Recall effort in preliminary stages for Onalaska school board’s Jake Speed

Over 1,700 signatures would be needed to force recall.

The recall effort against Onalaska school board member Jake Speed is in its early stages.

Justin Steele is gathering information and seeing if there’s support there.

His biggest issue with Speed’s tenure on the board has been, “Behavior. Conduct,” Steele said Wednesday afternoon from the WIZM studio. “I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with having differing opinions or viewpoints. And I don’t necessarily agree that the board has to vote in complete consensus.

“It comes down with how you conduct yourself.”

(Watch the interview by clicking the picture below. It starts around 31:30) 

Speed has been censured by the school board for his behavior, which included raising his voice to district employees, not attending committee meetings and interrupting other board members.

More than 1,700 signatures would be needed to force a recall. A website has been created to see what people’s opinions are on the matter.

Steele says the end result of the status quo wouldn’t be worth it.

“If there’s no viable candidate, that candidate or candidates that would be running against Jake would would need to have enough support,” Steele said. “Nobody wants to go through this whole process of collecting signatures, getting the recall election – the expense and time involved in getting that set up – having the election and then having the same result.”

Steele, an Onalaska resident, says he is concerned with Speed’s conduct and behavior on the board, which have resulted in numerous public spats with board president Ann Garrity, among others.

“I think Jake Speed may have a personal agenda he’s trying to push,” Steele said. “I think he’s trying to use technicalities or procedural issues to prevent or slow things down.”