(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Board of Education has approved updated rules for school open enrollment to comply with changes made by the Iowa Legislature. Department of Education attorney Thomas Mayes says a fairly large change involves transportation limits.  “Prior to this last legislative session, there were limits about vehicles crossing into sending district and receiving districts sending vehicles for student transportation across boundaries unless the two boards agreed,” Mayes says. He says the change creates what he calls a “skip pattern” to allow the crossing into other districts.

“Small districts being able to send vehicles not more than two miles into contiguous districts if the receiving attendance center is closer than the child’s assigned attendance center in the resident district,” he says. The change allows districts with enrollments of two-thousand or more to send vehicles without a distance requirement if student’s residence district is less than two-thousand students and contiguous to the receiving district. It also outlines who pays for the transportation.

“The sending district shall not be responsible for paying transportation subsidies to a parent If the receiving district is providing the transportation,” Mayes says. Mayes says lawmakers reinstated the deadline for filing open enrollment requests to March for first graders and September, for incoming kindergartners. It also reinstates the exceptions for students that were previously in place if they missed the open enrollment deadline. Mayes says the open enrollment changes also align with the new law encouraging attendance.

“So if a child is truant in the receiving district that puts limitations on their ability to open enroll into a receiving district,” Mayes says. He says the rules also prevent a student who is in trouble from getting out of it by moving to another district. “If I’m suspended…by my resident district or expelled by my resident district. I cannot use open enrollment to avoid the consequences of my suspension or expulsion,” Mayes says.

Mayes presented the rules to the Board of Education during its meeting Thursday, and says their approval now triggers another public comment period before the rules will become final.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa  — Sioux City firefighters got a taste of irony while out on a call Thursday. KCAU-TV reports that a little before 5 p.m., Sioux City Fire Rescue responded to an oven fire at Firehouse Subs on Sergeant Road. When officials arrived, the fire had already been put out by an employee with a fire extinguisher, and officials stayed around airing out the building.

Officials say it’s not every day they get to respond to a fire at home base. Lt. Josh McClure told KCAU “There’s a lot of irony, and we do appreciate they they do a lot of support with some grants that they do for the fire department. So we definitely appreciate Firehouse Subs and the work they do in different communities. And yeah, it’s not very often we get to say we’re establishing firehouse command.”

The restaurant will be closed down until health inspection gives the okay. While no one was injured, McClure emphasized the importance of people knowing how to use a fire extinguisher.

(Radio Iowa) – Mental health experts say Iowa is facing a critical shortage of providers, especially during the stressful holiday season, though some patients are turning to telehealth for care. Tarrah Holliday, a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner, treats up to 30 patients daily at Zion Integrated Medical Services in Atlantic. Holliday says there are only about 300 psychiatry providers statewide. “There are lengthy wait lists,” Holliday says. “Some offices you can get in within three months. Some, it takes up to six months.” As a solution, Holliday says 75-percent of her clients are turning to telehealth, and some even live three hours away.

“Many patients really prefer and feel more comfortable in their own environment,” she says, “and that has been extremely beneficial for them.” The I-S-U Extension reports Iowa is 45th in the nation for mental health care providers per capita. “Oftentimes, especially this time of the year, my colleagues and I are working extra hours and overbooking ourselves to ensure that patients get in and are able to be seen and their needs met,” Holliday says, “because this is a difficult time of year for them.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 60-percent of Iowa communities experience a shortage of mental health care. To be considered a Health Professional Shortage Area the population-to-provider ratio must be at least 30,000-to-one.

(Radio Iowa) – The state’s top economic development official says if lawmakers create a tax credit for production of sustainable aviation fuel, Iowa could land a refinery. There are already refineries in Georgia, North Dakota and Montana producing the renewable fuel for airplanes, but Iowa Economic Development Authority director Debi (like “Debbie”) Durham says there’s a market for several more around the country.

“We believe Iowa’s the perfect place to do that and actually there’s a lot of interest from the private sector to do that, based on our lead activity,” Durham says. “When you look at our overall competitive nature of our taxes, when you look where the supply is from a transportation point of view, when you look at what we’re proposing, just simply having a conversation around a production tax credit would be, I think, just stuff to move the needle a little bit because there is plenty of room in this marketplace for growth.”

Durham says the governor will reveal the specifics on tax-related recommendations in January. Durham suggests some long-standing tax credits the state has offered businesses are up for a potential overhaul. “We’ve done research on other states, the states we compete with,” Durham says, “because we want to make sure we’re not outliers in doing something.” Durham says the state tax credit for research and development is critical, but can be adjusted.

However, Durham says change is needed in the state’s 20-year-old High Quality Jobs Program. It has provided tax breaks to Iowa businesses expanding their operations here and to out-of-state companies launching an Iowa location. Durham says the program’s tax credits and exemptions were created to buy down Iowa’s corporate tax rate, which was among the highest in the country.  “Even at a 7.1% corporate flat rate now, or a two tier, getting to a goal of 5.5% with single factor — all of just makes us pretty competitive and so those incentives are not as meaningful,” Durham says. “…We don’t need as many tax incentives, we don’t need as much tax incentives, but they need to look differently and they need to function differently.”

Durham has been Iowa’s top economic development official since 2011.