Firing Spurs Effort to Recall School Trustees

A group upset by the Westminster school board’s recent decision to fire Supt. Gail Wickstrom said this week it will seek the recall of board President Michael J. Verrengia and Trustees Sondra Rinker and Helena Rutkowski.

“Our recall statement is being reviewed by an attorney, and we intend to serve the formal recall notice [to the three board members] in about 10 days,” said Jeanne Salinas, the spokeswoman for a 40-member group calling itself Citizens to Recall Rutkowski, Rinker and Verrengia.

Salinas said the group mostly objects to the May 6 decision by the three board members to spend $163,000 to buy out Wickstrom’s contract. “It was a misuse of public funds,” she said.

President Verrengia and the two other trustees cited political and philosophical differences with Wickstrom in defense of the buyout. The board has since appointed Barbara DeHart as interim superintendent of the 9,000-student elementary and intermediate district.

Verrengia said Friday that the group’s efforts are misdirected.

“This core of this group are longtime Gail Wickstrom supporters who are still upset over the fact that she is gone,” Verrengia said. “I find it sad that they have yet to acknowledge that we have a new superintendent or [are] trying to work with her for the betterment of the district.”

Once the pro-recall group serves the targeted board members with formal recall intent notices, it can begin circulating petitions in the community. The group needs signatures of 20% of the area’s registered voters, about 6,000, to qualify for a special election.