Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools recall, North Carolina (2019)
| Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
James Barrett Pat Heinrich |
| Recall status |
2 Did not go to a vote |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2019 Recalls in North Carolina North Carolina recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall three of the seven members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education in North Carolina was ended by the group that started it and did not go to a vote. Board Chairwoman Margaret Samuels and members James Barrett and Pat Heinrich were targeted for recall in February 2019 after they voted to turn Glenwood Elementary School into a Mandarin dual-language magnet school. The final board vote was 4-3 in favor.[1][2][3] Samuels resigned from her position on March 5, 2019.[4] Recall supporters ended the effort after the board elected new leadership following Samuels' resignation.[5]
As of the 2018-2019 school year, the school had both a Mandarin dual-language track and a traditional track. The board's vote set up the process for the school to only offer the dual-language track. The board first looked into the issue of changing the school's tracks in response to concerns of overcrowding at the school.[1][3]
Samuels, Barrett, and Heinrich were joined by board member Amy Fowler in voting to approve turning Glenwood Elementary into a dual-language magnet school. Board members Rani Dasi, Joal Hall Broun, and Mary Ann Wolf voted against the proposal. Samuels, Barrett, and Heinrich were all up for re-election in November 2019. Barrett announced prior to the recall effort that he was not running for re-election. He said he planned to run for state superintendent in 2020.[2][3]
Recall supporters
Recall supporters began the recall effort on February 28, 2019. They said they were upset with the board's decision to turn Glenwood Elementary School into a Mandarin language magnet school, according to The News & Observer.[1]
Ron DiFelice, a spokesman for the recall group, said that Heinrich and Barrett violated the board’s policies when they spoke with parents who supported the school's transition to a dual-language magnet school. He said that Samuels did not enforce the board's policies. “How can we have public officials in office who won’t adhere to their own policies?” DiFelice said.[1]
Riza Jenkins Redd, an organizer of the recall effort, said the effort was not only about Glenwood Elementary. “It’s about the misconduct. This kind of behavior is improper. … We want to make sure our board members are behaving properly when they’re making decisions,” Redd stated.[6]
Arguments for recall against Samuels
The recall supporters' website listed the following reasons to recall Samuels:
| “ | During a public Board meeting on January 24th, 2019, Ms. Samuels refused to commit to follow the Board’s Policy Codes. Ms. Samuels, who serves as Chairperson of the Board, has failed in her duty to hold other Board members accountable to the Policy Codes. With respect to Board Member conduct before and after the vote to create a school-wide MDL Magnet Program at Glenwood Elementary, Ms. Samuels has failed to uphold Board Policy Codes.[7] | ” |
| —CHCCS School Board Recall (2019)[8] | ||
Arguments for recall against Barrett
The recall supporters' website listed the following reasons to recall Barrett:
| “ | Mr. Barrett coordinated and communicated with the MDL community and disclosed non-public Board of Education information to advance their special interest agenda without the knowledge of other Board members. Mr. Barrett has publicly stated that he has done nothing wrong and continues to publicly support Pat Heinrich, a Board Member that has acted inappropriately.[7] | ” |
| —CHCCS School Board Recall (2019)[8] | ||
Arguments for recall against Heinrich
The recall supporters' website listed the following reasons to recall Heinrich:
| “ | Mr. Heinrich coordinated with the Mandarin Dual Language community and disclosed non-public Board of Education information to advance their special interest agenda without the knowledge of other Board members. Mr. Heinrich has made no public acknowledgement of wrongdoing and has refused to recuse himself from further involvement on the topic[7] | ” |
| —CHCCS School Board Recall (2019)[8] | ||
Recall opponents
In response to the recall effort, Barrett said the recall supporters did not contact him about their concerns prior to the vote on Glenwood Elementary. He said he tried to act ethically, transparently, and in the best interest of students.[3] An attorney for the school board investigated the claims against Barrett and Heinrich and said there had been no conflict of interest, according to The News & Observer.[4]
Samuels said the issues brought up by the recall supporters happened before she was elected chairwoman and that she did not have enforcement authority.[3] Samuels resigned from her position on March 5, 2019. In a statement, she said, "The charges leveled at me are baseless and without foundation. However, I have no desire to be a part of anything that takes the focus away from our students."[4]
Response by Samuels
Prior to her resignation, Samuels submitted the following response to the recall effort to 97.9 The Hill:
| “ | The magnet expansion vote and the board member communications with constituents at issue occurred prior to my tenure as board chair. It is important to understand that there is no enforcement authority given to the chair of the board of education alone-board decisions are collective majority actions that can be initiated by a motion from any of the seven members. Additionally all board members take an oath of office to serve and uphold the duties of the office. My primary focus will continue to be the educational welfare of all students attending Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and ensuring that all schools and programs meet the needs of every child in attendance.[7] | ” |
| —Chairwoman Margaret Samuels (2019)[3] | ||
Response by Barrett
Barrett submitted the following response to the recall effort to 97.9 The Hill:
| “ | From the very beginning of my campaigns for school board, I put openness and communication with constituents as two of my main priorities, widely publicizing my cell phone number and promising to talk with/meet for coffee any who asked. I have maintained that position throughout the past eight years. In the course of the brief Glenwood discussions leading up to the vote set by then-Board Chair Rani Dasi, I responded to/met with any who asked for my thoughts on the issue. Those who are unhappy with the outcome of the vote, and who have been so vocal in claiming impropriety, never tried contacting me. Had they, I would have gladly talked with them, as I have in more recent months. They may have been disappointed to learn that I didn’t plan to vote as they wished, but I would have explained my consistent reasoning over the years of Mandarin conversations and listened to their concerns, to gather any other information I hadn’t already heard or thought of that could affect my vote. I also did not share private information, because as a public body the board has nothing which is private other than what the law requires (personnel and specific student concerns). I have a track record of asking the board to release all of our emails on a web archive as a normal course of business (as other boards in the county already do) to show the public that this is the case.
|
” |
| —James Barrett (2019)[3] | ||
Response by Heinrich
Heinrich did not respond to the recall effort.
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in North Carolina
Recall supporters started the recall process by filing an affidavit with the Orange County Board of Elections on February 28, 2019, but they ended the effort in March 2019.[5] If the effort had continued, they would have had to submit petitions containing signatures of 10 percent of registered voters in each member's district as of the 2017 election within 30 days of filing the affidavit. That amounted to over 7,000 signatures per board member, according to the Orange County Board of Elections. If the petitions had been submitted and certified by the elections board, a recall election would have been held 50 to 70 days after the petitions were certified.[1][3]
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school district is one of two school districts in North Carolina that allow school board recalls.[3]
2019 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 20 school board recall efforts against 47 board members in 2019. Three recall elections were held in 2019. The school board recall success rate was 6.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2019 recall efforts by individual school board member.
See also
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, North Carolina
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools elections (2017)
- Recall campaigns in North Carolina
- Political recall efforts, 2019
- School board recalls
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
- Orange County Board of Elections
- CHCCS School Board Recall website
- Stop CHCCS Recall website
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The News & Observer, "Group seeks recall of 3 Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board members over Mandarin magnet," February 28, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, "Board of Education," accessed March 4, 2019
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 97.9 The Hill, "CHCCS Parents Seek Recall Election for 3 Board Members," March 1, 2019
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The News & Observer, "Chairwoman of Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board resigns amid recall effort," March 5, 2019
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 97.9 The Hill, "Recall Campaign For CHCCS Board Members Suspended," March 22, 2019
- ↑ The News & Observer, "Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board members respond to parent group’s recall effort," March 1, 2019
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 CHCCS School Board Recall, "Mission," accessed March 4, 2019
 |
State of North Carolina Raleigh (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
