Effort to recall West Sonoma County school board members fails

Organizers of a recall effort targeting two school board members in the West Sonoma County Union High School District failed to gather enough signatures necessary to qualify for a ballot initiative, the Sonoma County Clerk and Registrar of Voters said on Monday.

Residents organizing the recall against Board President Kellie Noe and Vice President Jeanne Fernandes turned in their petitions by the Aug. 28 deadline to the Sonoma County Registrar’s Office.

They needed at least 7,187 valid signatures from registered voters in the school district to qualify for a recall ballot for each official.

But, a raw count of the collected signatures determined there were only 3,084 signatures total — far below the required minimum amount needed, according to Clerk and Registrar of Voters Deva Proto.

Organizers received an official notice of the failure to qualify on Monday, Proto said.

“We’re obviously very disappointed,” said Ame Nultemeier, a Forestville parent who helped lead the recall effort. “We thought it might be closer than the number she gave us.”

Still, Nultemeier said many of those who worked on the recall effort experienced a sense of pride in collecting the signatures they had — particularly with COVID-19 complicating their efforts.

“This has brought people together that I would have never imagined meeting in my life,” she said. “We are friends. We are unified for a greater cause, which is our kids.”

During the Aug. 25 school board meeting, several parents claimed recall organizers had collected 9,200 signatures, though they did not specify whether the number was per trustee or total for all the petitions. And, they asked Noe and Fernandes to step down before the petitions were turned over to the Registrar’s Office.

Fernandes, on Monday night, called those claims and the subsequent request for hers and Noe’s resignations a “ploy.”

“I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t get there,” she said. “And it leads me to also believe that there are a lot more voters in the west county that support me, so I really appreciate that.”

Noe said the news that the recall effort did not qualify for a ballot was “a relief.”

“I’m hopeful that people can come together and really work towards the positive things that are happening on campus,” Noe said.

Parents and other west county residents launched the recall effort in the spring after Noe and Fernandes voted to consolidate Analy and El Molino high schools into one campus by this school year. The consolidated campus kicked off its school year in mid-August under the name West County High School.

Opponents also collected signatures to recall board member Laurie Fadave, who also voted for the consolidation, but Fadave resigned in late July. Her resignation was not driven by the recall effort against her, she said.

Parents also sued the school district over the consolidation process. The court date in that case is set for Sept. 22.

School officials proposed consolidation last fall as a potential solution to a $1.2 million annual structural budget deficit. Community members have repeatedly opposed the move over concerns about equity and impacts to the students from the far-flung communities along the Russian River, while school board members who voted for it maintain that they chose to close a school to offer more programs to students on the consolidated campus.

Those disagreements have continued during the first few weeks of the new school year, as parents report long lunch lines and bus rides, and school officials point to increased course and extracurricular offerings.

Opponents of the consolidation are already looking ahead to the court hearing as the next step in their efforts to overturn an action they never wanted.

“I wouldn’t at all say this was for nothing,” Nultemeier said about the recall effort. “This was just one step in the process that we want to go through in order to do what’s right for our kids.”

Noe and Fernandes expressed a similar desire to do right by the district’s approximately 1,700 students.

“We’re going to try to just keep moving forward with what we’ve got going and with our school year,” Fernandes said. “We’re going to do what’s best for the kids each and every time.”

“I hope at some point we’re, yes, going to grieve for the loss, and we’re going to look toward the future and what it can mean for our kids,” Noe said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.