A Loudoun County school board member announced her resignation on Friday as a group of conservative parents pushed forward in a recall campaign against her (and several other members of the board).

Beth Barts, who represented Leesburg on the board, announced her decision in a Facebook post. “This was not an easy decision or a decision made in haste,” she wrote. “After much thought and careful consideration, it is the right decision for me and my family.”

Barts said she looked forward to “a return to a simpler life of volunteer service,” but said she would miss talking with constituents and seeking to address their concerns.

The recall attempt against Barts and four other school board members ostensibly centers around adherence to open meetings laws. But it’s spearheaded by the conservative parent group Fight for Schools, which focuses on organizing “against implementing critical race theory concepts in schools,” per its website. Barts — and her colleagues — passed a school system policy to ensure transgender students use school facilities according to their gender identity, and have also supported the school system’s approach to teaching about race.

“This could not have been an easy decision for Ms. Barts,” Fight for Schools leader Ian Prior said in a statement on Twitter. “We have made known our displeasure with her actions as a school board member over the past several months, but today she has done the right thing.”

“Her former colleagues should take notice,” the statement continued.

Fight for Schools is also staging recall campaigns against Denise Corbo (At Large), Ian Serotkin (Blue Ridge), Vice Chair Atoosa Reaser (Algonkian) and Chair Brenda Sheridan (Sterling).

A rival parents’ advocacy group, Loudoun4All, said in a statement that they were “dismayed” at the news of Barts’ departure, and pointed out that the recall strategy allows smaller numbers of voters to push out elected officials who won a significant percentage of the vote (Barts won her original election with 54% of the vote, but the recall petition only needed a total number of signatures equivalent to 10% of the votes cast in her election).

“Unfortunately, what we are seeing in Loudoun is part of an effort across the country to recall and bully local School Board Members. Where extreme groups did not have enough votes to win elections, they are instead turning to recalls,” the statement continued.

The legal complaint against Barts calls for her removal for violating Virginia open meeting laws by participating in a private Facebook group and email chains with other school board members. It also suggests that Barts inappropriately shared Board information on her social media pages. Last week, a judge in the Loudoun County Circuit Court ruled that the court case sparked by the recall petition could advance to trial.

Barts has had a complicated history in her nearly two years on the Board. She was formally censured by her colleagues in March for inappropriate social media usage after the Board held five closed sessions to discuss the issue, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported. That came after a reprimand from colleagues in November 2020.

Barts’ resignation and the broader recall campaign against board members is another chapter in a tumultuous few months for Loudoun Schools. The district became a highly publicized battleground in national cultural disputes when board hearings over a proposed (and now passed) transgender rights policy devolved into controversy over transgender student rights, masks in schools, and the supposed teaching of critical race theory in Loudoun classrooms. Superintendent Scott Ziegler has denied that Loudoun schools are teaching critical race theory, a field of academic study in higher education institutions. “We’re not teaching critical race theory. Critical race theory is a subject for academics. It’s not a course in K-12 education,” Ziegler said in July.

Barts’ departure also comes as another controversy in the ongoing cultural and political conflict comes to the forefront. The school district is facing harsh criticism from parents for its handling of a case in which one Loudoun student allegedly sexually assaulted another — and then was allowed to transfer to a different high school, where they allegedly assaulted someone else. On Friday, Ziegler promised reforms to the district’s disciplinary procedures, including a change to allow school disciplinary investigations to happen concurrent to criminal investigations by the county sheriff.

The upheaval — which comes in a fast-growing and increasingly diverse county — has drawn national attention, particularly from conservative figures. Former Trump Administration Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson hosted a rally in Loudoun in September, and conservative commentator Matt Walsh rented a house in Loudoun County in order to be able to speak at school board meetings. Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin is focusing on parent anger in the final weeks of the campaign.

“I want to thank Board Member Barts for her service to the Leesburg District,” said School Board Chair Brenda Sheridan in a statement following the resignation. “The School Board will announce its process for filling the Leesburg seat at its October 26 meeting and anticipates filling this position at its December 14 meeting.”

Barts posted a thank-you to community members for messages of support on Facebook, and promised an update on “a special project” in the future.

The Board will appoint someone to fill Barts’ post until a special election can be held.