Mequon-Thiensville school board recall signature deadline looms
Mequon-Thiensville School Board facing recall
A group working to recall four school board members in the Mequon-Thiensville School District has until Monday, Aug. 23 to submit thousands of signatures, and organizers said Friday they think they'll make their goal. The exact goal is 4,150 signatures per candidate, and as of Thursday, their estimated total was past 3,500.
MEQUON, Wis. - A group working to recall four school board members in the Mequon-Thiensville School District has until Monday, Aug. 23 to submit thousands of signatures, and organizers said Friday they think they'll make their goal. The exact goal is 4,150 signatures per candidate, and as of Thursday, their estimated total was past 3,500.
The group said they'll be focused on the ground game over the weekend, an issue they say is all about declining academic performance.
Outside of the Mequon pool Friday afternoon, Amber Schroeder and the "Recall MTSD" team tried to turn passing car horns and waves into signatures.
Mequon-Thiensville Board of Education members Wendy Francour, Chris Schultz, Akram Khan and Erik Hollander
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"We've got petitions coming in through the mail every day," said Schroedter. "We've got people for the next three days going out, knocking on doors again. I think we're gonna make it."
In June, the group began circulating petitions to recall four school board members: Wendy Francour, Chris Schultz, Akram Kahn and Erik Hollander. She said their issue wasn't a specific vote or stance. It comes down to academic performance.
"We started noticing there's a big decline happening, and a lot of parents noticed that decline happening during COVID when their kids were home doing virtual school and we could see they were struggling," said Schroeder.
Data compiled under the district's "Milestones for Post-secondary Success" shows that since the 2015-16 school year, key benchmarks are trending down, including reading to an instructional level for kindergarten and second grade, reading levels for third through eighth grade and overall student engagement, trends Schroeder and company want to change.
Mequon-Thiensville School District
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"We support our teachers," said Schroeder. "We support the staff. We support the community. We just want to get back to that educational excellence that Mequon has been known for for a very long time."
The deadline to submit those signatures is 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23.
There was also some controversy Friday morning over a pair of "Recall MTSD" volunteers denied a cup of coffee at a Starbucks in town. A Starbucks representative said this was not a denial of service, but rather, a misunderstanding between employee and customer.
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