Recall Mania is going wild. In every section of the State—so far 69 Recalls are in process—folks, left and right. Even in Leftists Contra Costa County, parents are upset schools were closed without any scientific data.
“Petitions to recall each of the five board trustees are now being circulated in the district. If enough voters sign the petitions, the board members will automatically be placed in a special recall election this November against challengers in each of their respective districts.
It’s a campaign fueled mainly by some residual angst against the school board for not acting as quickly as some parents would have liked to fully reopen schools when coronavirus cases began declining in Contra Costa County during the winter. The recall petitions also cite what the parents call each trustee’s “inability to approve and oversee a sustainable budget, and failure to be good stewards of tax payer funds” as reasons to recall them.
This will be a fight between the parents and the union. In the meantime watch as this school district bleeds students—why send you child to a school for indoctrination. Maybe if the Recall is successful and educators are allowed to run the District, kids will return.
Petitions out to recall entire Mount Diablo Unified school board
Group must gather enough signatures by Sept. 3 to force election
By Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 6/14/21
WALNUT CREEK — Voters in the Mount Diablo Unified community can decide if they want to see the entire school board recalled over a contentious reopening process earlier this year.
Petitions to recall each of the five board trustees are now being circulated in the district. If enough voters sign the petitions, the board members will automatically be placed in a special recall election this November against challengers in each of their respective districts.
It’s a campaign fueled mainly by some residual angst against the school board for not acting as quickly as some parents would have liked to fully reopen schools when coronavirus cases began declining in Contra Costa County during the winter. The recall petitions also cite what the parents call each trustee’s “inability to approve and oversee a sustainable budget, and failure to be good stewards of tax payer funds” as reasons to recall them.
In March, the district moved to a hybrid-learning model that allowed students to attend classrooms in person on certain days of the week. The school year ended at the start of this month.
Recall campaigners will need to gain enough signatures to secure a recall election by Sept. 3, which will mark 120 days after the county elections office formally approved the petitions. The signature requirement for each trustee’s recall petition ranges from about 4,400 to 7,400, calculated based on the number of voters in each trustee area.
Organizers of the recall effort are recruiting support in a Facebook group of about 900 members. Eventual challengers to the trustees in a recall election would likely emerge from this group, an organizer said earlier this year when the campaign launched.
Mount Diablo Unified has schools in Concord, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, Bay Point and areas of Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Martinez and Pittsburg. Available state data estimates that about 31,000 students were enrolled in the district before the last school year, though more than 1,000 students left the district when it remained in distance learning during the pandemic.
Of the five trustees — board President Cherise Khaund, Vice President Debra Mason, Keisha Nzewi, Linda Mayo and Erin McFerrin — only McFerrin did not provide a response to the recall efforts to be included in the petitions sent to families.
The other four trustees focused their responses on how they emphasized a safe, careful return to class for both students and faculty, efforts they made to hear the community’s concerns and financial know-how they bring to budget discussions.
“I thoughtfully considered stakeholder opinions, studied reports, asked questions, and implemented directives from county, state, and federal lawmakers and health agencies,” Mayo wrote in her rebuttal. “We were unable to reopen schools until it was safe for students and staff, and teachers agreed to return to campuses. Most families agreed.”
Nzewi similarly cited her efforts to engage the community. She drew ire from some parents during reopening talks for saying she would not support reopening schools until COVID-19 case numbers improved in communities hit harder by the pandemic.
“I read every email and written public comment, and listened to public comment closely at every meeting,” Nzewi wrote in hers. “Additionally, I hosted a Spanish language list, and a meeting for Black parents. I am committed to hearing all voices, not just those in my email inbox, or in public comment.”
The district already plans to reopen schools full time, five days a week during the 2021-22 school year, which begins Aug. 12. Walter Eckalbar, a parent organizer, said earlier this year when the recall campaign launched that the campaign wasn’t intended to “punish” the school board but rather pressure trustees to “hear our voices and react to them.”
Eckalbar did not respond to multiple requests for a follow-up interview this month about the petition stage of the recall campaign.
Mount Diablo Unified is currently without a full-time spokesperson, and district staff did not respond to multiple interview requests. Earlier efforts to reach individual trustees on the school board were redirected to the superintendent’s office.
