On May 17, 2022 the Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency (PLAEA) will be conducting a special board meeting at the Performing Arts Center board room in the Algona MS/HS at 5:00 pm. The topic of this meeting is the reorganization of the Algona and Lu Verne CSD.
When two districts look to reorganize, the State of Iowa requires our local area education agency to decide if a special election should be called. Both districts submitted the required signatures and the petition to Prairie Lakes AEA, now the work to call the election is in their hands.
Prairie Lakes AEA published in the local newspapers requesting anyone who would like to have their property removed from the proposed new district to file that request by May 9, 2022 with them. They received no requests from property owners in the two districts by that deadline.
The next step is the AEA must hold a public hearing on this reorganization petition so local people can make comments for or against the merger (keep in mind the AEA Board does not have to respond to these comments). That is what will take place on May 17, 2022 at 5:00 pm.
Once the comments are finished the AEA will then conduct their Board deliberations on any objections, arguments, and/or evidence towards the reorganization petition. They will then consider their resolution on the petition (They have the option to adopt, amend or dismiss the reorganization petition.).
If the petition is adopted (they can amend it or dismiss it and we would have to try again with a new petition) they will publish the resolution (wait for the set amount of days for the required appeal period - which appeals can ONLY be done by neighboring school districts, NOT individual patrons). After that set time (if a neighboring district does appeal they would have to set up an appeal meeting) the Director of the Prairie Lakes AEA will request from the county election commissioner the date for a special election for reorganization of the Algona and Lu Verne CSD into one school district. Keep in mind according to our petition this reorganization would take place on July 1, 2023 (NOT this upcoming school year).