2020 Jose Lara and Leanne Ibarra recall, El Rancho Unified School District
Recall status
Approved & resigned
Recall election date
June 2, 2020 (mail-in ballot)
Table of contents
Recall vote Path to the ballot 2019 recall efforts
See also
External links Footnotes

A recall election seeking to remove Leanne Ibarra and Jose Lara from their positions on the El Rancho Unified School District Board of Education in California was approved by voters on June 2, 2020. The election was conducted by all mail-in ballot in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Joseph Rivera was elected to replace Lara, and Esther Mejia was elected to replace Ibarra.^[1][2][3][4]

Lara resigned from his seat effective February 5, 2020. At a school board meeting on January 21, 2020, Lara said he was leaving in order to focus on his family while his son recuperated from an illness.^[5][6] His name was still on the recall election ballot. If a majority of voters had cast ballots to retain him, the school board would have appointed his replacement.^[7]

The recall effort began in May 2019. Recall supporters listed a number of concerns with the board, including a vote to notify 23 administrators they could be fired or reassigned, a vote to demote, transfer, and release six administrators, and the alleged mismanagement of a $200 million bond.^[8][9][10] To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had to collect at least 6,509 signatures by October 23, 2019.^[9] In an interview with the Whittier Daily News, Lara said, "The community of Pico Rivera has been driven along a misinformation campaign. They've only heard one side of the story."^[5]

Lara was first elected to the five-member board on November 5, 2013, and Ibarra was first elected on November 6, 2018.^[11][12] Before Lara resigned, Lara and Ibarra were members of a three-person majority on the board, according to the Whittier Daily News. The third member of the majority, Gabriel Orosco, was not included in the recall effort as his term was up for election in 2020. The two other members of the board supported the recall.^[9]

Recall vote

The election was conducted by all mail-in ballot.^[2]

Leanne Ibarra recall

Yes/no recall question

Replacement question

Jose Lara recall

Yes/no recall question

Replacement question

Recall supporters

Recall supporters listed a number of concerns with the board, including a vote to notify 23 administrators they could be fired or reassigned in March 2019 and a vote to demote, transfer, and release six administrators in April 2019. They also said a $200 million bond issue voters passed in 2016 had been mismanaged, according to the Whittier Daily News. A state team of forensic accountants was scheduled to audit the bond program at the recommendation of Los Angeles County education officials.^[9]

“The majority has disrupted the educational climate of the school district in issuing the notices to reassign or demote the 23 administrators,” school board member Teresa Merino said. “Six were definitely impacted. We lost long-standing, solid administrators without cause.”^[9]

“We call it abuse of power,” board member Carolyn Castillo said. “They’ve been doing things badly since December.”^[9]

Recall supporters also expressed concerns with the district's plan to renovate El Rancho High School. Merino said she did not think all of the buildings needed to be replaced. “Some are in dire need, but others can be remodeled,” Merino said. “We haven’t seen the plans and scope of work and there are lack of controls, no checks and balances.”^[9]

Castillo said the renovations were too expensive at $200 million. “We have so many other issues in terms of other facilities being in worse shape,” Castillo said.^[9]

Lara was part of a previous recall effort in 2016 along with two other board members. That recall effort started after community members disagreed with the board's decision to convert a closed elementary school into a magnet school. Lara and his fellow board members said they were surprised by the recall effort and the pushback on the magnet school.^[13] The effort was abandoned when supporters did not meet the petition submission deadline.^[14]

Recall opponents

Lara and Ibarra said the recall supporters were out of touch with what was going on in the district. They both said they stood by their records. Ibarra also defended her vote on the district's administrators. “I understand the decision to move popular administrators may not be popular, … but I absolutely understand 100% the rationale when the decisions were presented to us,” she said. “For personnel reasons, we can’t discuss it.”^[9]

Lara did not agree with the accusations of mismanagement of the bond program, and he spoke in support of the company managing the program. Ibarra said she supported the audit. “If there’s wrongdoing, make those accountable pay,” Ibarra said. “Those things being audited happened on the previous board.”^[9]

In response to the concerns about the El Rancho High School renovation, both Lara and Ibarra said they promised to rebuild the school in their 2018 campaigns. “It’ll have 16 state-of the-art suites, new special education classrooms and new nurse offices,” Lara said.^[9]

“It’s a little disappointing that some teachers and community members want to recall the only mom on the school board who has two kids enrolled in the district,” Ibarra said.^[9]

“I want the community to focus on great programs, like dual immersion, art, lower class sizes and school choice,” Lara said.^[9]

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in California

To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had to collect at least 6,509 signatures by October 23, 2019.^[9] Los Angeles County election officials verified 7,659 petition signatures submitted for Lara and 7,623 petition signatures submitted for Ibarra on December 6, 2019.^[5] The recall election was scheduled for June 2, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was March 6, 2020.^[1] Following an executive order signed by Governor Gavin Newsom (D), the election was conducted by all mail-in ballot.^[2]

2020 recall efforts

See also: School board recalls

Ballotpedia tracked 29 school board recall efforts against 64 board members in 2020. Four recall elections were held in 2020. The school board recall success rate was 7.8%.

The chart below details the status of 2020 recall efforts by individual school board member.

See also

• El Rancho Unified School District, California
• El Rancho Unified School District recall, California (2016)
• El Rancho Unified School District elections (2015)
• El Rancho Unified School District elections (2013)
• Recall campaigns in California
• Political recall efforts, 2020
• Political recall efforts, 2019
• School board recalls

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• El Rancho Unified School District
• Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk

Footnotes

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