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Appleton Area School District recall, Wisconsin (2020)
| Appleton Area School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Leah Olson Jim Bowman |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2020 Recalls in Wisconsin Wisconsin recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall three of the seven members of the Appleton Area School District Board of Education in Wisconsin did not go to a vote in 2020. Recall supporters did not submit petition signatures by the deadline on December 7, 2020.[1]
The recall effort began in September 2020. Board President Kay Eggert, vice president Leah Olson, and member Jim Bowman were named in the recall petition.[2][3] Olson resigned from the board on November 30, 2020, citing the need to spend more time with her family due to the coronavirus pandemic.[4]
Recall supporters said they were frustrated with how the district had handled the coronavirus pandemic and said the board had not answered the community's questions. Eggert and Bowman did not respond to the recall effort. Olson said it was an honor to serve the district.[2]
Eggert's term expired in April 2021, and Bowman's term expired in April 2022.[3]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
Erik Hansen, a district parent and the leader of the group AASD Parents Looking for Change, started the recall effort. AASD Parents Looking for Change organized a protest in September 2020 against the district's decision to start the 2020-2021 school year online. Hansen said the group was frustrated with how the district was handling the coronavirus pandemic.[2]
"The most frustrating thing to see is other schools in our area making it work ... I get it'd be a struggle if we opened, but at least they're trying," Hansen said. "In our district, it seems there's no will to get this done."[2]
In the recall paperwork, Hansen said the three board members had "willfully neglected to act on behalf of families" and had not fulfilled their duties to provide "the best educational opportunities to maximize the achievement of our students." Hansen said that parents and community members had lost confidence and trust in the board members and that their actions would have a "significant negative and lasting effect on our school district and the Appleton community."[2]
Hansen also said that the board had failed to answer the community's questions. He said the board had not allowed public comment during board meetings and returned emails with canned responses. "I'm a proud Appleton Area School District alum and I love this district, so it absolutely kills me that this is where we're at," Hansen said. "But they're flat out not doing the job we're asking them to do and they're not representing their parents, students and teachers."[2]
Recall opponents
Before she resigned, Olson said it was an honor to serve the school district. "I will continue to do my best to represent our students and our families and our community during these very challenging times," Olson said.[2]
Eggert and Bowman did not respond to the recall effort.
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Wisconsin
The recall effort began on September 29, 2020, when paperwork to begin the process was filed with the school district. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters would have had to collect 10,763 signatures per board member by December 7, 2020.[1][2]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
2020 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 29 school board recall efforts against 64 board members in 2020. Four recall elections were held in 2020. The school board recall success rate was 7.8%.
The chart below details the status of 2020 recall efforts by individual school board member.
Related recalls
- Robert Hesselbein and Minza Karim recall, Middleton-Cross Plains School District, Wisconsin (2020)
- Leah Lipska recall, Mount Horeb Area School District, Wisconsin (2020)
- Oconomowoc Area School District recall, Wisconsin (2020)
See also
- Appleton Area School District, Wisconsin
- Recall campaigns in Wisconsin
- Political recall efforts, 2020
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Appleton Post Crescent, "Effort to recall Appleton school board members didn't materialize by Monday deadline," December 9, 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Appleton Post Crescent, "Frustrated with virtual learning at Appleton schools, a parent launches an effort to recall three school board members," September 29, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Appleton Area School District, "Board Members," accessed October 13, 2020
- ↑ Appleton Post Crescent, "Appleton School Board Vice President Leah Olson resigns as community frustrations over online learning continue," December 1, 2020
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