RICHLAND, Wash. —
Three Richland School Board members Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams are waiting to see if those who are gathering signatures will have enough to force a recall election.
We’ve been covering this story since the beginning and now there is some more drama added surrounding some snap shots of emails between Audra Byrd and Marc Nelson the principal of Lewis and Clark Elementary School.
Byrd asked Nelson if there was a recall petition at the school’s campus and if so wanted photos of the document.
Nelson emailed Byrd back and said confirmed there was a recall petition there, but would not send a photo of the recall petition.
I reached out to Byrd to find out why she wanted to know, and she sent me this statement saying:
“I never asked to see who signed the petition. I asked for a photo of the petitions’ location because it is against the PDC RCWs to have political petitions on school property and it is against our REA union contract to have anything political posted on union boards in our schools. To my understanding, the REA union president has since removed these petitions.”
I also reached out to the Richland Education Association president Krista Calvin to find out if they indeed removed the petition, and she sent me this statement:
“REA Building Representatives were notified to remove partisan materials from union bulletin boards, including any materials for or against the recall.”
As far as where the recall process is at, Brad Rew, the owner of Horn Rapids Golf Course in Richland told us they are doing well and the signature count will be here soon.
“We have until May I believe,” said Rew. “I don’t know the exact date. I would say where a couple of weeks ago we were at the 60 percentile of being completed. I don’t know where we’re at today.”
Each member is needs different amounts of signatures to be recalled. Audra Byrd needs 5,887, Semi Bird needs 5,822 and Kari Williams needs 5,176.
Rew has received death threats recently but they have since calmed down according to him.
Rew did say he’s noticed people parked outside of his house during the night and says the police know about what’s going on and are paying attention.
Two seats will be up for re-election this fall.
Those seats are Semi Bird who is also running for governor, and Kari Williams.
According to Rew, they might not get the required amount of signatures but he told me he’s thankful for the community support for him and his family.
We talked to Kari Williams over the phone today, and while she wasn’t able to do an interview she told me her focus is on the students of the Richland School District.
