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Gwen Keller and Janell Wise recall, Raymond School District, Wisconsin (2023-2024)
| Raymond School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Janell Wise |
| Recall status |
1 Resigned |
| Recall election date |
| February 27, 2024 |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in Wisconsin Wisconsin recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
A recall election against one of the five members of the Raymond School District school board in Wisconsin was held on February 27, 2024. Incumbent Janell Wise was on the ballot. She defeated Jennifer Hribar, a former member of the board, to retain her seat.[1][2][3]
Board member Gwen Keller was scheduled to be on the recall election ballot as well, but she resigned from the board on January 27, 2024. Her resignation was within the 10-day window given to officeholders after a recall election has been scheduled, so her name was taken off the ballot.[4] Though Keller's name was not on the ballot, her seat was. Dean Langenfeld and Michael Pauers ran to fill that vacancy on the board, and Pauers won the seat.[2][3]
The recall effort against Wise and Keller started after the board voted 4-1 on September 27, 2023, to issue a preliminary notice of contract non-renewal to Principal Jeff Peterson. Both Keller and Wise voted in favor of the non-renewal. Following the vote, Superintendent Michael Garvey placed Peterson on administrative leave on September 28, 2023, while the district investigated allegations that he engaged in misconduct while performing his job.[5][6]
After being placed on administrative leave, Peterson filed a complaint with the state. He alleged that he was being discriminated against for being gay.[5] The school board voted to non-renew Peterson's contract on December 6, 2023. At the meeting, an attorney for the school district said there was evidence that Peterson had not performed well in the position.[7]
Recall vote
Janell Wise recall election
General election
Special general election for Raymond 14 School District, At-large
Incumbent Janell Wise defeated Jennifer Hribar in the special general election for Raymond 14 School District, At-large on February 27, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Janell Wise (Nonpartisan) | 54.6 | 584 | |
| Jennifer Hribar (Nonpartisan) | 45.4 | 485 | ||
| Total votes: 1,069 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Gwen Keller replacement election
General election
Special general election for Raymond 14 School District, At-large
Michael Pauers defeated Dean Langenfeld in the special general election for Raymond 14 School District, At-large on February 27, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Michael Pauers (Nonpartisan) | 54.0 | 576 | |
| Dean Langenfeld (Nonpartisan) | 46.0 | 491 | ||
| Total votes: 1,067 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Recall supporters
Recall supporters said they believed the school board took actions that were not in the community's best interest and that they were not representing their constituents.[6]
"I think the issues with Principal Peterson are what brought a lot of us to the school board meeting, to see what was going on. But I don’t think he’s the whole picture. I think he was the beginning, the tip of the iceberg, if we have to say it," Jennifer Hansen, a supporter of the recall effort, said. "They are wasting our taxpayer dollars. We’re paying for a principal that they’re not allowing to be in the building, we’re paying legal fees for two attorneys now."[5]
Shelly Kurhajec, a former member of the school board, said she believed Garvey was leading the school district in a negative direction. “This superintendent is pulling everybody’s strings,” Kurhajec said. “That is not right. That is not what I pay taxes for … That is not the way the district should be running.”[6]
Jillian Berman, a supporter of the recall effort, said teachers in the district have told her that administrators have created a toxic work environment. “It’s only a matter of time before they can’t take it anymore, and once we start losing these good teachers, what’s going to replace them?” Berman said. “How are we going to draw in the brightest and the best when we’re having these current problems?”[6]
Recall opponents
After Peterson filed his complaint with the state, the school board released a statement that said "any notion that the school district or its board members would tolerate any discrimination, including that which is based on sex, sexual orientation, or any other protected classification, is ridiculous and extremely disappointing."[5]
In response to the recall effort, Keller said she was passionate about giving back to the school district community. She said it was where she was raised and where she was raising her children. She thanked her fellow board members and school district staff “for weathering the storm in this extremely difficult environment. For me, the most difficult part has been the inability to share information with community members and seeing the disruption in our school.”[6]
Wise said she understood “community members’ frustration with the limited information available on this complex situation." Wise also called the recall effort premature and a distraction for board members. “The board members should be focused on addressing the critical issues at hand and ensuring our staff has the resources they need to focus on the education of our student population,” Wise said.[6]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Wisconsin
No specific grounds are required for recall in Wisconsin. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters must collect signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in the relevant jurisdiction. Signatures must be collected within 60 days.[8]
Supporters of the recall against Keller and Wise filed the initial recall paperwork with the school board's clerk on October 24, 2023. Recall supporters had to file 497 signatures per board member by December 26, 2023. They filed over 600 signatures per board member on December 18, 2023. The board clerk had 31 days to verify the signatures and issue a certificate of sufficiency. The board clerk found the number of signatures to be sufficient, and the recall election was scheduled for the Tuesday of the sixth week after the certificate of sufficiency was issued, February 27, 2024. The filing deadline for candidates to run in the election was January 30, 2024.[1][5][9]
2024 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 40 school board recall efforts against 83 board members in 2024. Recall elections in 2024 removed 14 members from office, including three who resigned before the election, and retained seven members in office. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2024 recall efforts by individual school board member.
2023 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 48 school board recall efforts against 97 board members in 2023. Sixteen of those board members faced recall elections. The recall elections were held on January 10, 2023, August 1, 2023, August 8, 2023, August 29, 2023, November 7, 2023, and December 12, 2023. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2023 recall efforts by individual school board member.
Recall context
- See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report
Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.
The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2024 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.
See also
- Ballotpedia's Recall Report
- Raymond School District, Wisconsin
- Recall campaigns in Wisconsin
- Political recall efforts, 2024
- Political recall efforts, 2023
- School board recalls
- States that allow school board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 TMJ4 Milwaukee, "Special election scheduled in Raymond for criticized School Board members," January 18, 2024
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Racine County Eye, "Raymond School Board recall election: 3 people submit candidacy paperwork," January 31, 2024
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Racine County Eye, "Wise, Pauers win Raymond recall election," February 27, 2024
- ↑ Racine County Eye, "Ahead of recall election, Keller resigns from Raymond School Board," January 29, 2024
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Fox 6 Now, "Raymond school board recall effort; paperwork submitted," October 24, 2023
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 The Journal Times, "Raymond community asking for accountability from School Board," October 27, 2023
- ↑ Wisconsin Public Radio, "School board declines to renew contract of principal who alleged leave was due to his sexual orientation," December 7, 2023
- ↑ Wisconsin Statutes, "9.10 Recall." accessed October 17, 2023
- ↑ CBS 58, "Hundreds of recall signatures delivered in Raymond as school board president addresses deep community divide," December 18, 2023
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