The Exchange Club of Lake Highlands is hosting a candidate forum later this month for candidates in the RISD Single Member Place 5 race.
Set to take place on April 24 at the KC Club, the forum is open to the public and free to attend. The forum will start at 7 p.m. and will see both candidates field questions collected from community members. Questions are due by April 18 and may be emailed to programs@eclh.org under the subject line “candidate forum question.”
Incumbent Trustee Rachel McGowan and challenger Cristina Angelina Neria recently participated in a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Richardson. At the forum, each candidate fielded questions on teacher recruitment and retention, interdistrict enrollment and the district’s financial situation. Neighbors can find our recap of the forum here.
McGowan is a one-term incumbent who replaced Karen Clardy after her resignation in 2021. She previously served on the PTA Board of Forest Meadow Middle School and graduated from Lake Highlands High School.
Neria is a 1998 graduate of Lake Highlands High School and the mother of four children, one of whom graduated from LHHS. She works for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department as a clerk and hopes to become a deputy in the department.
According to campaign finance reports from the January-March filing period, McGowan out-raised Neria by more than $7,000 with $8,014 received in campaign contributions, as opposed to Neria’s $992.
Election Day is May 3.
