Seattle Public Schools recall, Washington (2021)
| Seattle Public Schools recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Lisa Rivera Smith Chandra Hampson Zachary DeWolf Leslie Harris Brandon Hersey |
| 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 six of the seven members of the Seattle Public Schools school board in Washington did not go to a vote in 2021. A King County Superior Court judge dismissed the recall petition on April 19, 2021.[1]
The recall charges were filed against Liza Rankin, Lisa Rivera Smith, Chandra Hampson, Zachary DeWolf, Leslie Harris, and Brandon Hersey in March 2021. District IV representative Erin Dury was not included in the recall effort as she was not a member of the board at the time charges were filed. She was appointed to the position on March 24, 2021.[2][3]
Recall supporters said the board had failed to transition to in-person instruction in a timely manner. Seattle Public Schools started out the 2020-2021 school year in remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5] The board voted on March 24, 2021, to move Pre-K through fifth-grade students into in-person instruction starting in April 2021.[2] When dismissing the petition, Judge Mafé Rajul said the decision to close schools was a “discretionary act and members of a school board cannot be recalled unless they arbitrarily or unreasonably exercised such discretion.” She said the school board members had not acted arbitrarily or unreasonably when they voted to close the schools.[1]
Rankin, Rivera Smith, and Hampson were first elected to four-year terms on the board on November 5, 2019. Harris was re-elected to the board in the same election. DeWolf was re-elected to the board on November 7, 2017, and Hersey was appointed to the board on September 18, 2019.
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 Emily Cherkin, Jennifer Crow, and Beverly Goodman. They said the board had not transitioned to in-person instruction in a timely manner.[4]
“We need to hold our elected officials accountable. The Board failed to adequately oversee the timely provision of adequate in-person educational opportunities to students during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to the great majority of other school districts,” Cherkin said. “A lot of children are not OK.”[4]
Cherkin, Crow, and Goodman also said that the board had approved measures to decrease the size of schools' outdoor play areas, disregarded issues related to student data protection, and sold school property without holding a public hearing.[4]
Recall opponents
The school board members did not respond to the recall effort.
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Washington
To move the recall forward, the recall charges would have had to be approved by the King County Superior Court. The hearing was held on April 16, 2021, and the recall charges were dismissed on April 19, 2021.[1][4][6] If the charges had not been dismissed, recall supporters would have had to collect signatures equal to “25% of the total number of votes cast for all candidates,” to get the recall on the ballot, according to the South Seattle Emerald.[7]
About the district
Seattle Public Schools is based in Seattle, the seat of King County, in northwestern Washington. King County was home to an estimated 2,252,782 residents in 2019, according to the United States Census Bureau.[8]
Demographics
King County outperformed the state of Washington as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2015 to 2019. The United States Census Bureau found that 52.5% of county residents had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 36.0% for state residents. The median household income in the county was $94,974, while it was $73,775 for the state as a whole. County residents lived below the poverty level at a rate of 7.7%. That rate was 9.8% for the entire state.[8]
| Racial Demographics, 2019[8] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | King County (%) | Washington (%) |
| White | 66.2 | 78.5 |
| Black or African American | 7.0 | 4.4 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.0 | 1.9 |
| Asian | 19.7 | 9.6 |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Two or More Races | 5.2 | 4.9 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 9.9 | 13.0 |
Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
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.
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
- Seattle Public Schools, Washington
- Seattle Public Schools, Washington, elections (2021)
- Seattle Public Schools, Washington, elections (2019)
- Seattle Public Schools elections (2017)
- Recall campaigns in Washington
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Associated Press, "Judge dismisses petition to recall Seattle School Board," April 20, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Seattle Times, "Seattle School Board chooses new board member, approves plan to return to classrooms," March 24, 2021
- ↑ Seattle Public Schools, "Board of Directors," accessed March 29, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 KIRO 7, "Charges filed to recall entire Seattle school board," March 24, 2021
- ↑ Seattle Public Schools, "Timeline: Return to In-Person Learning Timeline," accessed March 29, 2021
- ↑ Washington Policy Center, "Broad coalition of parents seek recall of six Seattle school board members," April 8, 2021
- ↑ South Seattle Emerald, "JUDGE DISMISSES ALL SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD RECALL CHARGES," April 20, 2021
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 United States Census Bureau, "QuickFacts: King County, Washington; Washington; United States," accessed March 29, 2021
 |
State of Washington Olympia (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
