(Radio Iowa) – House Republicans are proposing a 106 million dollar increase in general state aid to public schools for the next academic year. That’s a three percent increase and it’s higher than Governor Reynolds and Republicans in the state senate have proposed. Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network AND the Rural School Advocates of Iowa, says it would be the second highest increase for public schools in 14 years. “So good that it’s the second highest,” Buckton says, “but you’re still going to hear from school leaders that it doesn’t meet what they need to continue to do the work of schools without some rearrangements of budget and rearrangements of staff.”

Buckton says schools with decreasing enrollment will be able to keep classroom teachers, but may have to cut the most expensive programs, like apprenticeships and fine arts. Dave Daughton, a lobbyist for the School Administrators of Iowa, says a five percent increase would maintain services. “A 3% increase for districts with declining enrollment is not a 3% increase because of the way the funding formula works,” Daughton says. “It means they may get some additional funding, but it won’t be 3% and in some cases it will be less than the prior year.” Over half of Iowa school districts have declining enrollment. Republican Representative Craig Johnson of Independence says the bill will be approved soon, to give school boards time to complete budget plans by April 15th.

“I know there’s a lot of ‘this and that’ that goes on with the funding for schools, but the important thing is it comes down to the bottom line,” Johnson says. “We are increasing funding.” The House G-O-P’s proposed funding increase for Iowa’s public school districts is roughly equal to the amount of money lawmakers expect private school parents will get in the coming year. The state-funded Education Savings Accounts will be available to low income parents who enroll a child in private school this fall.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday (today), approved the hiring of Gwendi Rice as Dispatcher/Jailer, at a rate of $18.50/hour. They also appointed Kaye Klemish as Summitt Township Trustee, and they accepted the resignation of Brad Wilson, Grand River Township Trustee. In other business, the Board authorized the Chair to sign a Child Abuse Prevention Grant Drawdown, and they acknowledged receipt of the Southern Iowa Trolley FY21 & FY 22 Audit.

Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg explained a proposed FY23 Maximum Tax Levy to KJAN News.

A public hearing on the FY 23 Proposed Maximum Tax Levy, was set for 9:15-a.m. February 22^nd.

The Adair County Supervisors approved County Engineer Nick Kauffman’s request for Wage Progression, with regard to Dave Spieker. And, they set the date and time of a Public Hearing to change the level of service on Elk Avenue in Summit Township and Kent Avenue in Richland Township, as Feb. 22^nd, at 9:20-a.m.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s been a rash of mass shootings nationwide lately, including last week in Des Moines where two teenagers were killed and an adult was wounded in what police say was a gang-related incident. Five shooting rampages in Iowa, California and Washington left 24 people dead in less than a week. Iowa U-S Senator Chuck Grassley calls the slayings tragic.  “This sort of violence is just indisputably wrong. We can’t tolerate this sort of thing. We’ve got to concentrate on the people doing the killing, and protect the constitutional right to own firearms.”

On Tuesday, police say a man carrying an A-R-15-style rifle and 13 full clips of ammunition walked into an Omaha Target store and started firing. Law officers responded quickly, shot and killed the suspect and miraculously, no one else was even injured. Grassley was asked if he sees any possible solutions coming at the federal level that could curb the killings. “It’s very important that we take advantage of all the things that were in the bill that passed last year to stop gun violence,” Grassley says, “particularly the emphasis upon making sure that people that have mental health issues, that their name is in the databank and they can’t legally buy a gun.”

Grassley says significant efforts are being made to prevent people who might be a threat from getting a firearm, at least legally. “When people illegally get guns, I don’t know how you pass a law against people just breaking the law,” Grassley says, “and I’ll bet you in most of these killings, people have their guns illegally.”

There were six homicides in Des Moines during January, all six involved guns.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Two Glenwood women were arrested Tuesday on separate Mills County warrants. The Glenwood Police Department reports 35-year-old Nicole Spracklin was arrested on a Mills County warrant for Violation of a No Contact Order. She was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail, until seen by a magistrate judge.

And, 55-year-old Brenda Long was arrested on a Mills County warrant for OWI/1st offense. Her bond was set at $1,000. Long has since posted bond, and was released.

(Harlan, Iowa) – The Shelby County Board of Supervisors met in a SPECIAL session at 9:00 A.M. Tuesday (Jan. 31). Auditor/Clerk Mark Maxwell reports in his minutes of the meeting, that the Board set the stipend for the Dam Inspection purpose at $3,500.00 for fiscal year 2024.

Taryn Knapp, Shelby County IT Coordinator, was present to ask for consideration and ask approval of an internal IT Audit of the County IT system to work on recommendations going forward.  A vote was held and the motion was approved unanimously.

Budget issues were presented by Budget Director Mark Maxwell, then was asked questions directed at the Budget Director as why the County is experiencing low reserves in several funds as he claims. Some answers were discovered that an unbudgeted transfer was made in December 2022. Mark Maxwell, Budget Director, failed to budget that amount into the next fiscal year to make up for the loss. Also amendments reduce reserves and not all of the reserves were replaced by the next years budget. This continues to reduce reserves. The estimated budget for the current fiscal year is being done to make sure the predicted fund balances at the end of the fiscal year are not predicted to be too low. Some cuts in planned spending in fiscal year 2024 may be needed. No further discussion or action was taken.

An update was presented to the Supervisors by Chairperson Kenkel on the many activities he has been involved with recently. With no other action or discussion for the Supervisors. The meeting was then adjourned.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports a man was arrested Tuesday night on multiple drug charges. 39-year-old Jaime Nam Torres, of Creston, was taken into custody at 301 New York Ave and charged with: Possession Controlled Substance, 3rd offense (marijuana); Conspiracy with intent to manuf/deliver other I, II, III CS; Failure to affix drug tax stamp- forty-two and one half grams or more; attach a used drug tax stamp- 10 or more dosage units, and, conspiracy w/intent deliver false marijuana under 50 kg. Torres was being held in Union County Jail on $27,000 cash or approved surety bond.

About 90-minutes earlier, Creston Police arrested 18-year-old Meadow Rae Cruickshank, of Osceola, Iowa, for Failure to Appear. She was taken into custody at 302 N. Pine Street and transported to the Adams County Jail, where her cash-only bond was set at $300.