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Oconomowoc Area School District recall, Wisconsin (2020)
| Oconomowoc Area School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Kim Herro Scott Roehl |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2020 Recalls in Wisconsin Wisconsin recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall three of the seven members of the Oconomowoc Area School District school board in Wisconsin did not go to a vote in 2020. The effort against members Juliet Steitzer, Kim Herro, and Scott Roehl began on September 17, 2020. Recall supporters had 60 days to collect signatures from citizens in the school district.[1][2] They were unable to collect enough signatures by the deadline.[3][4]
The recall effort started after the school board voted 5-2 in August 2020 to approve a blend of virtual and in-person learning for students returning to school for the 2020-2021 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recall supporters said they did not agree with the decision and wanted students to have in-person learning five days a week. Roehl said he also preferred an in-person learning model, but that it needed to be phased in to ensure the safety of students and staff.[1]
The decision included an in-person learning model for elementary school students and a split-attendance model for middle school and high school students. Steitzer, Herro, and Roehl were joined in approving the proposal by members Dan Raasch and Rick Grothaus. Neither Raasch nor Grothaus could be included in the recall as they had not yet served on the board for a full year. Members James Wood and Jessica Kornowski voted against the proposal.[1] The board voted to return all grades to in-person learning starting on September 28, 2020.[5]
Steitzer's term on the board expired in April 2021, and Herro's and Roehl's terms expired in April 2022.[1]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
The recall effort was started by the group Oconomowoc Citizens Represented, who said Steitzer, Herro, and Roehl "willfully neglected to act on behalf of the citizens of the district. In addition, their negligence to ensure that the district provides the best educational opportunities to maximize the achievement of our students will have significant and lasting effects on our community."[1]
Jason Baumann, a member of the group, said, "We're all concerned parents in the district that are not happy with the way things are going in general with our district, with our school board."[1]
Recall opponents
In reaction to the recall effort, Roehl said he preferred a face-to-face model as well.[1]
| “ | The difference is in the approach. The community has referenced that a large majority of families elected to start school in a full face-to-face model. I was part of that majority. From my perspective as a board member, to ensure that we are not putting our students at risk, a soft launch to the school year will provide greater clarity as to the effects of the virus when our students are back in session. As of this week, the data and our district metrics are trending in the right direction, so barring any major changes to the data, I see a return to a full face-to-face approach on the horizon.[1][6] | ” |
Herro said it was the community's right to issue a recall. She said she wished the district had utilized its outdoor space in order to allow all students to return to in-person learning full-time.[1]
Steitzer had not responded to the recall effort as of September 19, 2020.[1]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Wisconsin
The recall effort began when recall supporters filed paperwork with the school district on September 17, 2020. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had to collect signatures from voting-age citizens who lived within the school district in 60 days. The number of signatures needed was equal to 25% of the votes cast within the school district in the 2018 gubernatorial election.[1]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
2020 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 29 school board recall efforts against 64 board members in 2020. Four recall elections were held in 2020. The school board recall success rate was 7.8%.
The chart below details the status of 2020 recall efforts by individual school board member.
Related recalls
- Appleton Area School District recall, Wisconsin (2020)
- Robert Hesselbein and Minza Karim recall, Middleton-Cross Plains School District, Wisconsin (2020)
- Leah Lipska recall, Mount Horeb Area School District, Wisconsin (2020)
See also
- Oconomowoc Area School District, Wisconsin
- Recall campaigns in Wisconsin
- Political recall efforts, 2020
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Three Oconomowoc school board members who approved hybrid learning could face a recall from a group that wants in person," September 18, 2020
- ↑ Oconomowoc Area School District, "Meet Your Fellow Board Members," accessed September 25, 2020
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with James Wood, Oconomowoc School Board Clerk," November 18, 2020
- ↑ OASD Recall, "Home," accessed November 18, 2020
- ↑ TMJ 4, "Oconomowoc school district transitions to face-to-face learning model with virtual option," September 23, 2020
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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