Organizers say recall effort against Milwaukee school board members has over 37k signatures

Organizers for a recall effort against four Milwaukee Public Schools board members say they’ve collected over 37,000 signatures so far. That’s more than half of the total they need by mid-August to initiate a recall against four board members.

The effort, from the MPS School Board Recall Collaborative, comes after a tumultuous few weeks for the district. In late May, the state Department of Public Instruction sent a letter to the district warning that it could lose millions of dollars in state funding after it failed to send in financial reports.

In the weeks since, district superintendent Keith Posley resigned from his post, Gov. Tony Evers called for operational and instructional audits of the district and Legislative Republicans have pushed for an audit of the district’s finances. This month, the state said the district was projected to lose $81 million in state funds as a result of the reporting failures. 

Now organizers with the recall effort are looking to unseat school board president Marva Herndon, vice president Jilly Gokalgandhi, school board member at large Missy Zombor and board member Erika Siemsen.

To trigger a recall election, the group will need to collect 5,137 signatures for Herndon, 6,809 signatures for Siemsen, 7,759 signatures for Gokalgandhi and 44,177 signatures for Zombor, according to Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.

“This MPS recall is not us recalling Milwaukee Public Schools,” said Tamika Johnson, a petitioner in the recall effort, during a Wednesday afternoon press conference. “This recall is recalling incompetent board members who allowed corruption to happen on the back of our Black and brown and white children.” 

Angela Harris, chair of the Black Educators Caucus and a second grade teacher at the Milwaukee Academy of Chinese Language, is also in support of the effort.

“I can understand, certainly, after all of the things that have occurred with Milwaukee Public Schools and the current iteration of the board, why community members would feel that it would be necessary to engage in a recall,” Harris said.

“We elect these folks to be our voices, but it seems to me that particularly with these four board members, folks in their district don’t feel like their voices are being heard, respected, or valued,” she added. 

But not everyone supports the recall effort. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association said in a statement that they believe the push is being led by people with “close ties to private voucher and charter schools.”

“Milwaukee should see this recall effort for what it is — local affiliates of the deep-pocketed, nationwide anti-public education voucher industry seeking to capitalize on the recent troubles with the MPS financial office,” MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said in a statement. 

Nicole Johnson, another petitioner in the recall effort, said the group doesn’t have any candidates lined up yet in the case of a recall election. 

But Johnson did say Wednesday the recall effort has received money from “anonymous donors” to help pay for canvassers who are collecting signatures. Organizers said those canvassers will be paid for their work after the signatures have been verified by the city. 

Organizers also said they do not know who the “anonymous donors” are. 

After speaking at a Milwaukee Press Club event Wednesday, Gokalgandhi said she’s aware of the recall effort but is staying focused on the district’s needs. 

“The public has … their democratic right. My job is to continue to serve our kids, work on getting the ship back into the right direction and be prepared in September for our kids to come to our schools,” Gokalgandhi said.

Asked if she plans to run again in a recall election, she responded, “I think we got to see what happens.”

The group has until Aug. 12 to collect signatures and submit them to the Election Commission.  Johnson said organizers are “confident” they’ll collect enough signatures needed by that time.

The Commission has 31 days after the group submits the signatures to verify them.

Last week, the school board also announced it had selected Eduardo Galvan to serve as the new acting superintendent following Posley’s resignation. The board will meet Thursday to confirm or deny that appointment. 

“We are confident in the leadership Mr. Galvan brings to MPS and to this role,” Herndon said in a statement. “Additionally, this step moves the district closer to having an interim superintendent in place before the beginning of the school year, which is critical to our goal of serving the students and families of MPS in the best way possible.”