Tuesday, January 3, 2012

School Closure Update

As students go back to school for the new year, a group named Concerned Parents and Community Coalition is gathering signatures to recall the five board members that were in support of the closure of five schools. As Katy Murphy details in her blog, the recall process unfolds like this:

"First, a small amount of signatures need to be collected in each of the five districts. Once those signatures and the language of the proposed ballot measure are certified, its proponents go about collecting a larger amount of signatures (for a mayoral recall election, it’s 10 percent of registered voters, or 19,811, in 160 calendar days — not sure about the school board members) to qualify the measure for a future ballot. Meanwhile, pro-recall supporters put forth their own candidates."

Just before school holidays, over 100 parents attended a meeting to present the board members with packets containing the recall petitions.
This recall effort comes as no surprise to the board members, each of whom is up for re-election next year. As students take their finals and enter a new semester, we will know more about the progress of this motion to recall.