Granbury High School senior wins seat on school board

A Granbury High School senior is getting a head start on his political career after winning a seat on the district's school board on Tuesday.

Chris Willis won a three-way race for Place 3 of the Granbury ISD school board with 41 percent of the vote.

“I just want to be someone who’s able to impact the world and help people, what I consider my favorite thing to do,” Willis said on Wednesday.

Willis now occupies a unique position of representing and implementing policies for students who he goes to class with on a daily basis.

“It’s not like they didn’t have a voice before, now a voice of someone who is here every day to see what’s going on in the hallways, see what’s being taught,” Willis said.

This isn’t the first time Willis has gotten involved. A controversy earlier this year about how history should be taught moved him to go before the Texas Education Agency and speak before its board.

Willis is also in the high school choir and the joy of his victory is mixed with sorrow over the loss of his choir teacher, Jeremy Bowen, in a car crash last weekend.

“Mr. Bowen was not only an amazing teacher, he was a fantastic friend, was there to always support me in anything I was doing,” Willis said. “He supported me before I decided to run for school board and definitely supported me whenever I decided to.”

Willis has taken that inspiration and passed it on.

“I talked to someone this morning and they said how do you feel about your campaign. I said I felt great whether I’d won or lost everything I did was legal and honest and it was true, was just for the people,” Willis said.