meeting to the town boards of the towns of Maple Grove and Rockland, and
the
school board of the district for the purpose of acting on this petition and
order such
detachment in accordance with Section 40.85.
    The above named boards took no action nor held a meeting to consider
the
petition. Accordingly after 20 days from the date of filing the original
petition, an
appeal was served on the county superintendent of schools, the school board
of Rock-
land Jt. 1, and the town boards of the towns of Maple Grove and Rockland.
It ap-
pealed to County Supt. E. S. Mueller to request that all papers filed with
the clerk
of the above named school district pertaining to said petition be forthwith
submitted
to the county superintendent of schools, for the purpose of having him call
a meeting
of said town boards and the school board for the purpose of having such detachment
orders issued. This appeal was signed by Steve Foreyt, Steve Spatchek, John
Jonas,
August Bratz, and Chas. Krueger.
    On April 30, 1930, County Supt. E. S. Mueller ordered, as required by
law when
the original boards refused to take action, that all of the territory lying
outside of
village of Reedsville and in the towns of Maple Grove and Rockland be detached
from said joint school district No. 1, town of Rockland, village of Reedsville,
and the
town of Maple Grove.
    On May 30, 1930, the town board of Maple Grove composed of F. A. Frederich,
F. W. Maertz, and C. J. Heinrich, and the town board of Rockland composed
of John
Mahnke, Louis Turensky, and Walter Olin ordered that two new school districts
be
formed from the territory detached from Reedsville school district. One of
the new
districts so ordered formed was Maple Grove No. 5 made up of an irregular
tract of
land-3 miles long and about 1½ miles wide in sections 23, 24, 25,
26, 35, and 36 in
the township of Maple Grove.
    Maple Grove district No. 5 has never erected a school house. Upon withdrawal
from the Reedsville district, it has paid tuition for the few children attending
the
public school. The first school census for this new district listed only
29 children of
school age (4 to 20 years) residing in this area. Since then, the number
on the census
list has dwindled yearly, until now there are only about a dozen children.
Those of
grade school age attend the parochial schools at Reedsville. The district
has raised
on an average of $50 in school taxes since its organization. For at least
8 years of its
existence, the district did not raise any school tax. The present equalized
valuation of
the district is nearly $250,000.
    The first school officers elected for the newly organized district in
1930 were
clerk Steve Spatchek, director W. C. Otto, and treasurer F. W. Maertz. Mr.
Spatchek
is still clerk of the district. W. C. Otto served as director until his death
in 1946,
when John Utke took office. The members of the Maertz family have held the
office
of treasurer, for F. W. Maertz was succeeded in 1944 by Clarence Maertz,
and he in
turn by Louis Maertz in 1947.


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