3 Richland school leaders are trying to stop attempt to oust them. How long until a decision?
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Richland School Board Recall Effort
A high-profile group of voters filed to recall board members Semi Bird, Audra Byrd and Kari Williams after their controversial vote to make face masks optional.
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It could be many months before Washington State Supreme Court justices review the Richland School Board recall ballot synopsis and make a decision on whether the recall effort can move forward.
And, if the decision is upheld, a ballot with the three school board members’ names might not be sent out to voters until next year.
No requests for an expedited review have been filed by either side, said Lorrie Thompson, a senior communications officer with the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.
“Which means it will be several months of collecting the necessary filings and legal briefs before the case is sent to the justices for review in an en banc conference,” she wrote in an email to the Tri-City Herald.
And that hearing date won’t be set until after the court has received all filings.
Initial briefs haven’t yet been published on the court’s website, either.
A group of Richland voters are trying to recall board members Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams after they voted in February to defy the state’s indoor COVID mask mandate and instill “mask choice” in their schools.
It happened right as the state and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee were already working to repeal masking mandates.
The group also alleges that the school board members broke the state’s open meetings law by taking final action at a special meeting without notice or action language in the agenda.
An appeal to have the state’s highest court review the decision of a Benton County Superior Court judge on the ballot synopsis was filed May 26.
Jerry Moberg, an Ephrata lawyer representing the school board members, previously told the Herald they planned on asking for a quick review and decision process. But they’ve since decided to stick with the Supreme Court’s schedule, which provides more predictability.
“I think right now everybody’s just working to follow the Supreme Court timeline,” he said.
His opening brief is due Aug. 11. After that, each side will have a few months to provide responses and counter responses to the court before the justices ultimately make a decision.
Doug McKinley, lawyer for the Richland School Board Recall group, said they’ve decided not to file for a faster review because the timeline the group was aiming for was already set back by a motion to reconsider filed by the board members in Superior Court.
That motion resulted in one of the allegations — that they held secret meetings by way of text messages in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act — being dropped.
That process set the recall group’s timeline back about a month.
“It was going to be tight” to get on the November ballot, McKinley said. “Just by appealing it, they’ve knocked us out of that window.”
“Either you can press our timeframe for getting signatures, which is what they’re doing, or you say, ‘We don’t care,’” he said.
The four remaining charges up for consideration are now, that the three:
- Violated the Open Public Meetings Act by voting at a special meeting taking final action on a matter, to wit: masking optional, that had not been included in the published public meeting agenda.
- Voted to make masks at school optional, in knowing violation of the law and in excess of the powers of a school board, even after warnings from the state and from legal counsel.
- Violated the district code of ethics by failing to: (1) uphold all laws, rules and regulations, and/or (2) use legal and ethical procedures; and/or (3) ensure schools are well run; and/or (4) consult those affected by changes in policy.
- Violated district policies and procedures by failing to assure compliance with law and policy.
If the state Supreme Court upholds any of the charges — like it did recently in the recall of former Benton County Sheriff Jerry Hatcher — then the process would be allowed to move into signature gathering.
The Richland recall group would need to collect about 5,200-5,800 signatures from registered voters in the Richland School District, for each board member, in order to put their names individually on the ballot.
Calling for a special election could cost district taxpayers $250,000, but putting it on a regularly-scheduled election could be less.
This story was originally published July 19, 2022 at 12:22 PM.
