The Gladbrook-Reinbeck school board has unanimously rejected a proposal for dissolving the school district because it questions the validity of the signatures on the petition that started the process. The Northern Sun-Print has a story (in Great Wall of Text form, originally from the Marshalltown Times-Republican); KCRR radio has a story, too.
A more detailed account of the Aug. 23 school board meeting is in the minutes online. Also of interest in the meeting: The 7-12 language teacher, who had been there for one year, quit and moved out of the state two weeks before school started (that’s an ethics violation), and one of the school board members voting to reject the dissolution petition resigned because he is also moving out of the state.
The board’s action means that the 48-page report submitted by the dissolution committee at the meeting (Google Drive PDF) and the hours of meetings are all for nothing.
Any further action would require restarting the entire process — petition, committee creation, meetings, letters to schools, all of it would have to happen in the same way all over again. With GMG taking the position that it would not reopen the school in Gladbrook, I wonder how much appetite there is to do that. We could find out based on if there’s a petition for an election to fill that vacant board seat.
What hasn’t gone away are the feelings on the parts of those who remain upset about the closure of the school in Gladbrook and those upset about being dragged through the months of the dissolution process.