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Lakeport Unified School District recall, California (2019)
| Lakeport Unified School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Carly Alvord Jennifer Hanson |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2019 Recalls in California California recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Dan Buffalo, Carly Alvord, and Jennifer Hanson from their positions on the Lakeport Unified School District school board in California did not go to a vote in 2019. The first notice of intent to recall filed with the county was over the word limit mandated by state law, and the second notice “did not include all of the required information listed in California Election Code,” according to Lake County Registrar of Voters Catherine McMullen.[1]
Buffalo, Alvord, and Hanson were elected to the board on November 6, 2018, after running together on a single platform. They defeated two incumbents—Dennis Darling and Tom Powers.[1]
Recall supporters
Recall supporters listed the financial status of the district and the targeted board members not listening to district officials and constituents before making decisions as reasons for the recall effort.[1]
Joe Szupello, who filed the second notice of intent to recall, said he also did not agree with the board's decision to fire Superintendent April Leiferman. “There was no investigation,” Szupello claimed. “There was no due diligence.”[1]
Szupello said he thought the board's decision to remove Leiferman from her position was a reaction to the district firing Terrace Middle School principal Rachel Paarsch in 2018 before Buffalo, Alvord, and Hanson took office. He said the board members had personal ties to Paarsch.[1]
Recall opponents
In reaction to the recall effort, Alvord called the recall supporters sore losers from the 2018 election. She also said Szupello had been disruptive at school board meetings.[1]
“It’s unfortunate,” Alvord said. “It’s distracting form all the positive momentum the district has now. The school year is off to a great start and this effort is going to distract from that with unnecessary drama when we should be focusing on the kids.”[1]
Buffalo called the reasons for recall against him "baseless and completely false." He also said that the removal of Superintendent Leiferman had not been personally motivated. “We are trying to move forward positively,” Buffalo said. “It’s unfortunate that some may see the things that the board did as being in any way other than that.”[1]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in California
Recall supporters filed two notices of intent to recall with the county, but both were rejected on technical grounds. The first notice was rejected because it was over the word limit mandated by state law, and the second notice “did not include all of the required information listed in California Election Code,” according to Lake County Registrar of Voters Catherine McMullen.[1]
If the notice had been approved for circulation, recall supporters would have had to collect 1,490 signatures, which was equal to 25% of registered voters in the school district, to get the recall on the ballot.[1]
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
- Lakeport Unified School District, California
- Recall campaigns in California
- Political recall efforts, 2019
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
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