Mountain Valley School District RE-1 recall, Colorado (2023)

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Mountain Valley School District RE-1 recall
Officeholders
Christan Archuleta Lisa Hammel Mona Kay Lovato Lacy Reed
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
Signature requirement
25% of the total vote cast in the last election for the office
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2023 Recalls in Colorado Colorado recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall Christan Archuleta, Lisa Hammel, Mona Kay Lovato, and Lacy Reed from their positions on the five-member Mountain Valley School District RE-1 school board in Colorado did not go to a vote in 2023. The recall petition against Hammel was found to not be sufficient by the Saguache County Clerk & Recorder's Office. The petitions against Archuleta, Lovato, and Reed were found to be sufficient, but the timing of the recall election would have been the same day as the day they were up for regular election. Because of this, the recall elections were not scheduled.

Recall supporters

McKeeg Russell, a leader of the recall effort, listed the following reasons for recall in a letter to the editor of the Center Post Dispatch:

“

Policy Violations Board members bring complaints without regard to the chain of command and bypassing the Superintendent, Principal, or Educators to implement unofficial policy that has not been discussed or approved. Failure to follow Policy H (Negotiations for Teachers) Unethical Practices Divulged private-identifying information about minor students and parents. Allowing family members to dictate agenda and demanding executive session. A board member entered executive session with their family member in direct violation of state law. 2022 non-renewed bullying grant. 2023 accused staff of failing to address bullying. Bias shown in meetings regarding who can speak over 3 minutes. Actively seeking negative information-complaints against specific staff. Sending private messages smearing the superintendent’s reputation without justification for his non-renewal. Fiscally Irresponsible Misappropriation of preschool grant funds ($7,000) 2022 and 2023 — $10,000 in Superintendent searches Retaliation Threats and actions were taken against staff who disagreed with this board. Staff has been made to fear for their jobs. Abuse of power.

”

Recall opponents

Ballotpedia did not identify a public response to the recall effort.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Colorado

Recall efforts in Colorado cannot start until an officeholder has been in office for six months. To get the recall on the ballot, supporters had to collect signatures equal to 25% of the total vote cast in the last election for the office. Recall supporters submitted those signatures in April 2023. The county had 28 days to verify the signatures.

The Saguache County Clerk & Recorder's Office verified enough signatures on the petitions against Archuleta, Lovato, and Reed, but they did not verify enough signatures on the petition against Hammel. Due to the timing of the verification, however, the recall elections were not scheduled as the board members were up for regular election on the same date.

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

• Mountain Valley School District RE-1, Colorado
• Recall campaigns in Colorado
• Political recall efforts, 2023
• School board recalls
• States that allow school board recalls

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Mountain Valley School District RE-1
• Saguache County Clerk and Recorder