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No endorsement
Update — October 25, 2026
This article has been corrected in the open. The original version was written when only one open seat had been identified, and it argued a "one open seat" race with no verified roster. A completed audit of official filings established that two positions are on the November 3, 2026 ballot: Position 1, where incumbent Elizabeth Harrell is unopposed, and Position 2, an open seat with a four-way race. The article below has been rewritten to the verified ballot. The original headline is retained above for the record; the race it describes is the two-position ballot documented here.
The race
This school board election is on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot in New Caney Independent School District (Montgomery County, with a Harris County portion). Two seats are at stake in Board of Trustees Positions 1 and 2 — Nov 3 2026.
The two-position ballot is verified at the top of the source ladder. The district's own elections page lists "Board of Trustees Positions 1 and 2 (Nov. 3, 2026)" as the upcoming election, with filing open July 20, 2026 and closed August 17, 2026 at 5 p.m. (grade: official district). Montgomery County Elections' Notice of General Election calls the November 3, 2026 election "to elect New Caney ISD Board of Trustees (Positions 1, 2)" (grade: county official). Source grading, disclosed: Texas Secretary of State > county official > district official > compilation; no Secretary of State roster for this district race was published in the sources worked, so the county notice and the district page carry the ballot shape, and the roster below is corroborated by compilation reporting that names the candidates the official notices do not list.
Position 1 — uncontested. Elizabeth Harrell is the sole candidate.
Position 2 — open seat, four candidates. Chad Turner, Kevin D. Jensen II, Kristina Haggard and Ryan Schurdell. The seat is currently held by Creg Mixon, who is not seeking another term, per My Neighborhood News (grade: compilation, reporting the district race; GoodParty.org's candidate listing independently carries Turner, Haggard and Harrell and lists the fourth Position 2 candidate under the spelling "Kevin Jenson" — we use My Neighborhood News's "Kevin D. Jensen II").
Trustees establish district policy, approve annual budgets, set the district tax rate and oversee educational programs and facilities — responsibilities that matter more, not less, in a fast-growth district planning for established neighborhoods and new development in the Porter and New Caney areas along U.S. Highway 59 and the Grand Parkway, per My Neighborhood News.
The candidates
### Position 1
Elizabeth Harrell (also listed as Elizabeth Rhoden Harrell) — incumbent, unopposed. Harrell is the sitting board president, seeking reelection to Position 1 with no opponent, and her current term expires in 2026, per My Neighborhood News. GoodParty.org lists her current term as 2024 to 2026 (grade: compilation). Her service is long: a district bond document lists Elizabeth Rhoden Harrell as a trustee first elected in November 2017, then serving as board secretary, occupation insurance agent (grade: district bond filing). In November 2025 the board canvassed the 2025 trustee results and reorganized, electing Harrell president, per Citizen Portal's meeting record (grade: compilation of the public meeting record).
What the board has done during her service — board actions are collective, and we credit and weigh them as the record of the board she now leads, not as solo acts:
- Credits: The board approved the 2023–24 annual financial report after auditors returned a clean (unmodified) opinion, with no corrected or uncorrected misstatements requiring disclosure; the general fund balance rose from about $63.6 million to about $65.2 million and the unassigned balance equaled roughly 75 days of operations, above the Texas Education Agency's roughly 60-day guideline, per Citizen Portal's record of the audit presentation. The district also reported an "A" rating for superior achievement under the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) for the 2024–25 cycle, meeting all four critical indicators, per Citizen Portal. In July 2025 the board approved a 2025–26 compensation revision bringing starting teacher pay to $67,000, adopted the 2025–26 student code of conduct, and in June 2026 approved board legislative priorities covering school safety and security, teaching and learning, staff recruitment and retention, and fast-growth enrollment, per the district's legislative-priorities page and Citizen Portal.
- Cons: In that same July 2025 meeting the board approved continuing the district's practice of not allowing homeschooled students to participate in UIL activities, per Citizen Portal — a board position against one form of school choice, taken while Harrell served and seconded related motions in the meeting. Separately, a 2024 ProPublica/Texas Tribune examination of the November 2023 trustee elections found New Caney among the districts that had still not posted required candidate campaign-finance reports online under House Bill 2626 — a district transparency-compliance failure, printed here as district context, not as a personal finding against Harrell. No individual campaign platform from Harrell on parental rights, curriculum transparency, fiscal restraint or school choice was found in this pass (see Record gaps).
Dirt: none proven. No controversy, sanction or adverse finding against Harrell personally was found in the sources worked. Credits are the service and board record above, verified as stated.
### Position 2
Chad Turner — former trustee and former board president, seeking the open seat. Turner is not a newcomer: a district bond document lists Chad Turner as a trustee first elected in November 2012, a business owner, then serving as board president, with Creg Mixon — the trustee whose retirement opens this seat — as his vice president (grade: district bond filing). The district's 2021–22 employee handbook still lists Turner as board president, Harrell as secretary and Mixon as vice president. That is the deepest governing-experience file in this race: a prior presidency of this same board. What it is not is a 2026 platform: no campaign site, questionnaire answer, statement of positions or endorsement for Turner's current candidacy was found in this pass (see Record gaps). His earlier board's record is a decade old in part, and we do not transfer positions from it to a candidacy that has not stated them.
Dirt: none proven in the sources worked. Credit: prior service as trustee and board president, and business ownership, as documented above.
Kevin D. Jensen II — roster only. Jensen appears on the verified Position 2 roster in My Neighborhood News and, as "Kevin Jenson," in GoodParty.org's candidate listing. Nothing else about this candidate was verified: no campaign site, no platform, no biography, no questionnaire, no endorsement and no local-news profile was found despite name searches (see Record gaps). A caution we applied to ourselves: web searches for "Kevin D. Jensen" return a South Dakota legislator of the same name — a different person in a different state, with no connection to this race shown in any source, and nothing from that record is attributed to this candidate.
Dirt: none found — and none can be assessed on an empty file. Credits: none verified beyond the candidacy itself.
Kristina Haggard — district graduate and parent; repeat candidate. Haggard is a New Caney High School graduate and a district parent who previously ran for a New Caney ISD trustee position, and her campaign materials address district planning, responsible use of resources and support for families, per My Neighborhood News. GoodParty.org lists Haggard as having taken the GoodParty.org Pledge — a promise to serve people first, independent of both major parties and big-money interests (grade: compilation). That is a real, stated orientation — planning, responsible resources, families — stated in general terms, with no specific position on curriculum transparency, parental rights or school choice verified.
Dirt: none proven in the sources worked. Her prior unsuccessful run is a fact of her file, not a demerit. Credits: district roots as a graduate and parent, a prior candidacy, and the stated campaign themes above.
Ryan Schurdell — finance background; transparency platform. Schurdell has a professional background in finance and has emphasized district spending transparency, classroom priorities and teacher support in his campaign materials, per My Neighborhood News. An active campaign fundraising page, "Ryan Schurdell for NCISD," exists on Anedot (grade: campaign's own infrastructure) — evidence of an organized, current candidacy, though the page itself states no positions. His stated emphasis is the most specific in this field: spending transparency is a checkable promise about how the district's money can be followed, and classroom priorities and teacher support name where he says money should go.
Dirt: none proven in the sources worked. Credits: the finance background and the stated transparency/classroom/teacher-support emphasis above.
Pros and cons
- Harrell (Position 1) — Pro: long, continuous service since 2017 and the board presidency; a board record that includes a clean audit, an A under FIRST, and a teacher-pay revision to a $67,000 starting salary. Con: no stated individual platform on the values this page grades — parental rights, curriculum transparency, fiscal restraint, school choice — and a board record that includes continuing to bar homeschooled students from UIL participation. Unopposed status means voters have no alternative on the ballot; it does not convert service alone into an endorsement.
- Turner (Position 2) — Pro: the most governing experience in the race — trustee from 2012 and a former president of this board; a business owner's background. Con: no 2026 platform, statement or endorsement verified; experience tells voters he can do the job, not what he will do with it this term.
- Jensen II (Position 2) — Pro: a verified candidacy on a contested ballot — voters have a choice because he filed. Con: the emptiest file in the race — no platform, biography or endorsement verified despite a documented search.
- Haggard (Position 2) — Pro: a district graduate and parent with a prior run, stated themes of district planning, responsible use of resources and support for families, and the GoodParty pledge. Con: the themes are general; no specific position on curriculum, parental rights or school choice was verified.
- Schurdell (Position 2) — Pro: a finance background matched to the board's budget-and-tax-rate job, and the field's most specific stated commitment — district spending transparency, with classroom priorities and teacher support. Con: the commitment is a campaign-materials summary, not a detailed plan; no endorsement from a named organization and no prior governing record was verified.
Record gaps
"Insufficient record" is an earned verdict, so the search is documented here, for every candidate symmetrically. Worked for this correction: the New Caney ISD Board of Trustees elections page and legislative-priorities page (official district); Montgomery County Elections' Notice of General Election for Positions 1 and 2 (county official); My Neighborhood News's November 3, 2026 election coverage (compilation, the roster and campaign-materials source); GoodParty.org's New Caney candidate and officeholder listings (compilation); Citizen Portal's New Caney ISD meeting records (audit, compensation/code of conduct, and the November 2025 canvass and reorganization); the district bond filing and 2021–22 employee handbook for historical board service; the candidate's Anedot page for Schurdell; and name-by-name web searches for each candidate covering campaign sites, Vote411/League of Women Voters questionnaires, Ballotpedia, the Houston Chronicle, the Conroe Courier, the Montgomery County Gazette and Bluebonnet News, and endorsement lists from teachers associations, parent groups, the Montgomery County Republican Party/research pages and Montgomery County Eagle Forum (which states it does not endorse in elections).
What that search did not produce, for anyone: a Vote411 questionnaire answer, a Ballotpedia candidate profile for this race, a candidate campaign website stating positions (Schurdell's Anedot page is fundraising only), or an endorsement of any candidate in this race by a named teachers association, parent group, or county Republican or Democratic organization. No such item is claimed anywhere in this article. The gaps are real for Jensen (a roster-only file) and for Turner's current positions; they are partial for Harrell (service record verified, individual platform not found), Haggard and Schurdell (campaign themes verified as summarized by My Neighborhood News, no fuller text found).
OUR CALL
Position 1 — No endorsement — uncontested race. Harrell's service record is verified and, on finance, creditable: a clean audit and an A FIRST rating under the board she leads. But LiberalMind endorses on an affirmatively aligning verified record, and none was found: no stated position on parental rights, curriculum transparency or school choice, and a board vote continuing to exclude homeschooled students from UIL that points the other way on choice. Service is a qualification; it is not alignment. With no opponent on the ballot there is also no contest to decide. Voters who value continuity have their candidate; this page does not guess the rest.
Position 2 — We endorse Ryan Schurdell. In a four-way open race, Schurdell is the one candidate whose stated campaign pairs the right background with the right stated priority for a board that sets the tax rate and approves the budget: a professional background in finance, and a campaign emphasis on district spending transparency, classroom priorities and teacher support. Transparency about spending is the precondition for fiscal restraint a voter can verify, and he is the only candidate in the field who made it his stated theme. The endorsement is narrow and on the record stated: Haggard's responsible-resources themes and district roots are genuine but general; Turner's former presidency is genuine experience with no current platform attached; Jensen's file is empty. If Schurdell governs, this page will grade him against the promise he actually made — that a New Caney taxpayer can follow the district's spending — and say so either way.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources - New Caney ISD — Elections page (official district; grade: district official) — Board of Trustees Positions 1 and 2, Nov. 3, 2026; filing July 20–August 17, 2026 — https://www.newcaneyisd.org/our-district/board-of-trustees/elections - Montgomery County Elections — Notice of General Election, New Caney ISD Board of Trustees (Positions 1, 2), November 3, 2026 (grade: county official) — https://elections.mctx.org/pdf/GEN110326/SCH - New Caney ISD - Notice of Election.pdf - My Neighborhood News — Spring, Conroe, New Caney and Aldine Election 2026 (October 19, 2026; grade: compilation) — two positions, Position 1 unopposed (Harrell), Position 2 four-way open race (Turner, Jensen II, Haggard, Schurdell; Mixon not seeking another term), Haggard and Schurdell campaign materials — https://myneighborhoodnews.com/spring-conroe-new-caney-and-aldine-election-2026-school-tax-proposal-trustee-races-county-elections-and-where-to-vote-november-3 - GoodParty.org — New Caney Independent School District school board candidates and current officeholders (grade: compilation) — Harrell Position 1 / term 2024–2026, Haggard pledge, "Kevin Jenson" spelling variant, Mixon Position 2 — https://goodparty.org/elections/tx/new-caney-independent-school-district/position/local-school-board - New Caney ISD bond Official Statement filing (grade: district filing) — historical board listing: Turner first elected 2012, president, business owner; Harrell first elected 2017, secretary, insurance agent; Mixon vice president — https://samco.postos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/New-Caney-ISD-POS-Neg-Ref.pdf - Citizen Portal — New Caney ISD certifies Nov. 4, 2025 trustee results; board elects Harrell president (grade: compilation of meeting record) — https://citizenportal.ai/articles/7192299/Texas/New-Caney-ISD-certifies-Nov-4-trustee-results-board-elects-officers-and-swears-in-new-members - Citizen Portal — New Caney ISD trustees approve compensation ($67,000 starting teacher pay), student code of conduct and election orders, July 2025, including continuing not to allow homeschoolers in UIL (grade: compilation of meeting record) — https://citizenportal.ai/articles/6491375/New-Caney-ISD-trustees-approve-compensation-student-code-of-conduct-and-election-orders-multiple-routine-items-pass-by-voice-vote - Citizen Portal — New Caney ISD audit returns clean opinion; board approves 2023–24 financial report (grade: compilation of meeting record) — https://citizenportal.ai/articles/6680489/Texas/School-Districts/NEW-CANEY-ISD/New-Caney-ISD-audit-returns-clean-opinion-board-approves-202324-financial-report - New Caney ISD — Legislative Focus Areas, approved by the Board of Trustees June 2026 (official district) — https://www.newcaneyisd.org/our-district/board-of-trustees/legislative-priorities - Ryan Schurdell for NCISD — Anedot campaign fundraising page (grade: campaign's own) — https://secure.anedot.com/ryan-schurdell-for-ncisd/donate - ProPublica / Texas Tribune (via Nonpartisan Education review) — Texas school districts and House Bill 2626 campaign-finance posting; New Caney among districts still missing posted reports for the November 2023 elections (grade: compilation) — https://nonpartisaneducation.org/blog1/2024/04/texas-school-districts-violated-a-law-intended-to-add-transparency-to-local-elections/
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.