Parents of students attending New Haven Unified School District schools in Union City and South Hayward are taking matters into their own hands as a weeks-old teachers' strike drags on.
Unhappy that their kids have missed school since May 20, two parents have filed paperwork to recall three members of the district's five-person school board.
Bargaining resumed Friday, but the parents faulted the board members for the lack of progress at the end of the school year.
There are much bigger problems here than teachers demanding a pay raise, according to Colleen Weaver, one of the two parents leading the charge to oust the board members.
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Weaver claims district superintendent Arlando Smith walked away from negotiations when teachers' union reps were willing to stay to work things out.
"At this point, we don't have confidence in [the board>," Weaver said. "We were watching what was going on with the behavior of the superintendent, and wondering why our school board, that we elected, was not controlling the actions of this man, and why they weren't working with the teachers' union to come to some sort of of compromise sooner."
The action targets board members Sharan Kaur, Jeff Wang and Lance Nishihira, because their terms are ending soon.
"We figure our best chance is to try to remove three members who are most recently up for re-election," said Weaver.
Once the notice of intent to recall has been filed and accepted by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, the board members will have seven days to respond.
Kaur, Wang and Nishihira did not respond to KCBS Radio's request for comment. District spokesman John Mattos expects the three to keep quiet about the move for now.
"To my knowledge, they've made no comment one way or the other about it. I think their intent is to follow the timelines," he said.
In response to the parents' letter of intent, Mattos acknowledged that if the community at large is dissatisfied with any elected official, there is a process to try to have them removed.