Screenshot of an August board meeting
West Bonner School Board Chair Keith Rutledge (center) and Vice Chair Susan Brown (second from left) were recalled in an election on Aug. 29.
Decisions have consequences – or at least that’s what two West Bonner School Board trustees are finding out the hard way.
Board Chair Keith Rutledge and Vice Chair Susan Brown were recalled on Aug. 29, with 62.66 percent and 65.96 percent of the votes respectively.
Proponents of the recall argued the trustees were not looking out for the educational welfare of the district’s students, pointing to their decision to rescind the purchase of a previously-approved language arts program. It cost the district money to return the materials.
Before the election, Brown argued that voting against her recall would prevent “woke liberal agendas” from invading the district. Echoing similar sentiments, Rutledge argued that a vote against his recall would keep a conservative majority on the school board.
Earlier this year the two joined the 3-2 majority that hired Branden Durst as the West Bonner superintendent. Durst had no prior experience in the K-12 system, and was chosen over the interim superintendent Susie Luckey, who spent four decades in the district as a teacher and principal.
Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale says that in the decade he's held his position he’s seen many recall attempts, but never a recall success – until now. He says the high threshold for recalls makes it rare to succeed.
While it only takes a simple majority to recall an elected official, Rosedale says the number of recall votes must be higher than the amount of votes a candidate received when they were elected.
Getting enough votes wasn't a problem this time.
“The voter turnout was huge,” Rosedale says. “It was almost as if it was a presidential election.”
In 2021, Brown received 176 votes out of 349 in her race, and Rutledge received 244 out of 481 votes in his.
Nearly three times as many voters turned out for the recall on Tuesday, when 624 people voted to recall Brown and 762 voted to recall Rutledge.
The election results will become official and the two trustees’ terms will end after Bonner County officials canvas the race on Sept. 7.
Afterwards, the remaining school board members have 90 days to appoint new trustees from the same zones of the recalled officials. Brown’s zone includes two precincts and Rutledge’s zone includes four.
If they’re unable to find a replacement in that timeframe, the trustees can take another 30 days to find a replacement from any zone in the district. If a full 120 days pass without an appointment, the decision falls to the Bonner County Commissioners, Rosedale says.
