GMR School Board Report: “We just want to leave”

Fritz Knott, a lawyer for the Middle River Community School Group, delivered a message to the Greenbush-Middle River School Board at its November 19 meeting. His goal was to not be loud or threatening, he said, but transparent in conveying this group’s intentions.

“What my clients have told me… ‘We don’t want to fight. We just want to leave,’ That’s the way they phrased it to me. And, I think, given the history and some of the difficulties, it may be probably best.”

He expects, upon the completion of the group’s petition process, that more than 300 property owners will be looking to detach from the GMR District and into the school district in Newfolden. Some individuals also inquired about attaching into the Grygla school district, but this group is exclusively interested in attaching to the school district in Newfolden.

Knott explained that doing this is a process, one that involves engaging with the school board. The group will submit a proposal to the board to consider at either a December or January meeting.

“We anticipate that in this process that we will have support of the Marshall County board, which ultimately is the decider here, as well as the Newfolden board,” Knott said.

As for the possible financial impact on the district of this detachment, Knott said the net loss, in terms of tax capacity, of losing all of Marshall County equals $70,000. Knott said he had to still confirm this number for sure, but would present this info in his group’s proposal to the board.

Knott said he imagined the district would be represented by a lawyer in this process. He said the district could contact him directly or through its lawyer and hoped to get something to the district and put this “entire episode behind us.”