We recently reported that two citizens in Manitowoc have called for the recall of two members of the Manitowoc Public School District Board of Education.
These citizens are calling for Board members Meredith Sauer and Dave Nickels to no longer be on the Board, claiming they, “provided the Superintendent with more control and less accountability.”
We recently spoke with Superintendent Mark Holzman, who explained what exactly had to happen for the recall to occur.
“You have to have…signatures of 25% of the electors from the last Governors election, which was about 4,000 signatures for each candidate that the public needs to gather,” Holzman said. “The District then has 31 days to verify…that the signatures are voters in the Manitowoc Public School District. “
That is because they are actually the Certifying Agents for any recall election in the City.
Then, after the information is passed along to the City, the County, and the State’s Elections Commission, a special election will be called.
“If the number of signatures are in place, the special election cost would be to the Manitowoc Public School District,” Holzman explained. “It’s going to cost us about $9,000 from the County and about $13,000 from the City, or about $22,000.”
In this scenario, two members of the public would be required to run against Sauer and Nickels in the special election, which wouldn’t occur until around February.
If these challengers were to win, they would then serve the remainder of their predecessor’s term, which in this case is until April of 2022.
Both Sauer and Nickels are up for reelection at that time, as would any potential successors.