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Effort to recall 4 Douglas County School Board members moves forward for now

Return to in-person learning announced
School bus
Posted at 7:16 AM, Feb 26, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-26 09:16:04-05

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — On Thursday, the Douglas County School District announced a plan to return middle and high school students to full in-person learningon March 22.

The plan will be presented to the Douglas County Board of Education at its next meeting on Tuesday, March 2.

Hours before the district's announcement Thursday, Denver7 spoke to Nate Ormond, a Castle Rock parent who is leading an effort to recall four school board members.

Ormond launched the effort in January in response to the delay returning secondary students to in-person learning. Middle and high school students finally returned to a hybrid schedule on Feb. 8.

Ormond said while he was anticipating an announcement of a return to full in-person learning, he isn't necessarily ready to call off the recall.

"I’d have to reevaluate if we thought they would flip-flop on that again and as a group, we would decide if we believe this is motivated by good intentions or just the result of us putting the pressure on them with the recall," Ormond said.

He added that internal polling by the Road to Recall group found that 62% of Douglas County residents polled felt the school board has done "irreparable damage" to students, socially, mentally, and academically.

The school district estimates the cost of the recall to be $360,000. Board member Elizabeth Hanson, one of the four targeted in the recall, posted on Facebook that $360,000 is the equivalent of four teacher salaries, and would take money away from students.