The potential unprecedented self-immolation of an Iowa school district has taken a step forward. A petition to dissolve Gladbrook-Reinbeck has the necessary number of signatures for a referendum, most of which came from the Gladbrook area, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports. The dissolution committee will meet tonight at 6:30 at the elementary school in Reinbeck.
The map above shows the least-complicated vision of a dissolution, split along pre-consolidation lines, with the former Gladbrook district going to GMG and the former Reinbeck district going to Grundy Center. Obviously, though, some parts would be better off parceled out to others — the Black Hawk County portion could go to Hudson and North Tama could get the rest of what used to be Dinsdale (all of which is closer to Traer than Grundy Center). That’s for the dissolution committee to map out.
As I said in July, this is a really really really horrifically bad idea. The chance of the Gladbrook school being reopened is next to nothing. A dissolution would not benefit current GR students. This matter shows the lengths a community will go to have its students at a school in town, and only time will tell if this is a one-off case or a sign of things to come.
(What a way to mark the football team’s second consecutive appearance in the state semifinals.)