Editor,

Many Saguache residents have questions regarding the effort to recall four members of the Mountain Valley School District Board of Education — Lisa Hammel, Lacy Reed, Mona Kay Lovato, and Christan Archuleta.

Citizens for Mountain Valley Students is made up of parents, staff, and concerned citizens who believe the BOE has done a disservice to our school. To explain why this recall is necessary and be fully transparent with our community, we wanted to publicly announce our intentions and what led us here.

First, there are no personal issues toward these four individuals. This is a business decision to better our school and provide our kids with the best opportunity to succeed. We ask our community to treat everyone involved in this recall respectfully and remain civil.

We have requested answers publicly regarding numerous issues. There have been letters, public comments and concerns, and an ignored request for a special meeting.

With their failure to respond, we held a public Vote of No Confidence where we read our grievances and questions aloud and asked community members to stand if they, too had no confidence in our BOE. Over 100 community members supported this vote. The four individuals were asked publicly to resign for continually displaying personal bias, violating ethics, and having no accountability to those who elected them.

Below are a few of the many reasons we have initiated this recall:

Policy Violations

• Board members bring complaints without regard to the chain of command and bypassing the Superintendent, Principal, or Educators to implement unofficial policy that has not been discussed or approved.
• Failure to follow Policy H (Negotiations for Teachers)

Unethical Practices

• Divulged private-identifying information about minor students and parents.
• Allowing family members to dictate agenda and demanding executive session. A board member entered executive session with their family member in direct violation of state law.
• 2022 non-renewed bullying grant. 2023 accused staff of failing to address bullying.
• Bias shown in meetings regarding who can speak over 3 minutes.
• Actively seeking negative information-complaints against specific staff.
• Sending private messages smearing the superintendent’s reputation without justification for his non-renewal.

Fiscally Irresponsible

• Misappropriation of preschool grant funds ($7,000)
• 2022 and 2023 — $10,000 in Superintendent searches

Retaliation

• Threats and actions were taken against staff who disagreed with this board. Staff has been made to fear for their jobs.
• Abuse of power.

You will hear that this recall is costing the district unnecessary money, but it should be noted that if the board resigned as requested, this would eliminate recall-related expenses.

The board has yet to address many offers to resolve these issues. Their lack of integrity, transparency and disregard warrants this recall. This is about what is best for our children and school going forward. We have not entered into this decision lightly.

Please help by signing petitions, leading to a public vote to recall these four individuals. Let’s restore community trust in the MVS BOE.www.citizensformvsstudents.com. Facebook @ Citizens for Mountain Valley Students

McKeeg Russell

Citizens for Mountain Valley Students