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Date: 11/16/2021
BELCHERTOWN – With many parents upset with a potential vaccine mandate for students 16 years and older to be able to participate in extracurricular activities, residents petitioned for the recall of two School Committee members, Michael Knapp and Diane Brown, and both petitions were certified on Nov. 4.
During the Select Board’s Nov. 8 meeting, Town Clerk Terry Camerlin came before the board to discuss the next steps in the recall process.
“Both petitions were received in the office and certified, so we are going forward. The next step would be for the Select Board to notify the two recalled by letter and after that they have five days to resign or not, and then based on that is when we go forward with an official recall election,” she said.
If Knapp and Brown do not resign, Town Administrator Gary Brougham said the next step would be to host a special election.
“If they choose not to resign it would be the board’s responsibility to schedule a special election not less than 65 days from the date the petitions were certified and no greater than 90 days. If you look at the 65 days it brings you to the holiday season, 90 days brings you to February,” he said.
Brougham said Jan. 24, 2022 could be a potential date for the special election.
“I have checked with the School Department, if you were to remain consistent with elections in the past, which are typically on Mondays, the high school gymnasium is open on Jan. 24. I also spoke with the town clerk earlier on about the feasibility of doing a Saturday election, but there were conflicts with the Rec. Department because of athletics, but Jan. 15 or 22 with enough advance notice some events could be moved,” he said.
Regardless of the actual date, Brougham said the election needed to be decided upon quickly.
“Thinking about those dates we need to move sooner rather than later. Terry has asked that in spite of the fact that we have 90 days to officially conduct the election that we not wait until the last few days to actually have the vote,” he said.
While it was too early to determine the date of the election during the Select Board meeting because the recalled committee members had not yet submitted their responses, Board Clerk Ed Boscher said Jan. 24 would make the most sense.
“I would offer that Jan. 24 makes sense, in the interest of informing parties what we are leaning towards as part of the public discussion. I think it makes sense and I will leave it at that,” he said.
Brougham said he would at least hold the Jan. 24 date until the rest of the process carries out.
“When talking about the potential election, there seemed to be some interest but no vote for Jan. 24, in the interest of locking in the date I am still going to notify Superintendent [Brian] Cameron that we would like to hold the high school gymnasium until further notice. I think it is a good idea because if we wait too long, we are not going to have a date,” he said.
Noting the upcoming holidays, Brougham indicated there would be a varied notification process than recall petitions in the past.
“When we have had prior recall petitions, I have signed them, but time is of the essence at this point, we are going to mail a hard copy but with the holiday we are also going to email them because it is entirely possible they will not get them until the weekend,” he said.
Camerlin added it may not be possible to vote on the date of the special election at the Nov. 22 meeting, because Brown and Knapp have until Nov. 16 to notify the town with their decisions.
The board unanimously agreed to authorize Brougham to endorse the notification letters to Knapp and Brown.