In response to the Ames School Board’s decision to close Roosevelt and Northwood Elementary Schools, Ames residents are gathering to appeal last Thursday’s 6-1 vote.

According to the Iowa Department of Education Web site, after the voting process is completed, dissatisfied constituents may file an appeal within 30 days of the decision.

Some Ames residents are doing just that.

Steve Hustedt, of the Northwood district, and Brian Agnitsch, Jacob Petrich and John Beghin of the Roosevelt district, believe the school board did not follow mandatory guidelines in proposing the closures and going through with the process.

Hustedt said he originally got involved with other community members to try and save neighborhood schools, but that is not the only reason.

“There is a process and guidelines that were not followed,” he said.

The Barker Guidelines are made up of seven procedures the school board is required to follow when proposing a school closing.

“For example, it took the board only 17 days to close two schools,” Beghin said. “I believe the superintendent’s recommendations were based on flawed data and the school board did not wait to hear from the legislature about new funding sources.”

Ames Superintendent Ray Richardson, however, said the board has been working on the possibility of closing Roosevelt and Northwood for much longer than 17 days.

“From our standpoint, we’ve been looking at these issues for several years,” he said.

Beghin said another guideline was not followed when the school board did not engage in frank and open discussion with the public.

Hustedt said when he talked to the school board members, six out of seven had not heard of the Barker Guidelines.

“It’s funny that in the meeting, six of them missed it,” Hustedt said. “It’s apparent that the guidelines were not followed.”

Richardson said he was aware of the guidelines and he is not surprised by the appeal. He said the guidelines were followed.

“It’s part of the legal system that when someone does not agree with the decision, they go the next level,” Richardson said. “It is typical of parents to be upset.”

School board member Roy Cakerice was the only one to vote against Richardson’s budget recommendations.

“A lot of this could have been prevented if we could have kept Roosevelt open and made cuts in other areas I suggested,” Cakerice said. “The legal process needs to be followed, and I don’t think that has been done in this case.”

Richardson said he feels confident the school board can meet the test of the appeal.

The appeal is scheduled to be filed later this week, Beghin said.