El Paso voters are electing 13 school board seats today. The 13 school board seats are for school trustees at the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD), the San Elizario Independent School District and the Socorro Independent School District, as well as two seats for the El Paso Community College. There has been extremely low voter turnout, and today’s voters will likely not increase the turnout significantly. Funding shortfalls and the closing of eight schools by EPISD has led the election narratives with EPISD board trustee incumbent, Leah Hanany, facing controversy leveled by the El Paso American Federation of Teachers’ president Ross Moore.
Moore has been a controversial figure in El Paso’s political circles for several years. In 2020, Moore filed 24 ethics complaints against Claudia Ordaz alleging that Ordaz failed to report campaign contributions over $500. Ordaz had filed her campaign finance reports as required with the Texas Ethics Commission. The city’s ethics board dismissed the complaints filed by Ross against Ordaz.
In 2017 Moore attempted to interfere with EPISD’s newly appointed superintendent Juan Cabrera by sending emails to members of the teacher’s union that stated that the union “should begin interfering” with Cabrera and to help “turn members and other EPISD employees against Cabrera.” Moore also led an effort to have EPISD teacher Xavier Miranda terminated in 2020. Miranda was not terminated after EPISD concluded its investigation of him.
Cabrera later resigned as the district’s superintendent in 2020 after a civil lawsuit surfaced accusing him and former EPISD board president Dori Fenenbock of defrauding investors in an online school project. Fenenbock was the president of the district trustees when Cabrera was hired as the superintendent on an initial five-year contract. In 2022, both Fenenbock and Cabrera were cleared of any wrongdoing in the online school project.
When Fenenbock was running for the congressional seat currently held by Veronica Escobar in 2018, Moore accused Cabrera of campaigning for Fenenbock after Cabrera brought up her name at a September 11, 2017, event at a district school.
Most recently, Ross Moore has accused Leah Hanany, who is running to keep her board seat in today’s election, of financial impropriety from her work as a municipal financial advisor.
Leah Hanany – Municipal Advisor
On her campaign website, Hanany states that she is “certified as a municipal advisor.” Hanany does not disclose the financial firm she works for on her campaign website.
To be certified as a municipal advisor, an individual must “have passed the Series 50 exam,” according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. The Board lists Hanany as a “Series 50-Qualified Representative” under her maiden name, Wayne. Hanany must be associated with a Series 54-Qualified Principal to offer her services as a municipal advisor.
Her principal is Rudy Mejia, who owns and operates Nickel Hayden Advisors.
According to disclosures filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 23, 2024, Leah Audrea Wayne was employed by Nickel Hayden Advisors on October 2, 2023. Wayne is Hanany’s maiden name. Although Moore has characterized Hanany as an independent contractor, the SEC filing shows that she is employed by Nickel Hayden Advisors.
According to the filing, this was Hanany’s first appointment as a Municipal Advisor. The SEC filing shows that she worked for the Marlin ISD as the Communications Director from August 2021 through June 2024. Prior to that she worked as a teacher at Ysleta ISD from August 2014 through June 2021. The SEC document shows that since 2018, Hanany has also owned and operated Blue Grey Creative as a sole proprietor.
However, El Paso County records show that Blue Grey Creative was not registered with the county until November 30, 2021.
The December 3, 2024, SEC disclosure did not disclose that Hanany had been a trustee for EPISD since June 2021. An amended SEC MA filing filed on January 1, 2025 corrected the discrepancy and added her EPISD board position.
Nickel Hayden Advisors was registered with the SEC on June 22, 2023 by Rudy R. Mejia.
In January, Nickel Hayden Advisors was forced to file an amended registration with the SEC after Mejia was disciplined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
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The Rudy Mejia FINRA Disciplinary File
On November 11, 2024, Mejia agreed with FINRA that he had not properly disclosed to his employer that he was offering investments to seven investors. According to FINRA, Mejia began working for Estrada Hinojosa & Company in March 2012. Mejia resigned from Hinojosa Estrada on July 9, 2023 while under investigation by the firm for forming a competing municipal advisory firm unbeknownst to Estrada Hinojosa.
According to FINRA, Mejia managed a pooled investment of $738,000 with seven investors. Additionally, Mejia purchased $100,000 of the pooled investment.
As a result of the FINRA findings, on November 4, 2024, Mejia agreed to an eight-month suspension and a $10,000 fine.
The Leah Hanany EPISD Controversies
When Hanany was running for the EPISD school board in 2021, one of her opponents, Arturo Dominguez, filed a civil lawsuit against her accusing her of not living in the school district long enough to be on the May 1, 2021 ballot. On April 6, 2021, the Texas Court of Appeals in El Paso refused to have Hanany removed from the ballot on April 6, 2021.
During the 2021 school board elections, political action committees contributed heavily in the election. The El Paso Federation of Teachers and the Texas AFT committee contributed a combined $31,866 to the campaigns of Josh Acevedo, Vanessa Betts, Betty Ann Halliburton and Leah Hanany.
Opposing the contributions from the two groups was Kids First of El Paso PAC who reported contributing $25,363 to the other candidates in the various races. Kids First was primarily funded by Woody Hunt and supporters of school vouchers. From 2015 through last year, Hunt has contributed $149,000 to the PAC, according to campaign contribution reports.
In 2021, Hanany won her election with 50.42% of the 1,430 votes cast in that election. Hanany received 721 votes.
Leah Hanany EPISD Mask Mandate
On October 4, 2021, the EPISD trustees voted 5-2 to end the EPISD mask mandate in its schools. The previous March, Texas governor Greg Abbott had ended the mask mandate across the state. Voting against ending the EPISD mask mandate seven months after the Texas governor had lifted the state-wide mask mandate were Josh Acevedo and Leah Hanany.
The Alleged Leah Hanany EPISD Leak
In 2021, KTSM disclosed that EPISD had narrowed its list of potential candidates for the district’s new superintendent. Although the trustees had signed non-disclosure agreements to keep the list of candidates confidential, KTSM was able to report on them without disclosing where they attained the list.
One of the candidates on the list was Darryl J. Henson, who was the superintendent of Marlin ISD at the time. Hanany was providing communications services to Marlin ISD during the time that KTSM obtained the confidential list.
Several people alleged that it was Hanany who leaked the list to KTSM because of her connection to Henson at Parkland High School and her work for Marlin ISD. KTSM followed its original reporting on the list by reporting that a connection between Hanany and Henson existed, but that the candidates they reported on were “not native to El Pasoans” and have “not worked in the region.” Henson had worked at EPISD and Ysleta before leaving for Marlin ISD.
As of today, Hanany does not include her work for Marlin ISD in her LinkedIn profile.
The SEC filing discloses that Hanany worked as the Communications Director for Marlin ISD from August 2021 through June 2024. Her LinkedIn profile omits that period of time.
2025 Campaign Contributions
In this election cycle, Hanany has reported $14,545 in campaign contributions. Hanany’s notable contributors in this cycle are Cesar Blanco for $1,000, Gaddy Lane for $1,000, Amy O’Rourke for $500 and the Texas Association of Realtors for $1,000. In 2021, her notable contributors were the El Paso Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel (COPE) for $5,000 and in-kind contributions of $7,278 from Texas AFT.
Her opponent, Monica Benjamin, reported $10,401.94 in campaign contributions. The majority of her campaign contributions $8,945.94, or around 86% are in-kind contributions made by the Kids First PAC, which opposed Hanany in 2021. Nelson Bank has not filed any campaign contributions suggesting that he has not met the threshold required to file them.
Running against Hanany for her trustee seat are Nelson Bank and Monica Elena Benjamin. Polls close at 7:00pm tonight.