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Three Rivers Community Schools recall, Michigan (2015)
| Three Rivers Community Schools Board of Education recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Waneta Truckey Carl Barth Dave Kutz |
| Recall status |
Resigned |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2015 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall three members of the Three Rivers Community Schools Board of Education in Michigan was started by a group called “T-R Cares," but on September 1, 2015, the county clerk determined the group had not garnered enough signatures to hold a recall election. The effort targeted members Mike Bosma, Waneta Truckey and Carl Barth. A fourth recall target resigned as the petition language was submitted.[1]
The group said they would try again in 2016. They planned to again target Barth as well as members Pete Bennett, Diana DeGraaf, and Erin Nowak.[2]
On June 8, 2015, recall proponents submitted petition language against the three board members after the contracts of three district employees were not renewed. The supporters had initially considered targeting board member Dave Kutz, as well. Kutz, however, made it known he would resign on the same day the petition language was submitted and was, therefore, left out of the official recall effort. The other three members of the board—Pete Bennett, Diana DeGraff and Erin Nowak—could not be targeted for recall at the time the petition was filed as they were all in the first year of their current terms.[3][4]
Due to an appeal from the recall targets over the petition language against them, recall supporters faced a shortened signature gathering window of two weeks. Despite this, recall supporters reported submitting a surplus of signatures against Barth, Bosma and Truckey by their deadline on July 31, 2015. St. Joseph County Clerk Pattie Bender's office initially had until August 7, 2015, to verify the signatures; however, copies of the petitions were requested by a number of citizens interested in possibly filing challenges. Because of this, the deadline was extended.[5] On September 1, 2015, the St. Joseph County Clerk's Office announced that the recall group had not submitted enough valid signatures for a recall election.[6]
Recall supporters filed a lawsuit against County Clerk Lindsay Oswald, saying she had been inconsistent in dismissing signatures, which resulted in a number of signatures getting thrown out. The attorney for the group accused Oswald of acting maliciously in order to keep the recall from the ballot. Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander Lipsey ruled in favor of Oswald, saying she had acted impartially.[7] Members of TR Cares said they would endorse a candidate to challenge Oswald's re-election bid in the August 2016 primary.[2][8]
Recall supporters
Arguments for recall
Recall supporters began gathering after the board decided not to renew the contracts of three district employees: athletic director Pete Anderson, dean of educational services Kevin Hamilton and middle school principal Bradley Coon. High school students held a sit-down protest, and community attendance spiked at subsequent board meetings.[3]
Petition language
The Sturgis Journal provided the following excerpt from the petition language filed:
| “ | The Three Rivers Community Schools bylaws and policies state the superintendent shall implement a rigorous, transparent and fair performance evaluation system. The evaluation shall aim at the early identification of specific areas in which the individual administrator needs help so that appropriate assistance may be provided or arranged for. If an administrator, after receiving a reasonable degree of assistance, fails to perform his/her assigned responsibilities in a satisfactory manner, dismissal or non-renewal procedures may be invoked.[9] | ” |
| —Petition against Bosma, Truckey and Barth (2015)[3] | ||
The petition went on to argue that the employees whose contracts were not renewed “were not given a rigorous, transparent and fair performance evaluation and were not offered appropriate assistance” prior to the board decisions.[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Michigan
On June 8, 2015, Sherrie Nowicki submitted petition language against Bosma, Truckey and Barth to St. Joseph County Clerk Pattie Bender. The county's election commission held a clarity and factual hearing on the claims made in the petition language on June 26, 2015.[3]
The hearing found the language on the petitions sufficiently clear, which would have allowed supporters to move forward with signature gathering efforts if no appeals had been filed within 10 days of the ruling.[3][10] The three recall targets, however, filed an appeal on July 6, 2015. Paul Stutesman, 45th Circuit Court judge, had until August 16, 2015, to determine whether or not to overturn the election commission's decision. Petitioners could not begin gathering signatures until the ruling was made.[11][12] The full election commission ruling, including the petition language against each target, may be read here.
Stutesman ultimately did not decide the appeal. After he and 3B Judicial District Court Judges Jeffrey C. Middleton and Robert K. Pattison all recused themselves from the appeal case, Ninth Circuit Court Judge Gary Giguere Jr. was assigned to hear the case. On July 17, 2015, Giguere ruled "each reason for the recall is factual and of sufficient clarity."[13] In his decision, he summarized the appellant's arguments as follows, according to the Sturgis Journal:
| “ |
|
” |
| —Judge Gary Giguere Jr. (July 17, 2015)[13] | ||
Giguere's jurisdiction, however, was limited to factual issues and clarity in the petition language. He stated in his ruling:
| “ | Accordingly, appellants’ other claims of error are not properly before this court and shall not be addressed. It is most important to note that the (election) commission’s role is limited to evaluating language, not deciding questions of fact. It is equally important to note that no standard of review for clarity determinations is provided by a statute or court rule to guide the circuit court.[9] | ” |
| —Judge Gary Giguere Jr. (July 17, 2015)[13] | ||
At least 1,165 valid signatures from school district residents were necessary to move the recall to the ballot. Recall supporters reported submitting: 1,404 signatures for Barth, 1,347 for Bosma and 1,421 for Truckey. The signatures had to be gathered by July 31, 2015, in order for the recalls to appear on the general election ballot on November 3, 2015.[14]
On September 1, 2015, the St. Joseph County Clerk's Office announced that the recall group had not collected enough valid signatures to hold a recall election. The office verified 1,148 signatures for Barth and Bosma, which was 17 signatures shy of the requirement, and 1,153 signatures for Truckey, which was 12 signatures short.[6] A judge verified that the petitions did not have enough signatures after a lawsuit from recall supporters accused the county clerk of inconsistently dismissing signatures.[7]
Clerk Bender stated at the time the petition was filed that the last recalls she remembered in the county took place in the 1980s. She also stated two other petition documents were submitted but also withdrawn earlier in 2015; those petitions would have targeted the Florence Township Board of Trustees and the Mendon Community Schools Board of Education.[3]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms "Three Rivers Community Schools" Michigan recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Three Rivers Community Schools, Michigan
- Recall campaigns in Michigan
- Political recall efforts, 2015
- School board recalls
External links
Recall documents
- 45th Circuit Court, Michigan, "Claim of Appeal by Carl Barth, Mike Bosma and Waneta Truckey," filed July 7, 2015
- St. Joseph Election Commission, "Determination of Election Commission," June 26, 2015
Footnotes
- ↑ Fox 17, "Community seeking recall of board members following teacher layoffs," August 27, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 WLKM, "TR Cares Plans Further Recall Effort," accessed November 12, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Sturgis Journal, "Recall effort targets three," June 9, 2015
- ↑ Three Rivers Commerical-News, "Kutz resigns from board," June 9, 2015
- ↑ MLive, "Signatures on Three Rivers school board recall petitions still under review," August 14, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mlive.com, "Recall drive targeting Three Rivers school board falls short of needed signatures," September 1, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 WLKM, "Judge Makes Ruling Regarding School Board Recall," accessed October 7, 2015
- ↑ The Recall Elections Blog, "Michigan: Petitioners threatening Three Rivers School," November 1, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Three Rivers Commerical-News, "Recall language approved for TR bd. members," June 27, 2015
- ↑ WLKM, "TR school board members file appeal," accessed July 7, 2015
- ↑ Sturgis Journal, "3 file appeal in recall," July 6, 2015
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Sturgis Journal, "Recall judgment affirmed," July 17, 2015
- ↑ Sturgis Journal, "Recall petitions submitted," July 31, 2015
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