Brandywine Public School District recall, Michigan (2024)

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Brandywine Public School District recall
Officeholders
Elaine McKee Thomas Payne Michelanne McCombs Angela Seastrom
Recall status
3 Did not go to a vote; 1 Resigned
Signature requirement
25% of voters in the school district in the last gubernatorial election
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall four of the six members of the Brandywine Public School District Board of Education in Michigan did not go to a vote in 2024. The recall petitions were rejected in a clarity hearing on June 24, 2025.

The recall petitions were filed on June 7, 2024. Elaine McKee, Thomas Payne, Michelanne McCombs, and Angela Seastrom were named in the recall petitions. Seastrom resigned from the board on June 14, 2024, after moving out of state.

At the time the recall began, McKee was serving as president of the board, and Payne was serving as vice president.

Recall supporters

John Jarpe, a former district superintendent, filed the recall petitions. The reason for recall listed on the petitions was the four board members' vote on January 23, 2023, against a motion that sought to move public input at board meetings from the end of the meeting to the beginning.

Jarpe said he thought the four board members were micromanaging the school district and not putting students first. “They haven’t shown me they are the board members I think they should be,” Jarpe said.

Recall opponents

McCombs said she and the other board members did not dispute the factual basis of the petition wording. She said they did vote against that motion, but they changed the policy for board meetings in March 2023 to include public input at the beginning and the end of meetings.

McCombs and McKee said that their intention on the board was to be a voice for district parents.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Michigan

No specific grounds are required for recall in Michigan. To get a recall on the ballot in Michigan, recall supporters must collect signatures equal in number to 25% of voters in the jurisdiction in the last gubernatorial election. They have 60 days between the collection of the first signature and the collection of the last signature on the petition. Recall petitions are eligible to collect signatures for 180 days.

2024 recall efforts

See also: School board recalls

Ballotpedia tracked 40 school board recall efforts against 83 board members in 2024. Recall elections in 2024 removed 14 members from office, including three who resigned before the election, and retained seven members in office. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.

The chart below details the status of 2024 recall efforts by individual school board member.