied, or Science). They come for the co-curricular activities like Fine Arts.
3. How will you prioritize and/or advocate for the arts and creative learning as an Austin ISD trustee, if at all?
I've always supported the Arts in Austin ISD, through my support, and attendance, and for as long as we can funding.
4. Please add any additional information voters should know regarding your views on the arts and creative learning.
Right now and times past the world can be ugly. The Arts bring beauty into our lives, and that's how we get through the ugly times.
District 4
Edward M. Bradfield
No response at time of publication.
Tricia Mitchell Kim
1. How have the arts and creative learning impacted you – in your career, education, or life experience, if at all?
How have the arts NOT impacted me?!
In my early 20s, I moved to New York City with $300 and a duffle bag. A legendary American choreographer gave me a scholarship to dance every day…
at Anderson High School, I danced as a Trojan Belle. I wore out the pages of my copy of the novel “The Princess Bride” and bonded with friends through music. I started going to see live bands in Austin at age 15, in any club with a minor stamp and a stage
…I saw “Hamilton” on London’s West End with my family, and heard an audience of Brits sing along with King George
…I was one of the first to earn Austin Community College’s associate’s degree in Musical Theater
…I tap dance on Wednesday evenings and belong to a songwriter club through which I have written a song each week for 120 consecutive weeks
…(I’ll stop now. There’s more).
Creativity makes everything better! The arts and creative learning teach and challenge, bring insight, buoy our spirits, and give us joy. The arts provide space for exploring and expressing the human experience. Making and practicing art provides personal, practical, logistical and community-enriching opportunities. The arts remind us that we’re not the first one ever to experience something. They grow our capacity to feel and empathize.
Contrary to how most people think, the arts and business are not separate. There is so much creativity in business and administrative detail in the arts.
2. What value do the arts, creative learning, and the Creative Learning Initiative have for students and teachers in Austin ISD, if any? (e.g. student engagement, academic achievement, and preparation for college, career and life)
In addition to simply introducing students to the arts, the core AISD Fine Arts classes in music, visual and performing arts provide students with opportunities to build skills.
Teachers who teach creatively engage their students and embed learning more deeply. I think everyone has a story about a teacher who ‘brought a subject to life’ for them. Because it’s really possible for subjects and school to be lifeless.
Students who pursue a fine art internalize the process of trying, practicing, making mistakes, improving and refining– which can be applied to everything. Research shows that students who pursue an art have better attendance and higher academic achievement.
Art isn’t extraneous.
3. How will you prioritize and/or advocate for the arts and creative learning as an Austin ISD trustee, if at all?
No one is contemplating cutting fine arts programs because it’s good or wise. We’re in a miserable public school funding season. As a trustee, to the extent possible with the amount of money we have, I will prioritize and advocate for the arts and creative learning. That is where my heart is.
I will also remind every teacher and young artist to keep going, keep creating, no matter what the circumstances. The arts save lives. The work moves you forward. Plants sprout through the cracks in the concrete.
4. Please add any additional information voters should know regarding your views on the arts and creative learning.
I am not aware of an AISD trustee with a strong fine arts background, especially like mine, combined with STEM and business training.
Voters can’t see the experiences I have had and how my identity and work as an artist enable me to see and solve problems in creative ways. But it’s all inextricable.
When my kids left home, as an alternative to crying, I enrolled and earned an Associate’s degree in the new Musical Theater program at Austin Community College. While ending and starting my next chapter, and especially after the pandemic, ALL I WANTED in my life was more singing & dancing. More stories. More expression, more emotions.
The work that artists do is deep and translatable to serving a community. I love all of the stories, especially those of families and children. I want to hear all about it. (I have no idea why trustees don’t reply to your emails, they are missing out!)
My bottom line view is that there is no well-rounded education with an artistic component. I can’t imagine D4 without its arts programs and will work really hard to emphasize the way that arts programs bolster academics and belonging, as well as make the world more beautiful.
Jessica “Jessie” Neufeld
1. How have the arts and creative learning impacted you – in your career, education, or life experience, if at all?
As a kid, I spent a lot of time either rehearsing for plays or taking acting classes. In addition to the joy it brought me, and the confidence and friendships it fostered, the character analysis and physical exploration of the script likely supported my critical thinking and reading comprehension. The opportunities to speak and perform helped enhance my ability to verbally express myself. Honing the art of storytelling helped me delve into emotions and how best to connect with people (the audience). And the teamwork! Learning comes naturally when things are fun, and there are a lot of opportunities for that in theater, and the arts more broadly.
My daughter is in the visual arts strand of the fine arts program at Lamar Middle School. It feeds my soul to know that she is able to grow that passion and to
watch it shape how she takes in the world around her. The Junior Vase competition she’s required to participate in does an incredible job of helping her learn how to tackle long-term (1-3 month) projects: developing planning and pacing skills for taking an abstract idea and making it a reality.
As an adult, casual singing and dancing with my kids has been a critical parenting tool for moving through tough moments, completing chores, and bonding with one another. Often we will make up songs to tasks that we then dance to as we complete them. It’s fun/goofy and the communal element pulls us together to get the job done with joy.
2. What value do the arts, creative learning, and the Creative Learning Initiative have for students and teachers in Austin ISD, if any? (e.g. student engagement, academic achievement, and preparation for college, career and life)
From the examples I provided in my first answer you can see the many ways the arts has positively impacted me and my family. I’m not intimately familiar with the Creative Learning Initiative but I understand and support culturally responsive teaching and see a lot of overlap between the two frameworks: learning through culture, creativity, and somatics strengthens student engagement and higher-level thinking. In addition, the level of agency students have when engaging in artistic and creative learning promotes critical thinking and fosters intrinsic motivation.
3. How will you prioritize and/or advocate for the arts and creative learning as an Austin ISD trustee, if at all?
I am an advocate for the arts, creative learning, and culturally responsive teaching. I think this type of learning should be prioritized and I acknowledge the extreme financial constraints the district is currently facing. It would be wonderful to explore how the arts and creativity might be/continue to be integrated in cost effective ways, or how AISD can partner/continue to partner with the broader community and local government to supplement costs. Most importantly though, I think artistic and creative learning opportunities in AISD need to be made available in an equitable way.
4. Please add any additional information voters should know regarding your views on the arts and creative learning.
My grandmother, Maxilou Link, was a huge proponent of the arts down in the Rio Grande Valley where she lived most of the last 30 years of her life (she lived to be 98). She was deeply committed to the Upper Valley Art League (UVAL) in Mission, Texas, where she served as President for 16 years (retiring at 95!). I believe I not only inherited my grandmother’s love of art, but also her tenacity and determination. She advocated relentlessly at Mission's City Hall for an addition to the UVAL building that now serves “as a working space for artists” and “houses room for workshops and meetings, space for life art, clay, welding, painting, stained glass, and other mediums.” (https://uppervalleyartleague.org/about-us, see “Acknowledgements”) The annex is named the “Art Link” in her honor. Art, service, and advocacy are all parts of my ancestor's legacy that I would be honored to carry forward as an AISD Trustee.