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Middleton School District recall, Idaho (2019)
| Middleton School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Tim Winkle Marianne Blackwell |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| August 27, 2019 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2019 Recalls in Idaho Idaho recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
Recall elections seeking to remove Alicia McConkie, Tim Winkle, and Marianne Blackwell from their positions as the Zone 1, 3, and 4 representatives, respectively, on the Middleton School District board of trustees in Idaho were held on August 27, 2019.[1][2] The recall against McConkie was approved by a majority of voters, but there were not enough "yes" votes for the recall to be counted. A higher number of people needed to vote for the recall than voted for McConkie in her last election in 2017. The recalls against Winkle and Blackwell were defeated with simple majorities. All three board members retained their seats.[3]
The recall effort against Winkle and McConkie began after they voted to accept the superintendent's personnel recommendations at a board meeting on May 6, 2019. Recall supporters objected to the superintendent's recommendation as it did not renew the contract of Middleton High School principal Ben Merrill.[4] Board member Kirk Adams was also targeted for recall at that time, but his petition was rejected by the county as he had not served in office for at least 90 days. He was appointed to the board in March 2019.[5]
The separate recall petition against Blackwell was certified for the ballot on June 14, 2019. The recall petition against her said she “set an unprofessional and unacceptable precedent for school board trustees” and violated the board's code of ethics. Blackwell was the only board member to vote against not renewing Merrill's contract.[4][6][7]
An internal investigation into a gift Merrill accepted from district parents was conducted in December 2018, and an outside investigation into Merrill's claims of harassment from district administrators was conducted in February 2019.[8] Click here to read more about those investigations.
Dr. Josh Middleton, the school district's superintendent, stepped down to take a job with the Granite Falls School District in Washington on July 1, 2019.[9] In his resignation letter, he said he was leaving because elected officials had been allowed to "create and foster a hostile work environment, not follow board policy, engage in discriminatory actions and disrupt the board and me from doing our job."[10]
Recall vote
The recall election was held on August 27, 2019.
Zone 1
Though a majority of voters cast ballots in favor of recalling McConkie, the recall was not counted as it did not meet a specific threshold. The number of votes in favor of recall needed to be higher than the number of votes McConkie received in her last election in 2017. A total of 115 people voted in favor of recall in 2019, while 120 people voted McConkie into office in 2017.[2][3][11]
Alicia McConkie recall, 2019
Alicia McConkie won the Middleton School District Zone 1 recall election on August 27, 2019.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
55.3
|
115 | |||
| ✔ | No |
44.7
|
93 | ||
Total Votes |
208 | ||||
|
|
Zone 3
Tim Winkle recall, 2019
Tim Winkle won the Middleton School District Zone 3 recall election on August 27, 2019.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
49.0
|
145 | |||
| ✔ | No |
51.0
|
151 | ||
Total Votes |
296 | ||||
|
|
Zone 4
Marianne Blackwell recall, 2019
Marianne Blackwell won the Middleton School District Zone 4 recall election on August 27, 2019.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
48.8
|
103 | |||
| ✔ | No |
51.2
|
108 | ||
Total Votes |
211 | ||||
|
|
Recall supporters
David Morgan, a recall organizer, said the recall effort against Winkle, McConkie, and Adams was focused on bringing Merrill back as principal in the 2019-2020 school year. “The school board members have just made poor decisions consistently,” Morgan said. “The last decision to get rid of our beloved principal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s time for new leadership in the community.”[4][12]
The recall petition against Blackwell said she “set an unprofessional and unacceptable precedent for school board trustees” and violated the board's code of ethics.[6]
Recall opponents
Winkle said that because the decision to not renew Merrill's contract was a personnel matter, the board was limited in what they could share with the public. “The board can only ask patrons of the Middleton School District to move forward in the most positive manner that will best benefit the students of the Middleton School District,” Winkle said in a statement.[13]
Adams said he hoped the community could move past the decision to not renew Merrill's contract. He said they had to come together and find common ground. "If you look at the overall workings of our schools, which I did my first week here, it’s shocking how well things are working – from an academic standpoint, from an athletic standpoint. Things on the inside are working much better than things on the outside right now - and I believe this will pass.”[12]
In response to the recall getting approved for the ballot, McConkie said:
| “ | I have served the best I can for the last two years. I ask questions, attend trainings, advocate to the legislators, spend hours serving on curriculum committees and teacher negotiations, do everything I can to help support the teachers and students, and try my best to make decisions that are in the best interest of the district. I abide by the code of ethics that I have signed, and will continue to do all of those things. I feel I am being recalled over a single decision. I hope that the last two years of service I have given and the knowledge I bring to board will not be overlooked.[14] | ” |
| —Alicia McConkie (2019)[5] | ||
Background
Merrill investigations
Merrill was internally investigated for accepting the gift of a camera from district parents in December 2018, which violated school policy. Merrill returned the gift, and he told the board in February 2019 that he had been harassed by district administrators during the investigation. The board hired an outside investigator to look into Merrill's claims. The outside investigator's report said that Merrill's claims of harassment were unfounded. It also said that Merrill "improved the climate for students" but also created a dysfunctional system within the high school.[8]
In an interview with the Idaho Press, Merrill said he was targeted unfairly. He said many other employees had received gifts over $50 but had not been internally investigated as he was. Merrill also said the outside investigation was conducted unfairly and included questions that were unrelated to his claims of harassment. “The investigation was supposed to be about these district leaders, whether or not they harassed me as a result of this,” Merrill said. “The investigator instead chose to call in people, specifically, people who were known to possibly not have a positive opinion of me. One of them was an employee who left the district last year.”[8]
Board member Marianne Blackwell publicly questioned the scope of the outside investigation.[8] "The scope of the investigation is not what we promised the public it would be. We never let Mr. Merrill see the investigation and now it’s being used to cost him his job. We have never given him an opportunity to defend himself, we denied him three different times,” Blackwell said in a board meeting on May 6, 2019.[12]
At that same meeting, the board voted 3-1 to accept the superintendent's personnel recommendations, which did not include a renewal of Merrill's contract. Winkle, McConkie, and Adams voted in favor, and Blackwell voted against. The fifth seat on the board was vacant at the time of the vote.[4]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Idaho
The Canyon County Elections Office certified the recall petitions for circulation on May 8, 2019. To get the recall on the August 2019 ballot, recall supporters had 75 days to submit signatures equal in number to 50% of the votes cast in the last election for each school board member.[12] The county approved enough signatures to put Winkle's and McConkie's recalls on the ballot. Adams' petition was rejected, however, as he had not served in office long enough to be recalled.[5] The recall effort against Blackwell was certified for the ballot on June 14, 2019.[6]
In order for the board members to be removed from office in the recall election, a majority of voters had to vote in favor of the recall. The number of voters who cast ballots in favor of the recall had to also be higher than the total number of people who voted for the officeholders when they were last up for election.[1] Enough voters turned out for two of the three recalls to be counted. Though McConkie's recall was approved with a majority of votes, it did not meet the threshold to be counted. Winkle's and Blackwell's recalls were defeated.[2][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
- Middleton School District, Idaho
- Recall campaigns in Idaho
- Political recall efforts, 2019
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 KTVB.com, "'I’ve never seen anything like this': Third Middleton School Board member now up for recall," June 14, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Canyon County Clerk, "Election History," accessed August 22, 2019
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Canyon County Clerk, "Election Results: 8/27/2019," accessed August 27, 2019
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Idaho News, "Recall targets Middleton trustees after high school principal contract not renewed," May 8, 2019
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Idaho Press, "Petitioners get enough signatures to put Middleton trustee recalls on ballot," June 3, 2019
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Idaho Ed News, "ANOTHER MIDDLETON TRUSTEE FACES POTENTIAL RECALL," June 14, 2019
- ↑ Idaho Press, "Middleton School District gets new superintendent," July 31, 2019
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Idaho Press, "School board will not renew Middleton High School principal's contract," May 8, 2019
- ↑ Idaho News, "Middleton superintendent leaving for new job in Washington state," May 29, 2019
- ↑ KTVB, "Middleton School District superintendent announces his resignation," June 10, 2019
- ↑ KIVI Boise, "UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: Middleton school board members survive recall vote," August 28, 2019
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 KTVB.com, "'Yelling, screaming, name-calling': Assault investigation underway after heated Middleton school board meeting," May 8, 2019
- ↑ Idaho Statesman, "Middleton school board chairman urges calm following upset over principal’s ouster," May 10, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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