MEDFORD, Ore. – Amid a teachers strike in the Medford, Oregon school district, a local resident has filed paperwork with the county election commission to recall four school board members.

A coincidence? We sincerely doubt it.

Medford resident Curtis Blake Weller on Monday filed recall language with the Jackson County Clerk against four school board members: Sally Killen, Jeff Thomas, Marlene Yesquen and Kim Wallan, the Mail Tribune reports.

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School board recall efforts are a favorite intimidation tactic for unhappy teachers unions, and the Medford Education Association is clearly unhappy, as demonstrated by the current teachers strike, but MEA officials contend they’re not involved with the recall.

“We are not involved in this at all,” MEA Vice President Dan Jones told the news site.

Union officials said they will inform members of the recall effort, but will not offer advice on how to vote if the measure makes it to the ballot. Recall backers will have 90 days to collect 4,521 signatures for each of the four board members to officially ask the public to recall them from office. The clerk would have 10 days to verify signatures, and if approved, would trigger an election within 35 days, according to the Mail Tribune.

“The petition lists reasons for recall as failing to comply with the board’s own mission statement and goals; conducting executive sessions rather than open public meetings; failing to honor legal agreements; imposing a contract without teachers’ ratification; making misleading statements regarding contract negotiations; and ignoring public input,” the news site reports.

Ironically, those are the same gripes the teachers union has been complaining about recently.

While the MEA isn’t officially responsible for the recall, it seems likely its members or officials are involved in some capacity. This type of thing has happened in other states.

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The Michigan Education Association, the largest teachers union in that state, has perfected the science of a pseudo-citizen led school board recalls, and the situation in Medford seems eerily familiar.

Just last school year, a recall group called Citizens for a Better Algonac Community Schools attempted to recall two board members, and the initial recall language was filed by a “concerned citizen.” Shortly after the petition language was approved, another “concerned friend of the bus drivers” – Michele Israel – quickly took charge of the recall effort, and launched an online smear campaign against the board members and anyone who supported them.

Several diligent residents eventually uncovered the truth – Israel is a Michigan Education Association anti-privatization consultant who was sent in to reverse the board’s decision to privatize bus services.

The Michigan Education Association, and numerous other teachers unions, have used the “citizen-led” recall strategy to great success in other school districts in the past, so much so that Michigan union officials have conducted training sessions on the topic.

In a handbook on school board elections and recalls titled “Electing Your Employer,” the Michigan union advises its members and leaders to use local residents as front people for any recall effort to avoid appearing self-serving.

“Form a coalition with credible community members and get commitments of support. Let the coalition be the lead on the recall campaign. It is best if school employee unions work behind the scenes on a recall campaign,” the union literature recommends.

While it’s difficult to determine if the situation in Medford is a case of the union bamboozling the public, it certainly reeks of a union-orchestrated effort.