School board member survives recall
Organizers behind a recall campaign targeting three members of the Mt. Pleasant school board say they won’t have enough signatures by a Jan. 1 deadline to trigger an election for one of them.
The campaign had until Jan. 1 to gather approximately 3,200 signatures to trigger a recall election for trustee Wiline Pangle. Organizers say they won’t hit that threshold, but they said they will continue collecting signatures for the other two — board president Amy Bond and trustee Courtney Stegman.
“With the recall, the ultimate goals are to protect the children; to return a voice to parents, staff and community; and to bring balance to a school board that has grown too comfortable ignoring the opinions of half of the population,” said Bree Moeggenberg, a recall organizer, in a statement. “Efforts to remove Bond and Stegman are ongoing and will continue to the spring, but the recall of Pangle was always a short window that we knew would be difficult to achieve.
“Prior to Pangle’s appointment she had attempted to run for school board and failed, so we look to the next election to rectify her placement.”
Pangle issued a statement thanking her supporters.
“I’m happy to serve for the rest of my term,” she said. “I am really grateful for all the support I have received.”
While identical language was approved against all three at the same time by the Isabella County Election Commission in July, Pangle’s window was smaller because of the terms by which she took office.
Pangle was appointed in September 2020 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Beth Sorenson Prince during the previous summer. State recall election law forbids the recall of elected officials during the first and last years for offices with terms of four or more years.
Mt. Pleasant school board terms run for six years, and the seat to which Pangle was appointed expires at the end of 2022.
That gave organizers a window between Sept. 15
and Dec. 31 to gather 3,200 signatures to trigger a May 6 recall election for Pangle.
Bond and Stegman were elected to six-year terms in 2018 and that expire at the end of 2024. Recall language filed against both remains valid Jan. 30, 180 days following its Aug. 4 approval by the election commission.
Organizers of the recall first filed language against Stegman and Pangle in mid-july, citing their support for critical race theory and the use of curriculum to discuss LGBTQ lifestyles. That language was unanimously rejected by the three members of the Isabella County Election Commission on July 21 on the grounds that it was neither specific nor factual.
New language was filed the next day against the two, with Bond added, based on the school board’s vote three days prior requiring the wearing of masks for all students 11 and younger for the 202122 school year.
Recall backers could not file language against three board members elected in 2020: Dana Calkins, Tim Odykirk and Jessica Jernigan. The fourth board member, Sheila Murphy, voted against the district’s mask mandate.