Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law that raises teacher salaries, increases general state spending for schools and overhauls Iowa’s Area Education Agencies.

“Some schools haven’t used some of the AEA services, despite being forced to pay for them,” Reynolds said. “Others have felt that they didn’t receive the quality that they expect.”

The new law puts local districts in control of some funding that currently flows directly to the AEAs and gives state officials more authority to oversee special education. Schools will still be required to use the AEA’s special education consultants, but districts will be able to spend 10 percent of their special education allotment elsewhere, plus districts will have the option of redirecting money that currently pays for other AEA services, like teacher training.

“Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Education has designated Iowa as ‘needs assistance’ to meet the requirements of federal law related to special education,” Reynolds said. “…This legislation intends to resolve these issues.”

Reynolds held a ceremony in her capitol office and was surrounding by Republican legislators and key staff as she signed the bill into law. House Education Committee chairman Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Hull, helped lead House negotiations with educators, parents and advocates for both large and small schools that resulted in changes to the governor’s original bill.

“We held numerous meetings with everyone and worked with all sides to come to an agreement that is a win for education in our state,” Wheeler said.

Senate Education Committee chairman Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, said the fee-for-service model in the new law provides accountability and transparency and gives schools a way to judge the value of AEA services.

Governor Reynolds signs HF2612 into law on March 27, 2024. (RI photo)

“The AEAs have done a tremendous amount of good for many, many years in Iowa and all of us are appreciative of that,” Rozenboom said, “but the world has changed since the AEAs were created in 1974 and reform is needed.”

House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said the new law is universally unpopular and it will be an issue for voters in November. “Think about the fmailies who have so much uncertainty now as they’re wondering about what will happen to the services in their communities,” Konfrst said. “What will happen to their kids who are getting AEA services? There are so many questions.”

Other elements of the new law will raise beginning teacher pay to $50,000 within two years and veteran teachers must be paid at least $62,000 a year if they’ve been teaching for at least 12 years. Paraeducators are to get raises as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Today marks the tenth annual American Red Cross Giving Day, where the agency recognizes people who make its mission possible — volunteers, blood donors, people trained in lifesaving skills, and supporters.

Emily Holley, spokeswoman for the Red Cross’ Nebraska-Iowa Region, says they’re also asking for donations in order to continue offering help to people who urgently need it.

“The money that we’re raising today is going into the disaster fund which is going to help support those who are affected by disasters,” Holley says. “Every eight minutes, Red Cross volunteers respond to a disaster here in the United States and their support is critical.”

Home fires are the most common disaster in Iowa and nationwide. In 2023, Holley says the Red Cross responded to 662 home fires throughout Iowa and provided assistance to 2,275 people.

(Red Cross photo)

“We give all sorts of assistance to those who are affected by home fires,” Holley says. “We make sure that their immediate needs are being met by ensuring that they have a safe place to stay and food to eat.”

She says any size of gift is welcome and it will help to provide emergency shelter, hot meals, relief items, emotional support and other assistance to people in need.

“$150 provides a full day of food and shelter for three people,” Holley says. “$200 will cover the daily cost to deploy an emergency response vehicle to a disaster scene.”

All gifts are tax deductible and she notes the Red Cross is 90-percent volunteer run.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals says a man accused of murdering a coworker at a packing plant in Wright County is not yet competent to stand trial. Lukouxs Brown was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing co-worker, Wayne Smith at the Prestage pork plant near Eagle Grove in 2021. He was treated for schizophrenia at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center, but after several months was declared still not competent for trial.

The state brought in an outside expert for a second opinion, and the expert found Brown was competent. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruling says opinions of the experts at the classification center hold more weight, and the district court erred in determining that Brown’s trial could proceed.

The ruling says Brown is making progress in regaining competency and the criminal proceedings are suspended indefinitely.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a wastewater discharge at the City of Anamosa in Jones County.  On March 27, the DNR Manchester Field Office was notified by the City of Anamosa of a wastewater discharge due to equipment failure at the wastewater plant lift station.  The discharge was discovered at approximately 8:15 a.m. It is estimated that up to 50,000 gallons of untreated sewage flowed into a storm drain leading to the Wapsipinicon River. City officials say the bypass has been corrected, and cleanup efforts have begun.

Any downstream recreational users should take caution and stay out of the river at this time. No dead fish have been observed at this time. The Iowa DNR will follow up with the city for further assessment.

To report a release after hours, please call the DNR’s emergency spill line at (515) 725-8694. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of an incident. The DNR website has more information about spill reporting requirements.

(Radio Iowa) – One of the big lotto jackpot runs has ended after a ticket bought in New Jersey had the winning numbers for the one-point-one BILLION dollar Mega Millions drawing. Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says three Iowa tickets were one number away from getting a share of that prize. The Powerball jackpot for tonight’s (Wednesday) drawing is estimated to be 865 million for the long-term annuity payout, or 416 million dollars for the lump sum option. Neubauer says the two payout options are often misunderstood. “One of the urban myths associated with the jackpots in Powerball and Mega Millions is that the cash amount is the jackpot amount minus taxes. And that’s definitely not the case,” Neubauer says. She says the amount of the jackpot does not immediately include the subtraction of taxes.

“The cash amount, if you take that option, is the amount that’s on hand in the jackpot pool from the sale of tickets at the moment that the jackpot was won,” Neubauer says. “If you take the annuitized payments over time, you get that cash amount that was on hand from the sale of tickets, plus all of the interest that would be built up over the 29 years that you would be receiving payments.” Neubauer says taxes are taken out after you decide which payout option you will receive. She says that is why they always advise winners of bigger jackpots to consult a financial advisor.

“There are so many decisions that would come along with claiming a prize of this amount and we would just want to make sure that people have their questions answered before they come forward. Definitely a life-changing amount of money, she says. The three near miss Mega Millions tickets matched four of the first five numbers and the Mega Ball in Tuesday’s drawing. One of those tickets is worth 10-thousand dollars and the other two used the multiplier and are worth 20-thousand dollars.

The deadline for purchasing a Powerball ticket for tonight’s drawing is 8:59 p-m.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing this (Wednesday) morning on the County’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2025 Property Tax Levy. The Board was asked by a member of the audience attending the hearing, why the taxing entity breakdown for which was sent to property owners in the County, was needed. Board Chair Jerry Walker and Auditor Mandy Berg offered these reasons, which basically boils down to: the State ordered it to be done that way.

It’s an unfunded mandate that cost the County. Supervisor Jodie Hoadley….

After the Public Hearing was adjourned, the Adair County Board of Supervisors held their regular, weekly meeting, during which they set the date/time for a Public Hearing on the FY 25 Budget, as 9:15-a.m., April 17^th, as part of the regular Board meeting. They also approved a 28-E (Cost sharing) Agreement to join the Heart of Iowa Mental Health Region. Supervisor Jodie Hoadley was not in favor of the arrangement, but voted for it in the end.

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal would consolidate the state’s 32 mental health and substance abuse regions into seven unified behavioral health districts. Rachel Cecil, with Heart of Iowa Community Services said a bill consolidating Mental Health regions has not yet come before the Governor to sign, because there are still many unanswered questions.

The Adair County Supervisors approved the Secondary Roads Dept. DOT budget and five-year Construction Program, beginning in FY25. They awarded: a Farm-to-Market (FM) rock contract to Schildberg Construction, in the amount of $249,862.80, which was slightly under the Engineer’s estimate; a granular surfacing contract to Gus Construction in the amount of $464,046, for FY24 FM road(s), and an N-36 Lee (Township) Reinforced Concrete Box (RCB) Project.

The Board also passed a resolution setting a Public Hearing to vacate a portion of Gibbon Avenue, as 9:30-a.m. Tuesday, April 2^nd. Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman then presented a report on Secondary Roads Dept. Maintenance and activities.

DES MOINES — U.S. Republican Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03) has announced the start of the 2024 Congressional Art Competition. Each year, the U.S. House of Representatives hosts a nation-wide high school art competition with each member showcasing art from their district.  Nunn said Tuesday, “I can’t wait to showcase the talent of Iowa’s high school students. This is a long-standing tradition that I am proud and honored to take part in. Iowa has so much to offer, and I look forward to seeing all the creativity that Iowa students have to share as they showcase our state, culture, and talent.” The competition is open to those residing in the Iowa Third Congressional District and currently in high school.

Each artwork submission will be reviewed by a panel of judges and selections will be made for a winner. The winner will have their artwork placed on display at the U.S. Capitol for the next year. The winner will also be flown to Washington, D.C. to attend the official art show opening. In addition, three winning art pieces will be selected to receive the People’s Choice Award and placed on display in Rep. Nunn’s offices.

Important Dates:
April 26 – Final Day for Student Submissions
April 29- May 3 – Public Popular Vote Period
May 3 – Judge’s Panel Private Showing
May 8 – Winner Publicly Announced

For additional questions, please visit nunn.house.gov/artcompetition or contact Rep. Nunn’s office at (515) 400-8180.

(Radio Iowa) – Clear Lake High School is one of four school districts to receive a national U-S-D-A award for its efforts to improve the nutritional quality of meals for students. Clear Lake reduced sodium in menu items by using spices, more fresh local foods and some low- or no-sodium products. U-S Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack visited the Clear Lake district to deliver its award.  “I’m happy to be in one of the school districts that’s ‘top of the class,'” Vilsack says.

Vilsack says Clear Lake overcame challenges to improve menu options. “It’s difficult for schools with tight budgets,” Vilsack says. “Oftentimes because of the pandemic, there were supply chain and continue to be supply chain challenges, so the nutrition folks at school do an amazing job.” Vilsack says the U-S-D-A has provided several billion dollars of assistance over the last several years to help U-S school districts improve the nutrition of school lunches and the department’s “Healthy Meals Incentives Recognization Awards” are designed to showcase schools like Clear Lake that have made big gains with that support.

“We’ve provided the school district a little extra resource and that, in turn, was used by the school district to expand their storage capacity, refrigeration capacity, so they are in a position to do a little bit more with fruits and vegetables and get more direct connection with the community, which every school district is interested in doing,” Vilsack says. Clear Lake Community School District food service director Julie Udelhofen says the school got a Healthy Meals Incentive grant in August of 2023.

“We installed a walk-in freezer in our middle school,” she says. “We updated our serving line so that we could serve salad items every day and we purchased a food processor for each of our three kitchens so we could slice, dice, grate and all the things we needed to do to make processing local foods easier.” Udelhofen says her food service team created custom blended salt-free seasonings to bring out the flavor of a wide array of vegetables as one way to reduce sodium consumption among students in the lunchroom.

(Radio Iowa) – Authorities in eastern Iowa say they’ve caught a hit-and-run driver who was allegedly texting behind the wheel when he ran over a woman two weeks ago. Davenport police say they’ve arrested a tow truck driver who’s charged with hitting and critically injuring a pedestrian the morning of March 13th. Police says the truck had two cameras, one facing forward, the other, at the driver.

Fifty-two-year-old Granvell Ramey of Davenport faces a total of ten charges, including serious injury hit-and-run, reckless driving, running five stop signs, and reckless use of an electronic device. Police say the 43-year-old woman who was hit was in the crosswalk. The Quad City Times says Dana Oswalt Evans was hospitalized with injuries including multiple broken bones and a collapsed lung.

Granvell Ramey (Scott County Jail photo)

NEWTON, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports an inmate at the Newton Correctional Facility who was serving a life sentence, has died. 73-year-old Pete Michael Alspach was pronounced dead Saturday afternoon, as the result of an unexpected medical emergency. Foul play was not suspected. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.

Alspach had been serving his life sentence for the crime of Kidnapping 1st Degree out of Wright County. His sentence began on July 9, 1993.