Tom Briten recall, Caldwell School District, Idaho (2016)

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Caldwell School District Board of Trustees recall
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Officeholders
Tom Briten
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
See also
Recall overview
Political recall efforts, 2016
Recalls in Idaho
Idaho recall laws
School board recalls
Recall reports

An effort to recall Tom Briten from his seat on the Caldwell School District Board of Trustees in Idaho was started in October 2015, but supporters did not submit petitions in time to get the recall on the ballot.[1][2]

Recall supporters first spoke of recalling Briten in July 2015 following the removal of acting Superintendent Tim Rosandick. Briten, however, had just started his new term on the board in July 2015, and a state law required that recall supporters wait 90 days to circulate their petition.[1] The group also targeted Leif Skyving and Amy Rojas, two former school board members who were recalled in an election on November 3, 2015.[3]

Recall supporters

Recall supporters said they were targeting Briten for the same reasons they targeted Skyving and Rojas: lack of transparency and lack of fiscal responsibility. Both accusations were related to contract changes that were approved for two district administrators in June 2015. The changes removed Tim Rosandick and Luci Asumendi, who at the time were serving as acting superintendent and assistant superintendent, respectively, from their positions and changed their status to consultants to the district until their contracts' expirations in June 2016. The changes allowed both Rosandick and Asumendi to seek employment outside of the district, but also paid them their full salaries for the 2015-2016 school year. Jodie Mills was appointed to replace Rosandick as acting superintendent, leaving her position as director of curriculum and instruction.[1][4]

Briten voted in favor of the contract changes, along with Skyving and Rojas. Recall supporters did not agree with the move to change Rosandick's contract. Russ Beardsley, the vice chairman of the committee that hired Rosandick as superintendent, disputed the board's amicable description of the changes:[4]

Tim Rosandick didn’t want to leave the district. I know that from discussions I had with him before the election. One of the reasons why we worked so hard to keep (trustees) Chuck Stout, Tom Briten and Sandie Dodson on the board was because they made up the majority, and Leif and Amy have always had a significant distaste for Tim. ... I believe that once the election was concluded and Travis had been declared the winner, I believe that Amy and Leif approached (Tim) and told him that the writing was on the wall.[5]
—Russ Beardsley (2015)[4]

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Idaho

Recall supporters filed their initial 20 signatures to start a recall petition with the Canyon County Elections Office in October 2015. The Elections Office verified those signatures on October 13, 2015.[1] The recall supporters had until January 19, 2016, to file the final petition.[6] They did not submit the petitions by the deadline, so the recall did not make it to the ballot.[2]

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Tom Briten' 'Caldwell School District' recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

External links

Footnotes