Kerri Tillett handily won her election to the Northern Burlington County Regional school board in 2020. Now she's fighting to keep her seat after a petition by three residents seeks to oust her.
In the sprawling New Jersey rural district just south of Trenton, Tillett has been targeted in what petitioners say could be the first of several efforts against the nine-member school board.
The petition filed in January by residents Kelly Stobie, Cynthia O'Malley, and Melissa Bearden provided no reason for the recall — and is not required to do so under a 1995 state law. The three have 160 days to gather signatures from 25% of the town's 7,662 registered voters, which legal observers say will likely be an uphill battle.
Tillett, an attorney and an associate vice chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, won her position in a 1,845-872 vote to capture the only seat up for grabs to represent Mansfield on the regional school board, which also covers Chesterfield, North Hanover, Springfield Township, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
Stobie, a science teacher in the Burlington County Special Services school district, declined to comment for this article. O'Malley and Bearden did not respond to requests for comment.
But at a school board meeting last week, Stobie and O'Malley blasted what they described as the district's "ridiculous quarantine policy," which required quarantine for in-school close contacts.
"You are hurting our kids emotionally and mentally," O'Malley said. The board voted to end that policy and make masks optional when a state mandate expires March 7.
Tillett said in a statement that she planned to "vigorously defend" her seat. It was the first time that the mother of two sought an elected office.
"I ran because I believe I have the skills and knowledge necessary to be an asset to the board," Tillett wrote. "I find it telling that no statement of the reasons for the recall was provided."
Supporters of Tillett, including the local chapter of the NAACP and members of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, packed a board meeting Tuesday night wearing their red sorority colors. Tillett is one of two Black women who serve on the predominantly white board.
School board elections in New Jersey are nonpartisan and candidates run under a slogan and not a party affiliation. Tillett is a registered Democrat; the petitioners are registered Republicans.
In addition to Tillett, the petitioners have said they plan to file similar action against board member Radiah Gamble, who is also Black, as well as Gerry Spence and board president Paul Narwid, who are white. A recall cannot be sought until members have been on the board for at least a year.
Narwid declined to comment on the recall effort, saying it was "a political process" and not a board matter. Spence scoffed at the women's campaign. "If they want the job, they can have it," he said.
"Why me? What did I do?" asked Gamble, a mother and four and a high school math teacher in North Jersey who was elected in November. "I just got here."
Under state law, a recall petition can be initiated by at least three registered voters. Once enough signatures are obtained, the recall goes before voters in the next general election to decide whether to keep the elected official. The board member can submit a 200-word statement in response.
Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan group that tracks cases, covered 351 recall efforts nationally against 537 officials in 2021. Of those, 25 officials were removed after an election. Others either resigned, were put on a ballot but defeated the recall efforts, never were placed on a ballot, or still face those efforts.
This month, voters in San Francisco approved recalling three school board members, including the board's president and vice president. Two parents, upset that the board kept schools closed, spearheaded the drive.
Petitions nationally spiked in 2021, with school board members getting the most recalls, Ballotpedia said. Most revolve around how school officials are handling issues related to the pandemic, a topic that's been increasingly divisive in the last two years.
"We've never seen as many school board recalls as we did last year," said Abbey Smith, a writer for Ballotpedia. "When you're talking about people's children, it doesn't get more personal than that."
The mask policy bubbled up at Tuesday's Northern Burlington Regional meeting when some parents demanded that board member Angela Reading, the only board member not wearing a mask, put one on, and she complied.
Herbert Kemp, of North Hanover and a father of two, spoke in support of Tillett. He noted that the recall committee has identified two Black women.
"You can't deny the optics of what it looks like," said Kemp, who is Black. The three petitioners are all white women.
Elsewhere in South Jersey, an attempt to recall Mayor David Zappariello and Councilman Joseph D'Alessandro III is underway in Buena in Atlantic County, after residents were unhappy with a decision to disband a volunteer fire company.
