Recall petition circulates in Calhan

Calhan and controversy are two words seldom paired, but that’s changed these days with an effort to oust a school board president in this eastern plains community.

A group of residents is collecting signatures in the wake of an administrative shake-up, teacher turnover and a more than $300,000 budget deficit in Calhan School District RJ-1. Recall organizer Bill Bogner said he’s collected about half of the 300 signatures needed to trigger a recall election for the seat held by Jim Woolsey.

Two other board seats in the district will be up for election in November, and the group plans to help candidates who oppose the incumbents seeking re-election and install a new majority on the board.

Three main issues have riled residents in this rural community:

- A long-time school principal was reassigned as a permanent substitute teacher.

- Six teachers left the district at the end of the school year. Although high teacher turnover is not unusual in Calhan, Freeman said, one of those teachers left involuntarily when her probationary contract was not renewed.

- The district is facing a roughly $300,000 deficit, more than 3 percent of the $8.8 million budget.

“This community is hot,” Bogner said, accusing the board of showing disregard for staff and community members.

The reassigned principal and the nonrenewed teacher were both long-time community members. Woolsey and district Superintendent Dave Freeman said they are prohibited from discussing personnel matters.

Freeman, who took over as the district’s school chief a year ago, said the budget deficit resulted from a $117,000 budget error in the 2005-2006 budget that was unknowingly repeated in 2006-2007. Before discovering those errors, he said, the district agreed to spend $100,000 to help subsidize employee health plans.

The deficit is being funded out of the district’s capital reserve fund, he said.

Woolsey said he and the rest of the board have been progressive in trying to improve education, which sometimes brings change. “Boy, when you start bucking the status quo, people are going to fight you,” he said.

He said he’s not worried about the recall effort and is focusing on his work as a board member.

“I’m confident in the direction this board is going,” he said. “If this does all happen, then my personal opinion is God has another plan for the district.”

Petitions must be turned in to El Paso County by Oct. 1.

A recall election would cost the school district between $10,000 and $15,000, Freeman said.

An election would be held in December.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com