Yamagata, Swan, and Dubost were handed letters on intent at the last school board meeting
TEMPLETON — Three Templeton Unified School Board (TUSD) trustees were handed letters notifying them of the intent to file for their recall from the Board. The board meeting was held on Thursday, Mar. 10, in the Eagle Canyon board room.
Leah Penner handed TUSD President Nelson Yamagata, Clerk Mendi Swan, and Trustee Ted Dubost letters of intent for their recall. During public comment, Penner read a letter to the Board:
“After continued failure to our students, teachers, administration, community, and lack of a moral approach, we have lost all confidence in our Board. The decisions regarding the health and safety of all students have exposed the district to considerable litigation and financial liabilities.
You have failed students with special needs and made it more difficult for students from underprivileged backgrounds to obtain a good education, further widening the inequity which exists in our society. You failed at supporting staff and sustaining a strong education-focused district.
The impending pressures of controversial laws and regulations which directly affect the district require a board willing to listen to parents, students, and teachers on the effects it will have on all of them and their families. You have failed in this manner.
During the recent covid-19 pandemic, you have failed to make decisions until there was another trend or a district to follow. Regardless of community input, you have failed to differentiate our small district from large districts. Your complacency and dismissiveness regarding masks for our students, even admitting the work to find science in both directions, was evident with your unwillingness to take action for the students.
We need solutions. Not a complacent empirical board.”
The letter of intent notified the three board members of the intent to file for their recall with the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder. All three of the board member’s term expires in 2024. Dubost has been a board member since 2016, Swan since 2020, and Yamagata was a board member from 2010-2014, and again from 2016 to the present.
The remaining two board members, Matt Vierra and Jan Nimick, have terms expiring this year and could face reelection this November if they choose to run.
Local Officials Recall Procedure (elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/recalls/recall-procedures-guide.pdf)
After filing the letter of intent with the county clerk, a recall petition will be circulated. If an officer of a city, county, school district, county board of education, or resident voting district is sought to be recalled, the number of signatures must be equal in number to not less than the following percent of registered voters in the electoral jurisdiction:
- Thirty percent if the registration is less than 1,000.
- Twenty-five percent if the registration is less than 10,000 but at least 1,000.
- Twenty percent if the registration is less than 50,000 but at least 10,000.
- Fifteen percent if the registration is less than 100,000 but at least 50,000.
- Ten percent if the registration is 100,000 or above.
Then if required signatures are met, within 14 days of receiving the certificate of sufficiency, the governing body must issue an order stating that an election will be held to determine whether or not the officer named in the petition shall be recalled. If the governing body fails to issue the order within 14 days, the county elections official, within five days, shall set a date for holding the election. The recall election must then not be less than 88 nor more than 125 days after issuing the order.
If all requirements are met, Yamagata, Swan, and Dubost will face a recall election.
