West Linn residents have launched an effort to recall all five members of the West Linn-Wilsonville School Board. The recall petition follows the board’s December decision to close two of the district’s nine elementary schools.

Petitioners are particularly concerned that district leadership’s recommendation to close the schools came just two weeks after voters approved a $190 million bond that promised improvement projects at all schools in the district.

The petition alleges the board members knew the schools would be up for closure prior to the bond election but failed to tell the public.

Board Chair Kelly Sloop calls that assertion “categorically false.”

“We, the undersigned registered voters of the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, are calling for the recall of the above-named school board member due to concerns about inadequate oversight of the district, insufficient protection of taxpayer funds, and a lack of transparency with the public,” the five petitions state.

In the next two months, petitioners must collect about 5,000 signatures to qualify the recalls for a special election. The signatures must be gathered for the recall of each individual board member, rather than the board as a whole. As of 4 p.m. March 9, four of the five petitions had acquired 1% of the required signatures. The petition to recall board member Kirsten Wyatt had reached 3% of the required amount.

Petitioners note that similar recall efforts are underway in Corvallis and Springfield, where school boards either decided to close schools or slash teacher positions.

Petitioners will turn signatures into Clackamas County for verification by May 11. If the clerk finds the signatures sufficient, board members will be notified and given five days to resign or submit a “statement of justification” defending their seat. If the petitions qualify and those facing recall do not resign, a special election would be held in mid-July, according to Clackamas County Clerk Catherine McMullen.

The two board members who responded to OPB requests for comment said asking for a recall was the right of the voters.

“In the meantime the board will continue to focus on our duties,” Sloop said.

Board member Mike Selvaggio said he understood the frustrations of the petitioners, given the district’s difficult budget position.

“It’s not my seat, it belongs to the voters,” Selvaggio said. “If they want to have a referendum on whether we’re doing a good job, that’s their right.”

Closure decision

The school board unanimously voted Dec. 18 to close Bolton and Stafford primary schools at the end of the current school year. District officials recommended closing those particular schools because they currently have the smallest enrollments in the district with student populations expected to continue declining. The district said the closures would help fill a $10 million budget gap.

Less than a year earlier, in January 2025, the board promised the community it would not close any schools for at least two years. That promise followed a year of contentious discussions about closing Bolton, Stafford and a third primary school, Cedaroak Park.

The school closure discussions of the past year left a bad taste in the mouth of some residents heading into an election cycle where the district planned to ask voters to approve a nearly $200 million bond. Ultimately the bond passed by a margin of 10%.

The petitioners argue the district misled voters to secure the bond’s passage by promising it would fund projects at all the district’s schools — including Stafford and Bolton. Two weeks after the vote, Superintendent Kathy Ludwig recommended the board vote to close the two schools.

“We trusted the board leadership without question and that trust was broken,” chief petitioner William Stevens told OPB.

Ludwig’s recommendation to close the schools was based in part on a new enrollment projection that showed district enrollment would continue to decline for the next 10 years, with West Linn losing more students than Wilsonville.

Mike Selvaggio recalled receiving the new enrollment figures on election night.

“I said, ‘No one is going to believe we got this on election day. This is the worst timing,’” Selvaggio told OPB.

District Spokesperson Andrew Kilstrom said, “There had been no conversations or decisions about school closures prior to the passage of the capital bond.”

Kilstrom also stated the district received the new enrollment figures on Nov. 4, the day of the election, but the board did not learn about Ludwig’s recommendation until she made it at a public meeting two weeks later.

Board members Meagan Vidal and Dan Schumaker did not respond to OPB’s request for comment. Wyatt deferred to Sloop, pointing to a board policy to direct all media inquiries to the board chair.

Petitioners say the district asked taxpayers to pay more for the bond than necessary, since some of the bond money was initially promised to go to schools that are now set to close.

“When a public official won’t protect taxpayer money or demand basic transparency, recall is exactly the right tool,” Stevens said.

Across Oregon, public school enrollment has declined ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. That spells budget problems for Oregon districts as state funding for education operates on a “per-pupil” model.

Though most of the outrage over the closures has come from parents in West Linn — where both Bolton and Stafford are located — Stevens said families in Wilsonville are receptive to the petitioners’ frustrations. Currently Wilsonville has three primary schools to West Linn’s six, but things will even out in the fall when Bolton and Stafford close and Frog Pond Primary opens in Wilsonville.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/09/school-closure-vote-west-linn-wilsonville-recall/