The fate of a northeast Iowa school district will be determined on the same day voters pick their Board of Education representatives.

When Gladbrook-Reinbeck residents go to the polls on Sept. 12, they will also be asked to decide whether the district should be dissolved or not. The Gladbrook-Reinbeck school board set the dissolution referendum on Election Day after no one spoke on the issue during a public hearing Monday night (July 17, 2017).

If a simple majority of the those who cast ballots vote "Yes", the district would dissolve. If the district ceases to exist, Gladbrook-Reinbeck students would be sent to five neighboring districts: Dike-New Hartford, Green Mountain-Garwin (GMG), Grundy Center, Hudson and North Tama.

On June 13, the Gladbrook-Reinbeck school board adopted a resolution opposing the district's proposed dissolution.

“Gladbrook-Reinbeck is a great school system that is worth keeping,” Superintendent David Hill said in a press release last month. “That’s why I’m pleased that the board has decided to make it perfectly clear to the voters that a majority no vote is what will be necessary in the upcoming election if they wish to keep their school.”

Talk of possibly dissolving the Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District has been on-going for about two years. In May 2015, some district residents started a petition drive to put the issue on the ballot following a divisive budget-cutting process that resulted in the closure of the elementary building in Gladbrook.

The Gladbrook-Reinbeck School District was formed in 1998, when the Gladbrook and Reinbeck districts became one.

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