San Jacinto College Board seeks applicants for vacant Position 7

San Jacinto College's Board of Trustees announced October 13, 2026, that it will fill its vacant Position 7 seat through a board appointment — not an election in which Pasadena voters would cast a ballot. The board made that call the day before, voting October 12 to proceed with an appointment process, and the opening came when Trustee Keith Sinor retired; his term had been scheduled to run through May 2027.

The board has seven seats elected at large by numbered positions 1 through 7, each serving a staggered six-year term. The trustees govern an institution that enrolled 32,886 students as of fall 2025, serves roughly 45,000 credit and non-credit students every year, and runs a Central Campus at 8060 Spencer Highway in Pasadena with more than 15,000 students. The board also sets the college's property tax rate: 15.4615 cents per $100 of taxable value for 2026 — 10.8407 cents for maintenance and operations and 4.6208 cents for debt service — unchanged from 2025.

That governing authority reaches straight into the Ship Channel's industrial corridor. The board steers the LyondellBasell Center for Petrochemical, Energy, and Technology at 7901 Fairmont Parkway in Pasadena, a 151,000-square-foot facility with 35 laboratories and an 8,000-square-foot outdoor glycol process unit that trains welders, process operators, and industrial technicians for Ship Channel plants. Its Process Technology program prepares students for process-technician careers in petrochemical and refining operations, typically in two to two-and-a-half years, and most graduates take those jobs in East Harris County. The center is backed by more than 40 corporate partners, including LyondellBasell, which contributed $5 million and funds ten annual $2,500 scholarships, and Turner Industries, whose mentorship program with the welding program and the center has graduated 57 San Jacinto students and hired seven in 2026.

Who gets the call

Under the college's rules, an open board seat can be filled either by board appointment or by a special election set for the next uniform election date. The board chose appointment. An appointed trustee serves only until the next regular board election, when voters elect someone for the remainder of the unexpired term if necessary — here, that election is set for May 1, 2027, when Positions 5, 6, and 7 are due to expire.

Whoever is chosen can be seated only after the board adopts a resolution backed by affirmative votes from at least 80% of all current trustees. Trustees serve without compensation and must remain residents of the College Taxing District while in office.

That decision will rest with six people: Board Chair Dan Mims, Vice Chair Dr. Michelle Cantú-Wilson, Secretary Erica Davis-Rouse, and trustees Judy Harrison, Larry Wilson, and Chad Burke.

It is the same route the board took in November 2025, when it appointed Burke to Position 5 after the death of John Moon Jr., using a similar application process that also required support from at least 80% of the trustees.

How to apply

Applications for Position 7 opened October 13, 2026, and are accepted through 12:00 p.m. Friday, November 13.

To qualify, an applicant must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, a registered Texas voter, not a convicted felon, and not declared mentally incompetent by a final court judgment. The applicant must have lived in Texas continuously for the 12 months before the filing deadline, and in a qualifying independent school district for the six months before that deadline. The college district takes in Pasadena, Channelview, Deer Park, Galena Park, La Porte, and Sheldon ISDs, along with portions of Clear Creek, Humble, and Pearland ISDs — so a Pasadena resident is squarely in bounds to apply.

The application goes to the Chancellor and must include a résumé, supplemental documents, a completed application, and documentation showing residency in the College Taxing District.

After the November 13 deadline, the board reviews applications November 13–18, identifies interview candidates November 19, holds interviews December 2 and 4, and votes and swears in the appointed trustee December 14, 2026.

A Pasadena seat, and a Pasadena ballot

The bar is Sinor himself: a Pasadena native, a Sam Rayburn High School graduate who once attended San Jacinto College, a Texas A&M-educated CPA, and a Deer Park resident who co-owns Sinor Engine Company as its chief financial officer — the kind of Ship Channel-rooted background the seat has carried for about 15 years, since Sinor joined the board in June 2011.

Whatever the six trustees decide on December 14, the seat quickly returns to Pasadena's hands: Position 7 is on that May 1, 2027 ballot, with candidate filing running January 13 through February 12, 2027, so residents can weigh the board's appointee against whoever files to run.