A protest was filed to the Garfield County Clerk and Recorder’s Office on March 11 over the community recall effort to remove Garfield County School District Re-2 Board of Education Director Tony May from his seat, according to a Monday news release. 

Independent officer Sheila Reiner of Desert Vista Consulting was retained by Garfield County to administer a protest hearing and decide whether the protest is valid, which will in turn determine whether a recall election can be scheduled. 

The protest hearing has been set for 1 p.m. on March 27 in the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners hearing room.

The story so far

In 2023, while May was still president of the Garfield Re-2 board, he proposed incorporating a social studies program by the name of American Birthright Standards into the school curriculum. The program has been criticized for being highly conservative and was voted down in late 2022 by the Colorado Board of Education, according to past reporting by the Post Independent. 

A review committee appointed by the school board discussed different options for a social studies program and eventually recommended the Adopted 2022 State Standard, which was adopted by the state of Colorado. 

May announced in December that he would be stepping down as president due to the district’s “political climate” at the time. 

Later that month, it was announced that Garfield Re-2 residents — which had formed a group called Coalition for Responsible Education in Re-2 — were circulating a petition to recall Tony May as a school board member. Led by residents Willow Brotzman, Leanne Richel and Denise Orozco, the group’s efforts to recall May were mainly credited to his support of ABS as a replacement for the district’s social studies program, his “highly partisan” actions, and disregard of district policies, according to the petition language. 

May also received criticism from the coalition for his involvement with Civics Alliance, the organization behind Woodland Park.

The petition to recall May from the school board received 2,441 valid signatures by its January deadline, surpassing the amount required to go to a special election.  

On Feb. 29, the Garfield County Clerk and Recorder Jackie Harmon verified that the petition had collected over the required number of signatures, meaning the recall process could move forward, according to past Post Independent reporting. 

May decided not to submit a resignation within the allotted time, meaning the process of scheduling a special election can be set outside of 60 days of the presidential primary election. 

However, statute states that because an eligible elector chose to submit a protest in writing, under oath, within the allotted time, it could challenge the petition findings with the clerk and recorder’s office.  

The conclusion of the hearing must be delivered within 30 days of the filed protest, according to the news release, which would be April 10.