260C.39 - COMBINING MERGED AREAS -- ELECTION.
260C.39 COMBINING MERGED AREAS -- ELECTION.
1. Any merged area may combine with any adjacent merged area
after a favorable vote by the electors of each of the areas involved.
If the boards of directors of two or more merged areas agree to a
combination, the question shall be submitted to the electors of each
area at an election held on a date specified in section 39.2,
subsection 4, paragraph "c", and held on the same day in each
area. Prior to the election, the board of each merged area shall
notify the county commissioner of elections of the county in which
the greatest proportion of the merged area's taxable base is located,
who shall publish notice of the election according to section 49.53.
The two respective county commissioners of elections shall conduct
the election pursuant to the provisions of chapters 39 to 53. The
votes cast in the election shall be canvassed by the county board of
supervisors, and the county commissioner of elections of each county
in the merged areas shall certify the results to the board of
directors of each merged area.
2. If the vote is favorable in each merged area, the boards of
each area shall proceed to transfer the assets, liabilities, and
facilities of the areas to the combined merged area, and shall serve
as the acting board of the combined merged area until a new board of
directors is elected. The acting board shall submit to the director
of the department of education a plan for redistricting the combined
merged area, and upon receiving approval from the director, shall
provide for the election of a director from each new district at the
next regular school election. The directors elected from each new
district shall determine their terms by lot so that the terms of
one-third of the members, as nearly as may be, expire each year.
Election of directors for the combined merged area shall follow the
procedures established for election of directors of a merged area. A
combined merged area is subject to all provisions of law and rules
governing merged areas.
3. The terms of employment of personnel, for the academic year
following the effective date of the agreement to combine the merged
areas shall not be affected by the combination of the merged areas,
except in accordance with the procedures under sections 279.15 to
279.18 and section 279.24, to the extent those procedures are
applicable, or under the terms of the base bargaining agreement. The
authority and responsibility to offer new contracts or to continue,
modify, or terminate existing contracts pursuant to any applicable
procedures under chapter 279, shall be transferred to the acting, and
then to the new, board of the combined merged area upon certification
of a favorable vote to each of the merged areas affected by the
agreement. The collective bargaining agreement of the merged area
receiving the greatest amount of general state aid shall serve as the
base agreement for the combined merged area and the employees of the
merged areas which combined to form the new combined merged area
shall automatically be accreted to the bargaining unit from that
former merged area for purposes of negotiating the contracts for the
following years without further action by the public employment
relations board. If only one collective bargaining agreement is in
effect among the merged areas which are combining under this section,
then that agreement shall serve as the base agreement, and the
employees of the merged areas which are combining to form the new
combined merged area shall automatically be accreted to the
bargaining unit of that former merged area for purposes of
negotiating the contracts for the following years without further
action by the public employment relations board. The board of the
combined merged area, using the base agreement as its existing
contract, shall bargain with the combined employees of the merged
areas that have agreed to combine for the academic year beginning
with the effective date of the agreement to combine merged areas.
The bargaining shall be completed by March 15 prior to the academic
year in which the agreement to combine merged areas becomes effective
or within one hundred eighty days after the organization of the
acting board of the new combined merged area, whichever is later. If
a bargaining agreement was already concluded in the former merged
area which has the collective bargaining agreement that is serving as
the base agreement for the new combined merged area, between the
former merged area board and the employees of the former merged area,
that agreement is void, unless the agreement contained multiyear
provisions affecting academic years subsequent to the effective date
of the agreement to form a combined merged area. If the base
collective bargaining agreement contains multiyear provisions, the
duration and effect of the agreement shall be controlled by the terms
of the agreement. The provisions of the base agreement shall apply
to the offering of new contracts, or the continuation, modification,
or termination of existing contracts between the acting or new board
of the combined merged area and the combined employees of the new
combined merged area. Section History: Early Form
[C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 280A.39] Section History: Recent Form
86 Acts, ch 1245, § 1475; 90 Acts, ch 1168, § 40; 90 Acts, ch
1253, § 44; 91 Acts, ch 117, §2
C93, § 260C.39
96 Acts, ch 1215, § 33; 97 Acts, ch 23, §27; 2008 Acts, ch 1115, §
37, 71
Referred to in § 331.383