Citing budget concerns and a widening gap between the Aromas and
San Juan Bautista communities, the Community for Better Schools
(CBS) has decided to halt its recall effort.
The group began an attempt in April to recall three trustees in
the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District
– Andy Hsia-Coron, Rachel Ponce and Sylvia Rios-Metcalf. After
two failed efforts, CBS members chose to focus on becoming
watchdogs in the district and finding candidates for the November
2004 election instead of continuing for a third time, said CBS
member Julie Conrad.
Citing budget concerns and a widening gap between the Aromas and San Juan Bautista communities, the Community for Better Schools (CBS) has decided to halt its recall effort.
The group began an attempt in April to recall three trustees in the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District – Andy Hsia-Coron, Rachel Ponce and Sylvia Rios-Metcalf. After two failed efforts, CBS members chose to focus on becoming watchdogs in the district and finding candidates for the November 2004 election instead of continuing for a third time, said CBS member Julie Conrad.
“It was really, really hard,” she said. “Some people strongly thought we should do a recall. Some people thought it would be great to be watchdogs. People thought a third time would have been more successful.”
CBS will break into groups to focus on the district’s budget and academics, and getting candidates to run in the 2004 election, Conrad said.
An election to recall trustees is charged to the school district and quotes from county election offices were upwards of $45,000 to hold the special election.
Ponce was glad the recall effort was over, partly because of the amount of money an election would have cost the district.
“It certainly is a relief,” she said. “I hope that we’ll be able to start anew – (it’s) a new school year and new principal (at Aromas School). I’m relieved that we won’t have to spend this extra money for the recall. We didn’t have this money to spare.”
In addition to the money, CBS members were cognizant of tension between people in Aromas and San Juan, something that’s been present since the district unified in 1991.
“Between the money factor and the problems in San Juan …,” Conrad said. “People in San Juan are still really upset and this (the recall) is just one more thing (increasing the divide).”
San Juan School constituted its own district and Aromas School belonged to the Pajaro Valley Unified School District before unification, Ponce and Conrad said. Anzar High School opened to students in 1994.
Leslie Austin, a member of Friends of Our Schools, cheered the group’s choice.
“Personally, I absolutely applaud CBS’ decision to focus on the 2004 election. It’s really a great decision,” Austin said.
Neither Hsia-Coron nor Rios-Metcalf could be reached for comment.
The first round of the recall began April 7 when notices of intent to recall were hand-delivered to trustees. CBS members missed a deadline to turn in signatures April 28. The second round began May 7 with the notices. On June 6, San Benito County counsel rejected CBS’s proof of publication of the notice of intention to recall. It had been published in Watsonville’s Register-Pajaronian.
CBS started the recall, citing a lack of representation on the Board of Trustees, especially regarding the firing of Aromas Principal Mary-Ann Tucker on March 5.
“I think that’s (CBS is) going to be strong for a long time,” Conrad said.
