During a raucous special meeting on Thursday, school board members rejected a proposal to put a restructuring plan for a portion of School District 2142 on hold for a year.

The decision came after more than an hour of emotional testimony from residents who said the plan offered little educational improvement and would destroy their communities. Many in the crowd, which filled the boardroom and spilled into adjoining hallways, carried protest signs and several times interrupted the meeting with chants.

Tower City Clerk Tim Kotzian said residents had been trying to get the district to alter its plan for months, but board members had their own agenda to pursue.

"We believed in you people and you let us down. Every one of you let us down," said Kotzian. "You let us down in Cook, you let us down in Orr and you let us down in Tower-Soudan. And we're not going to take it....If we don't get action tonight, we're going to take our own action. Whatever it takes."

Others who spoke in favor of the plan said it would expand electives for students and bring more stability to classrooms by housing more teachers under fewer roofs.

Tempers flared early after the board voted 5-2 to award bond bids despite a request by Tower area resident Marshall Helmberger to split the sale and delay the sale of bonds for the northern half.

Helmberger said the board had placed its trust in consultants Johnson Controls and ignored citizens' input. "You told yourself that the collected wisdom of the residents of our communities in the north wasn't worth spit," said Helmberger, who added that informational meetings with the public were nothing more than propaganda sessions to win over voters.

"You may sit here tonight, comfortable in the knowledge that you now have the legal authority to destroy our communities in the north," said Helmberger. "But I can tell you for a fact that you lost whatever moral authority you ever had."

Helmberger said delaying the bond sale would demonstrate that the board was listening to residents and willing to give them a chance to come up with viable alternatives.

"This board would be foolhardy to shove this ill-conceived plan down our throats without a clear understanding of the enrollment losses you're going to face," warned Helmberger. "The anger in these communities is real and the financial consequences for the district are going to be painful."

Although Orr representative Zelda Bruns and Tower-Soudan representative Andy Larson agreed to the delay, the remainder of the board voted to proceed with the bond bids. That prompted a chant of "Hey, hey, ho, ho, this school board has got to go" from the hallways.

On another 5-2 vote, the board voted to stick with its current plan, which closes schools in Cook and Orr and replaces them with a new building about four miles north of Cook and converts Tower's current K-12 school to an elementary school only.

Bruns proposed the delay, saying it would allow the district to consider more acceptable alternatives. She cited widespread opposition to the plan in Cook, Orr and Tower-Soudan that could lead many to open enroll their students in other school districts or home school them. "When 66 percent and 90 percent vote no, you need to back up," she told the board.

Board member Andy Larson, who has been a consistent critic of the district's restructuring plan, supported Bruns' motion. "We have not thoroughly vetted this plan," he said, adding that he thought it would lead to the district's demise.

But other board members said a delay could add to construction costs and that they felt legally bound to follow the majority of voters, who narrowly approved the plan.

Support was strongest in Cherry, AlBrook, Cotton and Babbitt-Embarrrass. Both Cherry and Babbitt-Embarrass will retain their K-12 schools while Cotton and AlBrook will be merged in a new school near Alborn, close to the existing AlBrook School.

Cherry representative Darrell Bjerklie angered Bruns when he suggested an amendment that would strip $1 million from the construction budget for the northern schools as a condition of the one-year delay.

"You want to take $1 million from Orr, Cook and Tower that pays 75 percent of this bond," said Bruns, as the audience erupted in applause and cheers. "I had no intention of going there. None whatsoever. But now I'm really pissed off and I'm going to tell it like it is."

Bruns said the northern half of the district pays the lion's share of the taxes that will fund the school's restructuring, but hadn't objected to proceeding with plans to remodel Cherry and Babbitt-Embarrass and build a new school in the south.

"But now, we're to be punished, I guess, for speaking out for what we think is right," she said. If the board carried through with Bjerklie's motion, Bruns said, "I can predict that the district is gone."

Bjerklie withdrew his motion and later told the Timberjay that his motive was not to retaliate but to reflect the added costs that delaying even a portion of the plan could have on the entire district.

Chairman Bob Larson, who represents the AlBrook attendance area, said the board had arrived at its restructuring plan after an exhaustive two-year process that offered frequent opportunity for input from citizens. He doubted that any better alternatives could be found and said that people who believed the district could still support seven school sites were in a "dreamland."

Although he appreciated people's right to voice their objections, Larson lamented the friction that the plan has created in the district and urged people to stay engaged in planning as it enters the design phase for schools.

But the majority of those filing out of the school district headquarters at the conclusion of Thursday's meeting were in no mood for more talk with the board. A meeting is scheduled Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Cook School where other options will likely be considered. Opponents of the plan have already requested an investigation by the state auditor, saying the district used inaccurate or misleading information to win support for its $78.8 million bond issue — an accusation that both Bruns and Andy Larson said Thursday has merit.

Others have speculated that lawsuits might be pursued or the northern communities may seek to separate from 2142 and form a new school district.

"When you can't get along, it's time to get a divorce," concluded one man as he exited the boardroom .