Just when you were tuning out of California recall’s drama… it’s back.
Only this time, it’s not for governor.
Voters in San Francisco are trying to recall three members of the city’s controversial school board. They’ve already collected a petition with more than enough signatures.
“We’ve reached 70,000 signatures, which is the number of raw signatures to make sure that we have 51,285 that are valid that we need to make the ballot,” Autumn Looijen from the San Francisco School Board Recall Effort said in an interview with the KTVU News. “We are pretty darned sure that we are going to make the ballot and have a recall election for Gabriela Lopez, Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga.”
If Californians want to recall a local executive in a district with 100,000 or more registered voters, then they need a petition with signatures from 10 percent of those voters. San Francisco contains 504,370 registered voters, the local department of elections reported on Thursday.
The California Constitution has come under scrutiny because of its low threshold for recall elections. Still, the school board’s recall petition gained almost 20,000 more raw signatures than necessary. The threshold may be low, but voters seem especially dissatisfied with the school board.
The recall effort gained steam during the school districts botched attempt to bring back in-person instruction.
“With the number of students who have left the city and the school district, it looks like the enrollment is going to be down and we may be looking at a $180 million annual deficit next year and the board has no plans to address it,” Looijen said.
San Francisco’s school board received national attention last year when it tried to rename a third of their schools, including those named after Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.
Critics questioned the school board’s priorities and took issue with its divisive, unpopular decisions. They characterized the school board as group of powerful bureaucrats performing empty gestures in a desperate attempt to appear useful.
San Francisco London Breed stated, “Now, in the midst of this once in a century challenge, to hear that the district is focusing its energy and resources on renaming schools — schools that they haven’t even opened — it’s offensive.”
If the recall efforts succeed, then the new board members may be appointed by either Breed, the board of supervisors, or both. In 2018, Breed appointed one member who is up for recall.
I agree with Mayor @LondonBreed
Renaming a big swath of SF schools (not to mention the Lowell fiasco) during a pandemic & budget collapse — when kids are suffering with remote learning — isn’t the right focus.
Focus 1, 2 & 3 need to be how to get our kids back to school safely. https://t.co/voDmL1Xq6H
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) October 16, 2020
KTVU reached out to the three members up for recall. The board’s Vice President Moliga said he is refraining from commenting.
The petitioners are planning to drop off the signatures at the Department of Elections on Tuesday. Then, they’ll wait for the department to weed out all the legally invalid signatures. They can late challenge the department’s judgment in court.
Voters may go to the polls as soon as February 2022.
The Horn editorial team