TR School Board recall effort fails

Organizers behind an effort to recall three members of the Three Rivers Community Schools Board of Education failed to secure the minimum number of signatures to put the matter before voters.
TR Cares leader Sherrie Nowicki said petitions to recall Pete Bennett, Diana DeGraaf and Erin Nowak each were about 200 signatures short of the 1,165 minimum.
TR Cares officials had hoped to secure about 2,000 signatures on each of the three petitions before Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
The setback means TR Cares will now focus on fielding a slate of candidates to run in the November election, when the terms of Wantea Truckey, Carl Barth, Mike Bosma and Susan Schmidtendorff expire. Though it is not yet known if any of the incumbents plan to run again, Nowicki said TR Cares will still assemble a slate and vie to establish a majority of the seven-member board.
Nowicki said TR Cares will remain intact and narrow its field from what she said is a current team of five strong candidates. She said its members will continue to attend board meetings, make their presence known and hold incumbent board members accountable.
TR Cares also has a couple people it is working with in order to endorse a candidate to run for county clerk against incumbent Lindsay Oswald in the August primary, Nowicki said.
TR Cares formed after the board last April decided to not renew the contracts of athletic director Pete Anderson, dean of educational services Kevin Hamilton and middle school principal Bradley Coon.