BUCHANAN — A recall effort against four Buchanan Board of Education members has failed, but organizer Britney Martin has vowed to refile recall language in coming weeks.

A clarity hearing was hosted Friday morning before the Berrien County Election Commission in St. Joseph. Berrien County Election Clerk Kristi Aubrey said that commissioners voted unanimously to reject Martin’s recall wording, saying it was not clear or factual.

The election commission is made up of County Clerk Sharon Tyler, County Treasurer Bret Witkowski and Berrien County Trial Judge Mabel Mayfield. Those who were targeted for recall were Board President Harvey Burnett, Board Vice President Ruth Writer and Trustees Kelly Laesch and Chris Lee.

The recall language rejected claimed that the Buchanan board of education failed to provide a complete annual evaluation for Superintendent Timothy Donahue. Donahue has been superintendent for two years. Martin said board members had not posted any information about the superintendent’s evaluation on the transparency page of the district’s website.

Martin said Friday afternoon that school board members provided copies of the evaluation to the election commission at the Friday morning clarity hearing.

“None of that information had been posted on the website,” she said. “It was a win in my book because I can now FOIA his evaluations and make sure they are aligned with the state rules.”

She said she was not discouraged by the setback and now knows more about how the wording should be. Although she would not say what issue she might address in a future recall effort, she did say she has every intention of filing wording for another recall attempt.

Martin said she has a number of concerns about how the district is being run and noted that the decision to shift longtime elementary principal Karin Falkenstein to a new administrative position was the last straw for her and others. She has been among the parents speaking out at school board meetings throughout the spring and summer.

“My main issue is that district employees don’t feel supported or heard by the board or the superintendent,” she said. “They (the teachers) are educating my children, and I listen to them and support them. I’m also concerned about the general direction of the district. I’m unhappy with the decisions they’ve made, from the mounting budget deficits to how the superintendent was hired.

“I’m very concerned about the general level of staff morale,” she added. “I’ve heard that we’ve lost 72 employees from the district in the last two years.”

For its part, a press release from school board members stated that Martin had “erroneously” alleged that they had failed to perform evaluations of Donahue. In the case of the recall wording on Burnett, members said the petition was rejected due to Martin’s error in not completing the form correctly.

Board members stated that they “presented multiple public documents from the school district that show the contracts, state laws, evaluation tool, completed evaluations and board meeting minutes that demonstrate that the superintendent evaluation has been completed.”

“Martin offered the commission screenshots of the district’s transparency reporting web site that she claimed did not have the posted evaluations, despite testimony from the board members and current state law that indicate posting the actual evaluation documents on the superintendent is not required,” the board members stated.

The press release from the four board members noted that “Martin has been at the forefront of social media postings about the district, attending and videotaping board meetings, and challenging long standing district policies and practices. Her attempt at recalling board members was an additional step in her campaign that election commission members clearly would not support.”

Laesch and Writer also gave their reaction to the clarity hearing ruling in the press release.

Laesch said she was pleased with the outcome of the hearing and the end of the recall effort.

“It is time for us to return our efforts to kids and helping them achieve, rather than wasting time and taxpayer money on uninformed and misguided actions that distract school leaders from helping kids,” she stated.

Writer added that she was happy this was over and “we can get back to serving our students and families in Buchanan.”

In Michigan, recall legislation was revised in 2012. The current law allows recall subjects to appeal a clarity hearing ruling to the circuit court. Recall petition signatures must be collected within a 60-day period inside a larger 180 day window from the time of wording approval. The number of signatures required is 25 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

Once signatures are validated, an election is called in either May or November of the year and incumbents face off with any challengers who have filed to run. Elected officials cannot be recalled in the first or last year of their term which is why Martin did not target the other three school board members.