(Radio Iowa) – The State Board of Education got an early look this week at the annual report on schools that is set to be released next week. Jason Crowley in the Department of Education’s Bureau of information says the diversity among students has increased in the last 20 years. “Minority, racial, ethnic students make up 26-point-eight percent of our K-12 student population in the fall of 21 — compared to nine-point-seven percent of our student population in the fall of 2000,” he says. The largest increases have been in the number of Hispanic students, followed by African Americans. Crowley says the overall number of students in Iowa schools increased by about one percent in the past 20 years, but there’s been a shift in where those students go to school.

“We’ve seen the largest drop in that middle size district, whereas all of the other district size categories in that 20 year time period have increased a little bit,” he says. There were nearly 28 percent of the districts in that 600 to 900 student middle range in 2000 — while that dropped to around 22 percent in the fall of 2021. The largest districts with 75-hundred or more students increased the overall numbers of students they educate. “In the fall of ’21, eleven percent of our largest districts in the state are educating over half of our student population or about 54 percent of our student population,” Crowley says. “That’s compared to back into fall 2000, it was about nine percent of districts educating about 46 percent of our student population.” The school districts on the other end of the spectrum also saw a modest gain in numbers.

“A three percent increase for those districts enrolling less than 300 students,” he says. The certified state K-12 enrollment for 20221-2022 is 485-thousand-630. The Des Moines school district is the largest with slightly more than 31-thousand students, and the smallest is Diagonal, with 109 students.

(Radio Iowa) – The latest data indicates about 25 percent of Iowans have gotten a flu shot.  “It seems to be still a little bit less uptick than we’d like in comparison to years past.” That’s Dr. Robert Kruse, the state medical director. During the flu season three years ago, 40 percent of Iowans got a flu shot. Kruse says cases of influenza and the respiratory illness known as R-S-V are increasing in Iowa.

“People are interacting more,” Kruse says. “They’re more indoors.” According to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, just under 60 percent of Iowa residents are fully vaccinated against COVID. With holiday gatherings ahead, the agency is urging Iowans to get the flu shot AND ensure they’re up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.

“Having these vaccines can help lower and reduce your risk for illness and prevent some of those complications,” Kruse says. State records indicate nearly 33-point-four percent of Carroll County residents got the flu shot by the end of October. That’s the highest flu vaccination rate of any county. More than 71 percent of Johnson County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

(Radio Iowa) – Two people died in a house fire Thursday afternoon, in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids Firefighters were called out just after noon on a 911 call reporting smoke coming from the windows of a home. The fire department says 72-year-old Charles Osterkamp and 70-year-old Sheri Osterkamp were found dead in the basement of the single-story home.

The fire department says the cause of the fire is still under investigation.