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Santa Cruz Elementary School District recall, Arizona (2015)
| Santa Cruz Elementary School District recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Mercie Fernandez Luis Moñoz Robert Noon Delfina Tapia |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2015 Recalls in Arizona Arizona recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall the entire Santa Cruz Elementary School District Governing Board was launched in May 2015, but it failed to garner enough signatures to get on the ballot. Reasons listed for the recall effort included violating open meeting laws, nepotism and discrimination against employees. The effort was led by a former district teacher and a current district teacher. The five members targeted for recall were Board President Ron Fish, Board Clerk Mercie Fernandez, Luis Muñoz, Robert Noon and Delfina Tapia.[1][2][3]
Recall supporters
The recall process was started by Joseph Lee and Tom Hackley, who both worked at the district's Little Red School when the recall was launched. Lee's contract, however, was not renewed for the 2015-2016 school year. Lee acts as chairman for the recall effort, and Hackley acts as treasurer. Neither lives within the school district's boundaries, but Arizona does not require recall applicants to be residents.[1]
On their petition for recall, Lee and Hackley listed complaints of the board violating the state's open meeting law, creating a “hostile, intimidating work environment" with former Superintendent James Cruice, nepotism and discriminating against older employees.[1]
Recall opponents
Cruice, who resigned from his position as superintendent of the district in May 2015, called the listed complaints on the recall petition "trumped-up allegations." He also said the recall effort never would have happened if the board had renewed Lee's teaching contract with the district. Fish agreed with Cruice. He admitted that the board had violated the state's open meeting law on two occasions but said those incidents had not been intentional. One incident involved posting the meeting agenda for an upcoming board meeting slightly less than the required 24 hours in advance.[2]
As for the charge of nepotism, both Cruice and Fish admitted that family members of the board had been hired in recent years for both part-time and full-time positions. Both said that came from small pools of applicants and a desire to hire locally. “To find good people is hard and we have hired a couple board member relations because, again, it’s a small community and we know that we could trust whoever we hired,” said Cruice.[2]
Background
According to Joseph Lee, one of the leaders of the recall effort, the recall failed due to a copying mistake. After gathering all of their petitions together, Lee made copies of the originals. When he submitted the petitions to the County School Superintendent’s Office, he accidentally turned in a mix of originals and copies. Only the original petitions could be counted due to state law, and the recall effort failed by approximately five signatures for each board member. Due to state law, once the recall supporters were told they had not submitted enough signatures, they could not turn in supplemental petitions.[3]
Deputy County Schools Superintendent Rafael Lopez said the county superintendent's office interpreted the law to mean they could not inform the recall effort of the mistake. “You can’t show that you’re favoring one side or the other,” said Lopez. Lee, however, alleged that Lopez had favored the board members by withholding the information from him until it was too late to rectify it.[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Arizona
Recall supporters submitted their recall petition to the Santa Cruz County School Superintendent’s Office on May 18, 2015, and started collecting signatures on May 26, 2015. Signatures had to be collected from registered voters within the school district. To get the recall on the ballot, petitioners had to collect signatures equal in number to at least 25 percent of the votes cast in the last election, which was approximately 80 signatures for each board member, according to Ralph Lopez, the school superintendent’s deputy. They had until September 15, 2015, to turn them in.[1]
Recall supporters submitted a mix of original petitions and copies of original petitions to the County School Superintendent’s Office by mistake, according to Joseph Lee, one of the leaders of the recall effort. State law requires only original petitions be counted. Because of this, the recall effort fell short of the required signatures. According to Nogales International, "The Recorder’s Office verified 78 petitions for board member Mercie Fernandez, 76 for Ron Fish, 77 for Robert Noon, 79 for Delfina Tapia and 77 for Luis Muñoz." Lee believed the recall effort would have gone to the ballot if all of the original petitions had been counted.[3]
If enough signatures had been collected, a special election would have been held by the Santa Cruz County Elections Office.[1]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Santa Cruz Elementary School District' Arizona recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Santa Cruz Elementary School District, Arizona
- Recall campaigns in Arizona
- Political recall efforts, 2015
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nogales International, "Group gathers signatures to recall school board at Little Red," May 29, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Nogales International, "Little Red officials contest accusations of recall committee," June 4, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Nogales International, "School board recall effort derailed by mixup at copy shop," September 11, 2015
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