In the three decades Gene Sprague has served on the Alamo Colleges District board, the governing body for the county’s community colleges has gone from a hotbed of corruption that would lead to five trustees’ indictment, to a nationally-acclaimed system that’s flush with cash and expanding at record speed.
While another long-term member who’s been around for many of those changes is retiring on a high note, Sprague is campaigning for another six-year term in the May 4 election.
“I have a passion. I’ve seen what we can do,” Sprague, a longtime cardiology professor, told the San Antonio Report. “I have a lot of reasons that make me want to continue and see what we can do in the future.”
But the race to represent District 6 on the county’s Northwest Side has quickly become more challenging than anticipated, according to Sprague.
He was reelected by 10 percentage points in 2018, but this year faces a challenge from Nicolette Ardiente, who serves as president of the Bexar County Young Democrats and is well-known in local Democratic political circles.
By both candidates’ accounts, Ardiente called Sprague several times early this year to ask whether he was planning to run again, and if he’d consider supporting her as his successor.
Sprague said he hadn’t made up his mind about a sixth term during those discussions, but he eventually filed for reelection — three days after Ardiente, and hours before the filing deadline on Feb. 16.
“With all the community engagement work that I’ve been doing, … I had never heard of Dr. Sprague for the five years I’ve been living in this district,” Ardiente said in an interview.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is not representative of what our community deserves, especially when the Alamo Colleges District is such a pivotal part of the dynamic makeup of San Antonio and how students and families like thrive in our city,'” she said.
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A board with experience
The Alamo Colleges District’s board of trustees, which oversees Palo Alto College, Northeast Lakeview College, Northwest Vista College, St. Philip’s College and San Antonio College, includes many trustees with long professional resumes in higher education, public policy and government.
Retiring Board Chair Roberto Zárate (District 5), who replaced one of the indicted members in 2003, said the current board has formed close relationships, bonded by their shared desire to overcome the corruption issues that gutted their ranks in the early 2000s, and to see students succeed.
Within that unit, Sprague’s focus in recent years has been workforce development.
He created a working group with leaders from Greater:SATX, Project Quest and other partners who meet monthly to strategize ways to align the community college system with the professional fields experiencing the greatest need. Those include health care, manufacturing and information technology.
“The whole point is, tell me the needs of the community … and help us structure our programs to meet those needs,” he said. “It’s working splendidly.”
Sprague has also become personally invested in that effort, coming out of retirement to pick up a full time position at UTSA last year, where he teaches medical terminology and anatomy and physiology.
“Gene’s a great guy. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be where we are now,” said Zárate, who pointed to Sprague’s role as a whistleblower in the corruption case decades ago. Since then, he’s worked to “make sure that we have the structure built into to make sure that we can respond to our [community’s needs].”
A new perspective
Ardiente worked for the tourism promotion group Visit San Antonio for six years while helping local Democratic candidates in her free time. Through her role at Visit San Antonio, she said she worked closely with St. Philip’s College on its hospitality and tourism program.
“I’ve developed a great working relationship with most of the colleges and seen first-hand how great our community colleges system thrives,” Ardiente said.
Last year, she turned her civic engagement interests into a career, accepting a job as a community engagement manager for Asian Texans for Justice, a nonprofit that seeks greater political representation for the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. She also completed a fellowship at LBJ Women’s Campaign School at the University of Texas, which trains and encourages women to run for elected office.
Ardiente said she didn’t have the Alamo Colleges board role in mind at the time of the fellowship, but has long felt the community college system could benefit from leadership that’s experienced the challenges of the community it’s trying to serve.
Thanks to a recent expansion of the Alamo Promise program, courses at the five campuses are almost entirely free to Bexar County high school graduates. Ardiente hopes to use her political organizing skills to take that message out into the community, and make more prospective students and families aware of the opportunities.
“When I was going to school in New Jersey, headed into college, my immigrant parents had no idea what they were really signing up for,” she said. “We deserve leadership that understands what the community is going through when it comes to higher education trying to navigate that system.”
Even among those who believe Sprague is doing a good job, the prospect of adding Ardiente’s perspective to the board is alluring.
“I respect Gene Sprague’s leadership over the years and I respect Nicolette’s energy and enthusiasm,” said Susan Korbel, a Democrat who served on the board from 2000 to 2002, and is now running for Bexar County Commissioner in Precinct 3.
“Each of them would be great representatives for District 6,” Korbel added — but she’s supporting Ardiente.
Education politics
While partisan interest in public education has rocked some local school board races in northern Bexar County, the Alamo Colleges Board historically hasn’t drawn the same attention.
This year three of the board’s incumbents, Zárate, Sprague and Katz were all up for reelection, but Katz didn’t draw an opponent and Zárate said he wanted to retire while the district is on a good trajectory. His successor is running unopposed.
After attending a candidate forum hosted by the Northwest Bexar County Democrats this month, however, Sprague said he worried Democrats are threatening to upset the board’s nonpartisan approach. Days out from early voting, the longtime Republican said he was scrambling to publish an endorsement from state House Rep. Ray Lopez, a Democrat with whom he’s worked closely, on his website.
“They want somebody who they know is a Democrat of their type and who will function that way once on the board,” Sprague said.
Ardiente contends that while much of her leadership experience comes from a background in politics, she doesn’t foresee politics bleeding over into work on the board.
“I’ve been talking to folks — whether they do align with my beliefs or they don’t align with my beliefs,” she said. “How I align ideologically has no impact on this race.”
Ardiente’s first 32-page campaign finance report through April 4 showed she had raised $9,500 from a long list of Democratic candidates and officeholders, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s chief of staff Zack Lyke and District Court Judge Christine Hortick.
Sprague’s report for the same period showed just three donors, developer Marty Wender, roofing company owner Michael Beldon and District 7 Trustee Yvonne Katz, who contributed a total of $2,700.
Reports covering March 26- April 24 were due April 26 but, as of Monday afternoon, neither candidate had submitted one, according to Roxella Cavazos, associate general counsel for the Alamo Community Colleges District.
