TEHACHAPI, Calif. -- At Tuesday night's school board meeting, the Kern County Elections Department announced that enough valid signatures were collected in order to continue the recall of Mary Graham, Patty Snyder and Holly Hart.

The Elections Department verified more than 4,000 signatures for each position, and after months of pounding the pavement, Friends of the Recall said they are glad their hard work has paid off.

Friends of the Recall spokesperson Tim Trujillo said, "It’s a tremendous relief that all of our hard work has paid off and know voters will have the chance to cast their votes on how they feel about the recall.”

The recall was prompted when popular middle school principal Eric Triguiero was demoted in March.

The three board members will officially be up for recall within the next few months, but one board member said while the recall process continues, it will be business as usual.

School Board president Mary Graham said, "My focus is on the district and the children in the district, and so that has to be. It will go through its process, and I just have to keep focused on the job the people elected me to do.”

The special election is rumored to cost the district anywhere from $50,0000 to $150,000.

Supporters of the recall have asked the board members to resign in an attempt to save the district money.

Graham said her own supporters are the reason she has decided not to resign and instead leave it up to the voters.

“They’ve asked me, “No, you haven’t done anything. We can’t see anything, the schools are doing well, the staff is doing well, the children are doing well, please, please do not resign,’” explained Graham.

Graham said she hopes voters do their homework before casting their ballot, but supporters of the recall are hopeful the results of the election will be in their favor.

Trujillo said, "We’re very confident based on the number of signatures we gathered on the petitions that the result will be the recall of these three board trustees and we will be to have some fresh faces that will do a little better job of managing the school district.”

The Elections Department said the district will have 14 days to notify them of when they would like to hold the special election; it’s believed it will be sometime early next year.