Dustin Qualls
2023 - Present
2027
1
Dustin Qualls is a member of the Klein Independent School District in Texas, representing Position 1. He assumed office on December 11, 2023. His current term ends in 2027.
Qualls won election to the Klein Independent School District to represent Position 1 in Texas outright after the general election on November 7, 2023, was canceled.
Qualls was a candidate for the Position 6 seat on the Klein Independent School Board of Education. He lost election of the seat to incumbent Paul Lanham on November 5, 2013. He campaigned on the need for an engineer on the board, tackling rezoning efforts and introducing innovative safety initiatives.[1]
Biography
Qualls is a traffic engineeering consultant who works for Traffic Engineers, Inc., a small business based on Houston. He is a licensed professional engineer with the State of Texas and a licensed professional traffic operations engineer with the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He attended Texas A&M University where he obtained his Civil Engineering degree. He is a native of Lubbock, Texas and attended Lubbock ISD schools through high school. He and his wife, Sarah have two children who attend Hassler Elementary in Klein ISD.[2]
Elections
2023
See also: Klein Independent School District, Texas, elections (2023)
General election
The general election was canceled. Dustin Qualls (Nonpartisan) won without appearing on the ballot.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Qualls in this election.
2013
Results
| Klein Independent School District, Position 6, 3-year term, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Paul Lanham Incumbent |
53.5% | 4,272 | |
| Nonpartisan | Dustin Qualls | 46.5% | 3,716 | |
| Total Votes | 7,988 | |||
| Source: Harris County, Texas, "November 2013 General Election Official Results," accessed December 12, 2013 | ||||
Endorsements
Qualls was not endorsed in this campaign.
Funding
Qualls reported no contributions or expenditures to the Texas Ethics Commission.[3]
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dustin Qualls did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.
Lanham described his reasons for running on his campaign website:[4]
Engineering experience
|
There are currently no licensed professional engineers on the Klein ISD Board of Trustees. I hope to change this. Having an engineer on the board (and more specifically a traffic engineer) that understands infrastructure needs, traffic demands, transportation planning and can speak the “engineering language” with various agency stakeholders in Harris County will greatly benefit KISD. |
Traffic circulation
|
Traffic circulation at schools impacts us all. From the school staff who volunteer their time to work the drop-off and pick-up lines, to the parents who must navigate these same lines twice a day, to the students who must dodge these vehicles if walking or biking. I have more than 10 years experience with the traffic operations of Klein ISD schools and have many more recommendations and ideas to bring to the table. Safe traffic operations is a huge component of keeping our students safe. |
School attendance zoning
|
My experience as a traffic engineer will provide valuable input towards any future school attendance rezoning efforts, especially with the construction of the Grand Parkway cutting right through the current Klein ISD boundary. I have more than 10 years experience with site planning, thoroughfare studies, school traffic analyses and demographic studies. I also enjoy working with community volunteers in finding the right solution that benefits the most people; a task that school attendance zoning is a prime example of. |
Safe routes
|
I have extensive experience in obtaining federal funds towards the Safe Routes to School program. With childhood obesity on the rise, I would like to look for as many opportunities to encourage our students to walk or ride their bikes to school. Many factors are involved in these modes of travel; primarily parents are concerned about the safety of their students while doing so. By instituting Safe Routes to School programs, as well as innovative programs such as parent-driven “walking school buses”, we can make a difference. |
Construction
|
One of the most significant roadways in our region’s history is under construction. The entire impact of this new roadway will not be known for quite some time, but I plan to keep both the Klein ISD administration as well as the Board apprised of all aspects of this roadway’s impacts. The Grand Parkway has already affected certain aspects of the District in terms of attendance zoning and bus transportation planning. I want to make sure Klein ISD is represented at any and all stakeholder and agency meetings concerning the Grand Parkway. |
Volunteering
|
The success of our students in the classroom can be directly tied to the amount of time we as parents spend with our children. I thoroughly enjoy volunteering as much of my time as possible inside the classroom and out. I plan on leveraging a position on the Board to further improve parent volunteer efforts across the entire District. |
Safety initiatives
|
A key aspect of instilling good safety habits in our children is getting to them while they are young. Issues such as texting-while-driving are going to become very important in the coming years. If we can implement programs teaching elementary school kids that texting-while-driving is very dangerous and can lead to fatal crashes, they will in turn tell their parents not to do this should they see that behavior while being driven around by them. I don’t know about you, but anytime my kids try to teach me something, I listen. They emulate what they see, but if we teach them to teach their parents, it will last for a long time. A prime example: it used to be that wearing bicycle helmets or even helmets while snow-skiing was a “not-cool” thing to do. But over the last 10 years or so, education has really increased showing the effects of not properly wearing helmets while enjoying various recreational activities. The educational movement has been so thorough that nowadays the “not-cool” crowd are the ones not wearing helmets. The same kind of success can be realized with a no-texting-while-driving program aimed at our younger children so that by the time they get to be of driving age, it will no longer be “cool” to text while driving. I would like to work with various community stakeholders to see what kind of programs we can provide our elementary schoolchildren towards this goal. |
Note: The above quote is from the candidate's website, which may include some typographical or spelling errors.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ What exactly can Dustin provide Klein ISD? accessed September 13, 2013
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://dustinforkisd.com/vote/about-me-2/ Dustin Qualls, PE, PTOE
- ↑ Texas Ethics Commission Search Campaign Finance Reports, accessed December 26, 2013
- ↑ What exactly can Dustin provide Klein ISD? accessed September 13, 2013
