San Ramon Valley Schools Recall: Parents Organize Opposition

SAN RAMON VALLEY, CA — A group of San Ramon Valley Unified School District parents have banded together to oppose a contentious effort to recall three board members who supported postponing in-person learning at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Notices of intent to recall have been sent to district board President Susanna Ordway and members Ken Mintz and Rachel Hurd.

Some parents were frustrated after the board unanimously voted in December to reverse course on its back-to-school plan and postponed a Jan. 5 return to class as COVID-19 cases spiked in the Bay Area and across the country. Younger students began returning to district classrooms earlier this month.

The other two board members — newly elected Shelley Clark and Laura Bratt — were protected from recall efforts by state law, which says a recall can't be launched against an elected official if she has held office fewer than 90 days.

Opponents of the recall effort pointed out that a majority of district families — 65 percent of elementary students and 76 percent of high school students — wanted to move forward with remote learning as of Dec. 15.

They also argued, among other things, that recall efforts are a waste of money. A special election would be necessary, and the school district would have to foot the bill.

The San Ramon Valley Council of Parent Teacher Associations conducted a study that found a special election could cost the district $650,000. The Contra Costa County Elections Division confirmed a special election could cost between $8 to $12 per voter, or somewhere in the realm of $650,000 in this case.

That money could instead be used to buy books or personal protective equipment or pay for counselors or other services for students, said Bridgit Pelley, an organizer who opposes the recall initiative.

"That's money from our kids," she said.

Pelley also wondered, why not wait to vote the board members out in the 2022 election? To lose Ordway, Mintz and Hurd would be to lose institutional knowledge, she said. "It's a democracy," Pelley said. "You don't throw people out [in a recall election] because you don't like what they're doing."

Comments and video posted to social media showed emotions running high between recall supporters and opponents as both sides scramble to make their case to the public.

District spokesperson Denise Jennison said it supported positive interaction with the community and is not affiliated with the recall. "We are continuing to move forward in the best interest of all students with our seated board members," she said.

Backers of the recall effort argued that science didn't support the board's decision to keep schools closed, presumably referring to a body of research that suggests there's a low risk of COVID-19 spread in schools. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has offered guidance on how to safely reopen K-12 schools and says they "should be the last settings to close after all other mitigation measures in the community have been employed, and the first to reopen when they can do so safely." Schools that open in a community with high transmission are more likely to see COVID-19 cases within its ranks, the CDC said.

Supporters also accused the board of kowtowing to the teacher's union, the San Ramon Valley Education Association.

"Parents suspect the actions of SRVEA appear to be tied to the larger agenda the California's Teacher Union (CTA) is pushing with Gov. Gavin Newsom to not allow schools to reopen when the county is in the purple tier," recall supporters previously said in a news release.

Read more: Some Parents Want SRVUSD School Board Members Recalled

No signatures related to the matter had been filed with the Contra Costa County Elections Division as of Monday.

Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted Pelley as saying a word that was misheard in a phone interview and included a typo in board president Susanna Ordway's first name.