Section 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.

[C71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §280A.39]

86 Acts, ch 1245, §1475

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90 Acts, ch 1168, §40

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90 Acts, ch 1253, §44

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91 Acts, ch 117, §2

C93, §260C.39

96 Acts, ch 1215, §33

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97 Acts, ch 23, §27

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2008 Acts, ch 1115, §37, 71