{"id":9180,"date":"2017-09-12T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=9180"},"modified":"2017-09-12T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T03:02:08","slug":"the-last-september-school-election-in-iowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/09\/the-last-september-school-election-in-iowa\/","title":{"rendered":"The last September school election in Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today will be the last time that school board elections and school-related votes will take place in September. In spring the Iowa Legislature approved combining city and school elections<\/a> into November of odd-numbered years (bill text here<\/a>) along with a tweaking of acceptable other dates throughout the year for special elections. This is probably ill-advised because of the jurisdictional issues \u2014 school and city ballots will have to be separate or else multiple versions will be necessary \u2014 but that’s what’s going to happen.<\/p>\n

Much of the attention this cycle is on the Iowa City bond issue<\/a>, the largest by dollar amount in Iowa history. The opening of Liberty High is only a part of what the Iowa City school district is dealing with<\/a>, because of the growth and population shifts. The bond issue would also put air conditioning in all the schools. There is a semi-organized movement against it<\/a>, and there’s at least some fear there’s a stealth plan to close the school in Hills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But of equal or maybe greater importance, in terms of the message it carries and the lasting impact, is the decision on whether to dissolve the Gladbrook-Reinbeck school district. It has finally\u00a0reached a vote after a false start<\/a>, because if at first you don’t secede, try, try again.<\/p>\n

Stories: KCRG<\/a> (which I am not embedding because it autoplays), KWWL<\/a>,\u00a0Grundy Register<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Marshalltown Times-Republican<\/em><\/a>. As I have gone over before, having a vote at all is a catastrophically bad idea,<\/a> yet also fits perfectly with the way of things in 2017<\/a>. GR could really use a few crumbs of the umpteen million dollars Apple is going to drop on Waukee, whose school district added GR’s entire enrollment<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

In the GR election, a “No” is to keep the district as it is, and thus keep a school in Reinbeck; a “Yes” is to dissolve Gladbrook-Reinbeck.<\/p>\n

PRE-POST UPDATE:<\/strong> The pro-dissolution side made a TV commercial. Former GR school board member Michael Bearden \u2014 who according to Radio Iowa<\/a> is “spearheading the movement” speaks:\u00a0“The consolidation of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck school was a great partnership. That partnership ended with the closing of the Gladbrook campus. … \u00a0Voting YES to dissolve the GR district is a win-win situation for all students.”<\/p>\n

That’s not just burning bridges; that’s napalming them.<\/p>\n

RESULTS UPDATE:<\/strong> Resolution fails by 69%-31% margin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today will be the last time that school board elections and school-related votes will take place in September. In spring the Iowa Legislature approved combining city and school elections into November of odd-numbered years (bill text here) along with a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schools","category-tama-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9180"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9195,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9180\/revisions\/9195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}