Rebecca Chandler recall, Ojai Unified School District, California (2023)

• Recall efforts
  • Recall efforts by state
  • Recall efforts by office
  • Recall efforts by year
  • Upcoming recall elections
• Local recalls
  • City council recalls
  • Mayoral recalls
  • County commission recalls
  • County official recalls
  • School board recalls
  • Sheriff recalls
  • Special district recalls
• State and federal recalls
  • State executive recalls
  • State legislator recalls
  • U.S. Congress recalls
• Laws governing recall
  • States that have pre-petition signature requirements for recalls
  • States that require grounds for recalls
• Analysis
  • What are recalls?
  • Recall terms
  • 2024 year-end analysis
  • 2024 mid-year analysis
  • 2023 year-end analysis
  • 2023 mid-year analysis
  • 2022 year-end analysis
  • 2022 mid-year analysis
  • 2021 year-end analysis
  • 2021 mid-year analysis
  • 2020 year-end analysis
  • 2020 mid-year analysis
  • 2019 year-end analysis
  • 2019 mid-year analysis
  • 2018 year-end analysis
  • 2018 mid-year analysis
  • 2017 year-end analysis
  • 2017 mid-year analysis
  • 2016 year-end analysis
  • 2016 mid-year analysis

Ojai Unified School District recall
Officeholders
Rebecca Chandler
Recall status
Resigned
Signature requirement
725 signatures
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2023 Recalls in California California recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall Rebecca Chandler from her position as the Trustee Area 2 representative on the Ojai Unified School District Governing Board in California ended in March 2023 when Chandler resigned from the board. She was serving as board president at the time.

The recall effort began in January 2023. The notice of intent to recall was served during a board meeting in which the board discussed how to cut $2.3 million from the budget. Ventura County Superintendent of Schools César Morales told the board in a meeting in February 2023 that he had discussed going to the California State Legislature for a loan for the school district. If that happened, the school district would be placed under state receivership. Under state receivership, the board would no longer have authority.

The school district's teachers union passed a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Tiffany Morse on January 18, 2023. Morse became superintendent of the district in 2019.

Chandler was elected to a four-year term on the five-member board in 2020.

Recall supporters

Philip Bagley, a parent of three students in the school district, served Chandler with the notice of intent on January 23, 2023. He said the following when he presented Chandler with the notice:

“

As sad as these times are, it's really been amazing to see the community rally behind each other and support each other and coming to the conclusions that are obvious and necessary to conclude. I think it’s really important to do everything that we can to preserve what we have here and maintain local control. Last Wednesday, I told the board that if you didn’t fulfill your obligation to the community and to the district, that we would recall you. We have not had you acknowledge or respond to the calls to agendize the review of Dr. Morse. You haven’t said a single word about it. So, tonight, Dr. Chandler, you’re being served with notice of your recall for these reasons.

”

Bagley said the superintendent "is the destabilizing force." He said, "That is why her performance review is so important now. We should not have to wait until May or June for this to happen."

Recall opponents

When she resigned from the board, Chandler said, "There are lot of people reading false information on social media and just being cruel [...] I felt like it wasn't productive for me to be there any more."

Trustee Area 1 representative Phil Moncharsh, who was elected to the board in November 2022, said in January 2023 that he planned to place a performance evaluation of the superintendent on the agenda in the future. "I fully intend to review her performance between now and the end of this fiscal year as is the standard and appropriate process." Moncharsh said. "My view is that now, when I've been a board member for but 40 days, is not the proper time for that particular discussion. Some of you may disagree. So be it."

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in California

Chandler was served with a notice of intent to recall at a board meeting on January 23, 2023. The notice of intent required 30 signatures from registered voters in Trustee Area 2. Chandler submitted 45 to the Ventura County Elections Department on January 24, 2023. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters would have had to collect 725 petition signatures.

2023 recall efforts

See also: School board recalls

Ballotpedia tracked 48 school board recall efforts against 97 board members in 2023. Sixteen of those board members faced recall elections. The recall elections were held on January 10, 2023, August 1, 2023, August 8, 2023, August 29, 2023, November 7, 2023, and December 12, 2023. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.

The chart below details the status of 2023 recall efforts by individual school board member.

See also

• Ojai Unified School District, California
• Recall campaigns in California
• Political recall efforts, 2023
• School board recalls
• States that allow school board recalls

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Ojai Unified School District
• Ventura County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters