Jake Speed recalled on Onalaska school board in blowout vote

Deanna Verdon wins election in landslide 

The voters made a loud statement for the Onalaska School District on Tuesday night.

Jake Speed has been voted off the school board, replaced by Deanna Verdon. And it wasn’t even close.

Speed lost the recall election 1,408-95.

“To me, I think it just speaks volumes, the number,” Verdon said. “The community really wanted change and they knew, with the direction it was going with the gentleman, it wasn’t the way that our community and school district needed to be.”

Verdon was on the board with Speed until this April and the mood with Speed was different than without him.

The movement to recall Speed began with a website. The recall needed 1,743 signatures to start the process. It received more than 2,300.

Speed’s tenure lasted about a year and a half. It was marred with feuds between him and other board members, administration and the media.

Speed said there was a systematic effort to make him look bad. He was censured by the rest of the board earlier this year.

A group that wished to see him out of office collected far more signatures than needed to force the recall election. Speed claimed that lies have been used by those who organized the recall in order to collect signatures.