Lane County residents have filed to begin a recall of the majority of elected board members who oversee Springfield Public Schools.
Records show that separate filings have been made to force a recall vote for seats held by Heather Quaas-Annsa, Nicole De Graff and Ken Kohl.
The three petitioners filed their first forms just a few days after a Jan. 12 school board meeting at which the targeted members voted to approve cuts to more than two dozen teaching positions in the middle of the school year.
Abraham Constantino, Ky Fireside and Devon Lawson said they are concerned with a vote earlier this month that will result in 27 mid-school-year layoffs and the cancelling of a number of open positions.
“What they have done to cut $2.34 million was a 3-2 vote against students, faculty and parents,” said Constantino, a recent graduate of Springfield High School.
He also voiced concern for the importance of consistency in students’ lives.
“Imagine a middle schooler who loses a math teacher, and they thrive on consistency,” he said. “Where’s that consistency when things are getting slashed?”
Lawson, also a recent Springfield High graduate, said he wishes board members would have tried to get more information, particularly better responses to ideas that were mentioned during an opportunity for public input.
“They listened to testimony and asked if what these people were saying that they could do was true, and the [Chief Operations Office] gave very vague, blank answers that were not helpful to the rest of the board,” he said.
Fireside, who is running for a seat in the Oregon House’s 7th Legislative District, said they saw similar issues with board members not seeking information beyond what they were presented by district staff.
“And they did ask some questions but ultimately they did not ask for any alternatives,” Fireside said. “They didn’t ask for more time to consider suggestions that anyone in that room made that night. And they voted to put all of the burden of this budget shortfall on a single group of licensed staff.”
The board members who may face recall all said the vote at the Jan. 12 meeting was difficult but necessary.
Quaas-Annsa said the district is dealing with a problem that schools across Oregon are seeing: significant funding shortfalls, some of the lowest birth rates in the country, and parents opting for alternatives like homeschooling.
“It’s not really shocking that our district is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of districts in the area that are facing these challenges,” she said.
De Graff thinks the recall effort is a reaction to the unusual timing of the cuts.
“We did know that, at any kind of natural break, this could happen,” she said. “But I think what people are used to is before school starts or maybe at the end of the year. So I think maybe that’s why maybe it doesn’t feel as precedented. It is painful either way, but maybe more so now.”
Kohl said he realizes that there are a lot of concerns about the upcoming semester, but his vote came due to long-term concerns.
“I was looking at what was happening with our budget and how quickly we were dipping into reserves and the concern of what that meant to this next year’s budgets and the budgets beyond that, and it didn’t seem like it was sustainable,” he said.
All three acknowledged that the petitioners and voters are within their rights to push the recall, and they will accept the will of voters.
Quaas-Annsa said she personally disagrees with the use of recall elections when the heart of the matter is a policy disagreement.
“That whole process is typically used for pretty egregious offenses like embezzlement, sexual harassment, completely ignoring your duties,” she said.
According to a Lane County elections official, the petitioners need to gather 4,826 signatures for each recall petition by April 20 to trigger a recall election.
Student protest
In addition to the recall attempt, the mid-year layoffs in the Springfield School District have prompted at least one candlelight vigil and multiple student demonstrations.
On Monday, a few dozen students from the Academy of Arts and Academics marched through downtown Springfield to demonstrate in front of the district’s headquarters. Several students said they felt compelled to speak out after finding out they were about to lose their favorite teacher.
Taiga Lancaster, a junior at the Academy of Arts and Academics, said his teacher is moving to Hamlin Middle School to make up for layoffs there. He said that means he and several of his friends are losing a mentor in the middle of the school year.
“She’s guided me through end of year reviews, ACT worries, at- home worries,” Lancaster said. “She’s always been there to talk to me about those types of things. Having her leave is such a hard feeling.”
Lancaster and classmate Toni Rosenberg said the district should look for other options, especially in the middle of the school year.
“Listen to our community, we have so many other solutions for the budget crisis,” Rosenberg said. “It doesn’t have to be ‘fire 27 teachers,’ it's so much more disruptive to the school year.”
Rosenberg said she’s also been distributing a petition and fliers to encourage the district to stop the layoffs and find other ways to balance the budget.
The layoffs were approved earlier this month and will take effect at the end of this week.
