REINBECK – The seven members of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck school board voted unanimously to reject a dissolution plan for the district because of concerns with the original petition.

“(The board) found there is sufficient evidence which calls into question the validity of the signatures on the original dissolution petition,” said G-R Superintendent David Hill.

The superintendent said there was a problem with the petition process.

“The primary area of concern had to do with the timing of the petition,” he said. “Of the names on the petition, over 180 of them were dated on a single day, March 5, (2015).

“The petition itself was clearly written in the month of May,” the superintendent added. “(The school board) chose to consult with their legal council during the meeting.”

After being advised against approving the plan based on a questionable petition process, the board decided in a 7-0 roll call vote to reject the dissolution plan.

“(The board) declare(d) the establishment of the dissolution commission and initiation of the dissolution process as void,” Hill said.

The petition in question, originally submitted by a Gladbrook citizen action group in response to the closing of the town’s district elementary/middle school campus, was the catalyst for the creation of the district’s Dissolution Commission.

The seven-member commission was created by the school board in September of 2015 and included three G-R school board members: Anne Boyer, Doug Rowe and Rod Brockett.

Together, the commission drew up a potential dissolution map which would have seen the current G-R school district absorbed by five surrounding districts, including Dike-New Hartford, Hudson, North Tama, Grundy Center and Green Mountain-Garwin.

During that process, the commission held regular meetings and informed the public of the plan’s progress. Those meetings culminated in a final gathering the night of Aug. 2, 2016 where the public was shown the plan to be given to the school board.

Hill said the board carefully deliberated the evidence of the petition’s validity, or lack thereof, before the unanimous vote.

Additionally, he said last week’s vote does not prevent another petition from being signed, another commission created and another chance to dissolve or for the district to stay intact.

“Citizens in this school district, in any school district, have the right to file another petition,” Hill said.

If a new and valid petition were to be submitted, Hill said the board would do its legal duty and assign a commission as it had before.

“Work previously done by the (Dissolution) Commission could be streamlined,” he said.