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Kent School District recall, Washington (2021)
| Kent School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Michele Bettinger Denise Daniels Maya Vengadasalam |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in Washington Washington recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall four of the five members of the Kent School District school board in Washington did not go to a vote in 2021. Leslie Hamada, Michele Bettinger, Denise Daniels, and Maya Vengadasalam were named in the recall petitions. The petitions against Daniels and Vengadasalam were rejected by the King County Elections Office because their terms were up for election in November 2021. Washington recall law does not allow recall petitions to be circulated within six months of the next general election for the office.[1][2] Citing the cost to the district, the initiator of the recall dropped the effort against Hamada and Bettinger prior to a sufficiency hearing on the petitions scheduled for June 8, 2021.[3]
Bryon Madsen, a resident of Kent, started the recall effort in May 2021. He said he wanted a school board that advocated for students and parents instead of school district administrators. Madsen ran for a seat on the board in 2017 and lost to Daniels. He filed to run for the same seat in 2021.[1]
In response to the recall effort, Hamada said she was disappointed and that she had been working hard to learn the job and advocate for transparency since her election. Bettinger said, "In my time on the KSD board I have always been outspoken in my advocacy for listening to and representing the voices of the local community and its electorate."[2]
Neither Daniels nor Vengadasalam filed to run for re-election in 2021. Hamada and Bettinger were both elected to four-year terms on the board in 2019. Hamada ran unopposed, and Bettinger was elected with 69% of the vote, defeating one opponent.[2]
Madsen said he did not include board member Joseph Bento in the recall effort because he was appointed to his position in 2021.[1]
Recall supporters
The reasons for recall listed on the petitions include failing to publicly resolve concerns in no-confidence votes in Superintendent Calvin Watts, failing to comply with state-mandated duties related to educational programs, and failing to comply with board policies.[1]
Madsen told the Kent Reporter:
| “ | A board exists to keep the governance of an organization in check. It exists to ensure the direction and goals of the organization meet the expectations, in this case, of the Kent community.
|
” |
Recall opponents
In response to the recall effort, Hamada said:
| “ | Personally, I am very disappointed with the filing of the recall petition on myself [...] I have been working hard for the past year and 4½ months to: learn my new job, ask for more communication to our public and transparency, and do this job in a very challenging environment and the onset of a pandemic.
There are 10 major issues brought forth in this petition and of the eight listed of those (by date of happening onset) I was not even on the board when they took place and the other two brought forward were faced within the scope of my job with integrity and following the law. We have many challenges to address in our district which I work hard each day to solve. This unfortunately takes time to address away from needed work. I look forward to proving these allocations in regards to myself have no merit so I can get on with the real work ahead of us and making Kent School District the best in the state.[2][4] |
” |
In response to the recall effort, Bettinger said:
| “ | I will always support a citizen’s right to petition for recall [...] In my time on the KSD board I have always been outspoken in my advocacy for listening to and representing the voices of the local community and its electorate. I believe seriously in my obligation to fulfill my legal sworn duties; and have done my best to do my work in public, within the parameters of law and policy to support the students of the Kent School District.[2][4] | ” |
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Washington
Recall supporters submitted petitions to the King County Elections Office on May 7, 2021. A hearing was scheduled to be held in the King County Superior Court on June 8, 2021, to determine the sufficiency of the petitions. The hearing was canceled after the recall effort was dropped.[1][3] In the hearing, the court would have determined whether the charges on the petitions were "an act of malfeasance, or act or acts of misfeasance while in office, or has violated the oath of office, or has been guilty of any two or more of the acts specified in the Constitution as grounds for recall," according to Halei Watkins, communications officer for King County Elections.[2]
If the recall effort had continued and the charges on the petitions had been deemed sufficient, the petitions would have been approved for circulation. Recall supporters would have needed to collect signatures equal in number to 35% of the votes that were cast for the office in the last election in 180 days. The petition against Bettinger would have required 10,991 signatures to be put on the ballot, and the petition against Hamada would have required 8,802 signatures.[1]
2021 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 92 school board recall efforts against 237 board members in 2021. Recall elections against 17 board members were held in 2021. The school board recall success rate was 0.42%.
The chart below details the status of 2021 recall efforts by individual school board member.
See also
- Kent School District, Washington
- Recall campaigns in Washington
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Kent Reporter, "Madsen explains reasons behind Kent School Board recall," May 25, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Kent Reporter, "Two Kent School Board members face potential recall," May 26, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kent Reporter, "Madsen drops Kent School Board recall effort against two members," June 3, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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