GLADBROOK – A Gladbrook resident filed a petition for injunction in district court Wednesday to forestall the Gladbrook-Reinbeck school board from closing the town’s school campus. Charles Bearden submitted the petition before the school board’s evening meeting, where members voted 5-2 to close the Gladbrook Elementary and Gladbrook-Reinbeck Middle School. Bearden, who is chairman of a citizen-action group Citizens to Keep a G and R in the GR School District, requested the court grant the injunction and prevent the board of education from voting on the closure until further order. He also requested a neutral party be created to consider ways to resolve the district’s budget shortfalls. The Gladbrook-Reinbeck district stretches through four counties and includes two campuses. The Gladbrook campus, which includes an elementary and middle school, serves grades K-2 for Gladbrook children and 5-8 for Gladbrook and Reinbeck children. The Reinbeck campus serves grades 3-4 and 9-12 for both communities. Additionally, a K-2 elementary school serves Reinbeck children. The school board considered closing one of the district’s three buildings to cope with declining student enrollment and state funding. Board members noted doing so would reduce inefficiencies, travel time and mileage reimbursement costs for staff shared among the buildings. Cost estimates provided to the school board projected the district would save $400,000 each year. As a result of the board’s decision, students enrolled in the district are to attend school in Reinbeck. Grades K-6 will be held at the Reinbeck Elementary School building, and 7-12 at the Reinbeck High School. The Gladbrook campus is set to close before the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. Bearden claimed in his petition the closure of the Gladbrook campus would cause “great and irreparable harm” to area residents. “Any time you have a closure of a business or of a school … it’s going to have an impact on the community,” he said in an interview. Bearden said after the Gladbrook campus is closed some staff will work in Reinbeck, but others will likely lose their jobs. The closure would also erode Gladbrook’s economy and tax base, which would erase projected district savings, according to the petition. Bearden said the board also did not consider the loss of students who may enroll in nearby school districts if the Gladbrook campus is closed. If students are lost, so are the dollars the state provides to the district for their education. It would take the loss of just 16 students to reduce the district’s savings to an estimated $261,225, according to the petition. That amount is less than the $271,280 the district would save under a plan in which grades K-6 are held in Gladbrook and 7-12 in Reinbeck, according to the petition. Bearden said he heard several people from Gladbrook and Reinbeck already filed paperwork to enroll in other districts. “Most of the people had figured out that this was already cut and dry beforehand,” he said. “They were making plans.” The petition also stated several members of the public who opposed the closure were unable to attend the school board’s meeting due to a severe winter storm Wednesday. The storm dropped several inches of snow across the region and roads had not been cleared. That would adversely affect community participation and input prior to the vote, according to the petition. The storm didn’t necessarily make a large difference in the end, Bearden conceded. “It would have just made a bigger crowd. As far as turning any minds on the school board – it wouldn’t have turned any minds if we had the gym completely full,” he said. “Their minds were made up before they got there.” Also in the petition was a note stating the school board relied on information provided by Superintendent Shawn Holloway, who is a final candidate for an administrator position in the Panorama Community School District in Panora. That represents a conflict of interest, Bearden said, because Holloway will be able to avoid the problems the closure will create. In a previous T-R interview, Holloway said he will implement the wishes of the school board before the school year ends on June 30. Bearden said he hopes the school board reconsiders its decision and allows the Gladbrook campus to remain open. The current arrangement to close the Gladbrook campus could be reversed, he said – teach grades K-6 in Gladbrook and close the Reinbeck elementary school. “Leave us with some semblance of a school here in Gladbrook,” Bearden said.