Chippewa Valley Schools recall, Michigan (2021)
| Chippewa Valley Schools recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Denise Aquino George Sobah Beth Pyden |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
Petitions seeking to recall four of the seven members of the Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education in Michigan did not go to a vote in 2021. Recall supporters did not submit the recall petitions by the deadline.[1]
The recall petitions were approved for circulation on January 20, 2021. Recall supporters had to collect 11,656 signatures to get the recall on the ballot.[2][3]
Board members Frank Bednard, Denise Aquino, George Sobah, and Beth Pyden were named in the recall petitions, which listed the members' votes in August to move to online-only schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for the recall effort. Bednard said that community members were divided on the issue of schooling during the pandemic and that if the board had voted to keep students in in-person schooling, they would also have faced a recall effort.[4]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
The recall petitions were filed by Terry Prince, a father of two kindergartners in the school district. "I don't look to recall anybody," Prince said. "I would just assume that they listen to the community. People want their kids back in school."[4]
Prince said that the school district gave parents a choice over the summer of 2020 between online-only schooling and a hybrid system where students would attend in-person school half time. He said that changed right before the 2020-2021 school year started when the board members voted to go to online-only schooling. "Our biggest gripe is they took away our choice," Prince said.[4]
The recall petitions cited the members' votes in August and October to move to online-only schooling as reasons for the recall effort. The petitions read, "Both yes votes were contrary to the plan that was presented to parents all summer long and the recommendations of government officials, doctors and other experts in the field."[4]
Recall opponents
In response to the recall effort, Bednard said he understood the frustration and the desire for students to be in school. "For legitimate reasons, many parents want the kids back in school," Bednard said. "A lot of people want their children at home, too. There's just a lot of various issues that come up when we go to scheduling children for the different classes like this and so on."[4]
Bednard said that after speaking to a number of parents and community members, he found that people were divided on the issue. "It just seems like people are upset, they're frustrated or angry and they need somebody to take it out [on]," said Bednard. "If we kept them all in face-to-face learning, we'd be facing a recall for that, too."[4]
"Safety of our students is the No. 1 priority in this district," Bednard said. "We're not doing what's best for my child, we have to do what's best for 15,000 children."[4]
Pyden said the board's decision to keep students in online-only schooling had not been taken lightly. She also said that the recall petitions had cherry-picked portions of the school board meeting record in order to make the argument in favor of recall.[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Michigan
The Macomb County Election Commission approved the recall petitions for circulation at a clarity hearing on January 20, 2021. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters had to collect 11,656 signatures. The signatures had to be collected within 60 days once the first signature was collected. The recall petitions were eligible to collect signatures for 180 days.[2][3]
Recall supporters initially tried to recall the four board members in 2020, but the recall petition language was rejected in a clarity hearing on December 22, 2020.[5]
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
- Chippewa Valley Schools, Michigan
- Recall campaigns in Michigan
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Goce Nedanovski, Macomb County Election Department," July 21, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Detroit Free Press, "4 Chippewa Valley School board members face recall over in-person learning," January 20, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Macomb Daily, "Parent continues effort to recall Chippewa Valley board members," February 5, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Detroit Free Press, "Recall effort targets Chippewa Valley school board leaders," December 4, 2020
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Goce Nedanovski, Elections Specialist, Macomb County Clerk," January 7, 2020
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