Camden-Frontier schools recall election set for May 7
FRONTIER — The Hillsdale County Clerk’s Office has set a date for a recall election for two school board trustees at the Camden-Frontier School District.
The recall election filed this year by Sarah Wilcox against trustees Jesse Crow and Emily Morrison will take place May 7.
Since the Nov. 7 filing of the petition, Chief Deputy Clerk Abe Dane said a careful review and challenge period has concluded with more then enough signatures surviving the process.
Candidates seeking election in the recall must file a nonpartisan nominating petition and pay a $100 filing fee at the county clerk’s office by 4 p.m. Dec. 26.
Wilcox, in her second bid to recall Crow and Morrison this fall, gathered 418 signatures against Crow and 414 signatures against Morrison, who are both serving six-year terms on the board of education expiring in November 2026.
Recall efforts were launched in the wake of Morrison and Crow both voting earlier this year to officially retire the “Redskins” mascot from Camden-Frontier with intent to completely phase it out by June 2024.
That vote caused an uproar amongst some alumni and residents of the school district, who claim the school board has “jumped on the bandwagon of the woke mob.”
An earlier attempt to recall Morrison and Crow failed when Wilcox failed to properly fill out the header on many of the signature sheets turned into the Hillsdale County Clerk’s Office on July 21, invalidating a majority of the signatures collected in an effort to hold the recall election in November.
In Wilcox’s first attempt to recall Morrison and Crow, Wilcox gathered 403 signatures against Morrison and 398 against Crow, but less than 10 were valid after a review of the sheets found missing header information, invalidating the entire sheet.
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Camden-Frontier Schools Superintendent Chris Adams stated the school board’s 4-3 split decision to retire the “Redskins” mascot has been an unavoidable topic for years.
The decision to phase out the mascot by June 2024 will give the school a chance to solicit input from its students, staff, board members and community members on the new mascot for the school, which will then be announced on its website.
Camden-Frontier is one of the last districts in the state to retire the “Redskins” mascot.
— Contact Reporter Corey Murray at cmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Camden-Frontier schools recall election set for May 7
