Mequon-Thiensville School District recall, Wisconsin (2021)
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| 2021 Mequon-Thiensville School District recall |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| November 2, 2021 |
| Table of contents |
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Recall vote Recall supporters Recall opponents Path to the ballot 2021 recall efforts |
| See also |
| External links Footnotes |
Recall elections seeking to remove four of the seven members of the Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education in Wisconsin were held on November 2, 2021. A majority of voters cast ballots in favor of keeping board members Wendy Francour, Erik Hollander, Akram Khan, and Chris Schultz in office, defeating all four recalls.[1][2][3] Cheryle Rebholtz ran against Francour, Charles Lorenz ran against Hollander, Kristopher Kittell ran against Khan, and Scarlett Johnson ran against Schultz.[4]
Recall supporters said they started the recall due to concerns about the school district's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, critical race theory, a decline in academic performance metrics, and an inability to get answers from board members. The other three members of the board were not eligible for recall as they had not served in the office for at least one year.[5]
A spokeswoman for the district said, "MTSD’s focus remains on advancing our vision and planning for a robust learning experience for all students for the 2021-2022 school year."[5]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall vote
General election
Special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education
Incumbent Wendy Francour defeated Cheryle Rebholtz in the special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Wendy Francour (Nonpartisan) | 58.7 | 6,799 |
| Cheryle Rebholtz (Nonpartisan) | 41.2 | 4,768 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 6 | ||
| Total votes: 11,573 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
General election
Special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education
Incumbent Erik Hollander defeated Charles Lorenz in the special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Erik Hollander (Nonpartisan) | 59.9 | 6,926 |
| Charles Lorenz (Nonpartisan) | 40.1 | 4,641 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 5 | ||
| Total votes: 11,572 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
General election
Special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education
Incumbent Akram Khan defeated Kristopher Kittell in the special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Akram Khan (Nonpartisan) | 58.2 | 6,719 |
| Kristopher Kittell (Nonpartisan) | 41.8 | 4,825 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 9 | ||
| Total votes: 11,553 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
General election
Special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education
Incumbent Chris Schultz defeated Scarlett Johnson in the special general election for Mequon-Thiensville School District Board of Education on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Chris Schultz (Nonpartisan) | 58.9 | 6,816 |
| Scarlett Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 41.1 | 4,748 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 2 | ||
| Total votes: 11,566 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Recall supporters
To view recall supporters' recall petitions and rebuttal to the challenges, click here.
On their website, recall supporters listed out the following platform:[6]
| “ |
Dereliction of Duty: The Abdication of Voting Responsibilities Over the past year, the MTSD School Board has routinely abandoned their voting responsibilities to MTSD Superintendent Matt Joynt. Not only is this legally questionable, but it sends a clear message that the School Board is no longer advocating for the students of our district. New leadership is necessary in order to restore true and transparent representation of our students and our community. A Return To Educational Excellence An excellent education has long been the tradition for Mequon-Thiensville schools, but over the past several years our district has seen a sharp decline while neighboring communities have shown marked improvements. Our community needs board members who will focus on restoring our high quality academic standard and empower our students to thrive, not just survive. A New Approach in a Post-Pandemic World
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” |
Recall opponents
To view the board members' formal challenges to the recall petitions, click here.
In response to the recall supporters submitting signatures, Francour said, "I understand there will be signed petitions turned in later today. There is a legal process to validate the signatures and the Board will move forward following that process."[8]
Molly Loucks, educational services and communications administrative assistant for the school district, said the district was aware of the recall efforts. "MTSD’s focus remains on advancing our vision and planning for a robust learning experience for all students for the 2021-2022 school year," Loucks said.[5]
A group supporting the board members, called the Coalition to Support MTSD, was formed in response to the recall effort. Nancy Urbani, a member of the coalition and a district parent, said, "Most of the city is okay with COVID mitigations. I believe this [group] is a small, but very vocal minority [...] The school district isn't perfect, it's not perfect for me. But if we're just going to complain about it and replace the school board every year, they're not going to get enough knowledge under their belt to make any changes either."[8]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Wisconsin
Recall supporters filed recall paperwork on June 21, 2021. To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had to collect approximately 4,200 signatures per board member in 60 days. The number of signatures was equal to 25% of the votes cast in the 2018 gubernatorial election in the school district.[5] Supporters submitted more than 4,400 signatures on August 23, 2021.[8] The district's filing officer had to verify the signatures by September 23, 2021.[9]
All four members named in the recall petitions filed challenges against the petitions on September 2, 2021. Recall supporters submitted a rebuttal to the challenges on September 7, 2021.[10] The challenges were sustained when it came to duplicate signatures but were not sustained on other matters. The petitions were found to be sufficient on September 21, 2021. The school board voted on September 22, 2021, to schedule the recall elections on November 2, 2021. If more than two candidates had filed in any race, a primary would have been held on November 2, and a general election would have been held on November 30, 2021.[1][11][12] The candidate filing deadline was October 5, 2021.[1]
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
- Mequon-Thiensville School District, Wisconsin
- Recall campaigns in Wisconsin
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- School board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mequon-Thiensville School District, "2021 Special Election," accessed September 24, 2021
- ↑ Mequon-Thiensville School District, "Board of Education," accessed June 28, 2021
- ↑ Mequon-Thiensville School District, "2021 Special Election: Unofficial Election Results - 11 of 11 Units Reporting (9:46 p.m.)," accessed November 2, 2021
- ↑ Mequon-Thiensville School District, "Candidate Tracking: Mequon-Thiensville School District November 2, 2021 Recall Elections," accessed October 6, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Parent group seeks recall of four Mequon-Thiensville School Board members," June 25, 2021
- ↑ Recall MTSD School Board, "Home," accessed June 28, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 CBS 58, "Petition reaches enough signatures to recall some Mequon-Thiensville School Board members," August 23, 2021
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Group submits petitions in bid to recall four Mequon-Thiensville School Board members," August 25, 2021
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Mequon-Thiensville School Board members facing recall challenge petitions," September 8, 2021
- ↑ Mequon-Thiensville School District, "2021 Recall of Local Elected Officials," accessed September 24, 2021
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Mequon-Thiensville School Board to decide on whether to approve recall elections against four board members Wednesday," September 21, 2021
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