Wisconsin school board recall to be held February 19


A recall election seeking to remove two of the seven members of the Flambeau School District Board of Education in Wisconsin will be held on February 19, 2019. The process to recall board President Sam Stewart and board clerk Danielle Zimmer started in December 2018. The two members were targeted for recall due to allegedly disrespectful comments, finger pointing, and lack of transparency, according to the leaders of the recall effort.

Stewart and Zimmer filed challenges to the recall petitions after they were filed. The board members said the reasons for recall listed on the petitions were personal opinions unrelated to their responsibilities as officeholders. They also said the reasons for recall did not provide a basis for recall and included personal attacks on their characters.

Stewart and Zimmer were also targeted for recall in 2018 along with board Vice President Patrick Anderson. The 2018 petitions against the three board members said they were being recalled due to disrespectful behavior, negative representation, and poor decision making. The effort failed to make the ballot due to improper documentation.

Ballotpedia has tracked two school board recall efforts nationwide targeting five board members so far in 2019. In 2018, 33 school board recall efforts targeted 74 board members. Twelve recall elections were held that year, and the recall success rate was 29.7 percent.

Overall in 2018, a total of 206 recall efforts targeting 299 officials at all levels of government were tracked, which was less than the 241 efforts against 329 officials tracked in 2017.