Boulder Valley School District recall, Colorado (2021)

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Boulder Valley School District recall
Officeholders
Lisa Sweeny-Miran Kathy Gebhardt Richard Garcia
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in Colorado Colorado recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall three of the seven members of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education in Colorado did not go to a vote in 2021. Recall supporters did not submit petitions by the deadline on November 29, 2021.

The recall effort began in September 2021. District A representative Lisa Sweeny-Miran, District C representative Kathy Gebhardt, and District G representative Richard Garcia were named in the recall petitions.

The recall petitions listed eight grounds for recall, including ignoring constituents, requiring masks in schools, promoting COVID vaccines, and excluding parents from in-person board meetings. In a published response, Sweeny-Miran, Gebhardt, and Garcia said they rejected the recall effort "as a potential threat to public health, a distraction for our community, and a waste of Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) monetary resources of at least $750,000."

All three board members' terms were due to expire in 2023.

To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.

Recall supporters

The stated reasons for the recall for all three members included:

“

consistently ignored dissenting opinions before making important decisions impacting staff and students; provided no meaningful oversight of unelected health officials who have presented biased, misleading and false information at board meetings; unquestioningly accepted the aforementioned officials’ advice while ignoring professional, credentialed, and well-informed constituents; demonstrated a callous disregard for students’ physical and mental health by mandating masks indefinitely and without solid grounding in science for all students as young as age 2; endangered the health of students by refusing to acknowledge legitimate medical exemptions approved by medical professionals; aggressively promoted unlicensed Emergency Use Authorization COVID vaccines for students, including on school grounds, despite the controversial risk: benefit ratio of these products for children; neglected to address a variety of student health and safety grievances raised by constituents throughout the district; purposely avoided accountability by excluding parents from in-person participation at school board meetings.

”

Recall opponents

The three board members published the following rebuttal to the recall:

“

I reject this recall effort as a potential threat to public health, a distraction for our community, and a waste of Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) monetary resources of at least $750,000. In-person learning has been our top priority during this pandemic. Our board has been working hard to ensure that our students continue receiving a top-notch education, that we minimize the number of school and class closures, and that we maintain high standards of safety and health. The BVSD Board recognizes Boulder County Public Health’s statutory responsibility to protect the health of our community and BVSD has complied with all health orders accordingly. We understand that as a part of a layered approach, masks, vaccines, testing, and high-quality ventilation are the most effective tools in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. BVSD’s mask exemption process addresses the legitimate medical needs of individual students and employees while maintaining broad community protections. Public engagement is a core value of the BVSD board. Grievances brought to the district are heard and considered. We have engaged with our community regularly by email, during phone, Zoom, and in-person meetings, with public comment during every regular board meeting, and during school visits and other public engagement activities. Amidst the ever-changing pandemic landscape the BVSD board has been immediately responsive to changing conditions, and has created innovative and flexible education programs to meet the needs of our families. This recall effort, if successful in gaining enough signatures, will cost BVSD and our taxpayers over $668,000. The money spent on this recall will be gone from our budget forever and cannot be recovered. The waste, distraction, and public health threat presented by this recall petition cannot be undone, and we reject this recall effort as counter to the needs of our school district and community.

”

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Colorado

The school district was informed on September 10, 2021, that the recall petitions had been filed. To get the recalls on the ballot, recall supporters would have had to collect 15,000 signatures in 60 days. The district estimated the cost of holding a recall election between $651,415 and $668,133.

Recalls related to the coronavirus

See also: Recalls related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and government responses to the pandemic

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

• Boulder Valley School District, Colorado
• Recall campaigns in Colorado
• Political recall efforts, 2021
• School board recalls
• States that allow school board recalls

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Boulder Valley School District
• Boulder County Clerk & Recorder