Petitions to recall Dolores school board President Dee Prock and board member Vangi McCoy have been found insufficient, according to the Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.
Each petition received more than the required 335 signatures, but many of them were deemed invalid.
According to Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell, the petition to recall Prock contained 396 signatures, but only 245 were valid. The petition was 90 valid signatures short of the required 335.
The petition to recall McCoy contained 387 signatures, but only 213 signatures were valid – 122 short of the required 335 valid signatures.
According to Percell, the recall circulators have 15 “regular days” to cure the petitions.
She said her office finished processing the petitions on the afternoon of May 16.
In a phone call on Friday afternoon, Prock told The Journal that because of “slander and misinformation,” she will protest the process if the circulators attempt to resolve the petitions.
“At first, I was very much in support of our individual right to participate, but it appears there has been some false information given to people who were signing the recall,” Prock said.
“I feel that there has been slander, and people are signing under false pretense, and I do not support that kind of behavior.”
According to Percell, the petitions had several shortcomings.
“There were several reasons identified, which included incorrect information, information missing, names not found, and signer not in district,” Percell wrote in an email to The Journal.
“Both petitions had several sections that had come apart.”
Percell also stated that the circulators of the petition, Amy Lewis and Michael Smith, had been notified by phone and by document that the petitions were insufficient.
“The incumbents and the (Dolores) School District have also been notified by email,” she stated.
McCoy, Smith and Lewis on Friday did not respond to The Journal’s messages seeking comment.
The petitions claimed that Prock and McCoy have failed to follow transparency policies and have contributed to a decline in student performance in Dolores School District Re-4A.
The county had until May 16 to verify that the petition signatures were valid and registered voters.
The petition format was approved on March 27, and circulators Lewis and Smith had 60 days – until May 28 – to collect the required 335 signatures. The total of 335 signatures represents 10 percent of the electors residing in the district, Percell said.
Prock was appointed in 2014 to a four-year term and will be up for re-election in 2019.
McCoy was appointed to the Dolores School Board in 2009, and her term will expire in 2019.
The statement of grounds for recalling McCoy says:
“Ms. McCoy has been on the school board for the past 8 years, and during her leadership the Dolores School has gone from elite status to one of the lowest in the state and now currently in a Turnaround, which is the lowest performance rating. ...
“Ms. McCoy is disengaging open communication and transparency by not following policies set forth by the RE-4 Board. Ms. McCoy’s leadership cannot be tolerated by the residents of the Dolores School District any longer.”
The statement of grounds for recalling Prock says:
“Ms. Prock has been on the school board for the past 4 years, and during her leadership the Dolores School has continued to decline and currently is in a Turnaround, which is the lowest performance rating. ... Ms. Prock has disengaged open communication and transparency by not following policies set forth by the RE-4 Board and the inability to properly run a school board meeting. Ms. Prock’s behavior cannot be tolerated by the residents of the Dolores School District any longer.”