The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will hold a special, closed session Monday afternoon, with regard to the Superintendent Interview and candidate selection process. The Board will meet with representatives from Ray and Associates, the firm selected to conduct the online survey back in October. 483 survey forms were filled out and submitted. The submissions came from a wide cross section of the community and school district, and revealed that there were 33 qualities the respondents sought in a new Superintendent.

The deadline for application materials to be submitted by prospective candidates was January 30^th.  School Board President Ali Bruckner said were 43 completed applications for the Superintendent’s job. The Board will review 15 applications. Ray and Associates will also meeting with the various community, teacher and student groups to formulate their questions for the candidates.

The firm will also explain what the interview process will consist of and the procedures involved. The Board hopes to interview the top candidates during the week of Feb. 20^th. The person who is ultimately selected for the position will succeed Dr. Michael Amstein, who is retiring at the end of the current school year.

(8-a.m. News)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Mason City mom accused of making her kids sleep in a feces-covered room has pleaded guilty. Online court records say 26-year-old Alexis Martinez filed a written plea Wednesday to one count of felony neglect of a dependent person. She’d been charged with three counts. The records don’t list a sentencing date.

Court documents say Martinez forced her children, ages 2, 4 and 6, in late August to sleep for a week in a room that had feces on the walls and floor.

A man from Malvern was taken into custody early this (Thursday) morning after being taken down by the Fremont County K9 unit. Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports that at around 3:16-a.m., the K9 Unit (Deputy Zac Buttercase & his K9 partner “Judge”) were called to assist Mills County Sheriff’s Deputies in the vicinity of 55489 295th Street (by Silver City). Authorities were searching for a suspect who had fled from a burglary scene.

After a perimeter was established by Mills County Deputies, the Fremont County K9 tracked the suspect through about One and one-quarter miles of timber, fields and creek beds.

Suspect Jeremy Erickson

When the K9 unit located the suspect, 37-year old Jeremy Erickson, of Malvern, he was given commands to surrender, but instead turned to flee.  Fremont County K9 “Judge” tackled Erickson, allowing him to be taken into custody without further incident.

Erickson was checked by medical staff on the scene before being transported to the Mills County Jail, where he was being held on several charges. The incident remains under investigation by Mills County authorities.

Fremont County K9 “Judge”

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a special session this evening in their Board Room, at the High School. The meeting begins at 6:30-p.m., and the only action item on their agenda, is approval of a Sanitary Sewer Right-of-Way easement.

Police in Council Bluffs are looking for two suspects who allegedly robbed a pizza delivery driver late Wednesday night. Authorities say the suspects are two black males. One is about five-feet six-inches tall, weighed about 190-pounds and was wearing a “Gap” sweatshirt. The other suspect was tall, with a slender build.

Officials say the incident happened at around 11:55-p.m., Wednesday. A Papa John’s delivery driver told police she was robbed when she went to deliver an order at the Cottonwood Apartments (800 blk No 34th St, Council Bluffs, IA).

The victim reported that as she arrived at the apartment complex she was met by a male party outside who advised he had made the order and provided the name that the pizza was ordered under. When she requested payment for the pizzas the male party refused to pay and called out to another male party who walked up behind her.

One of the men restrained the victim while the other took several pizzas and an undisclosed amount of money from her vehicle. The two males then fled the area Northbound towards the Featherstone Apartment Complex (901 No 35th St). The female victim reported minor injuries but refused medical treatment.

If anyone has information on the suspects, or who may have witnessed the crime are urged to contact the Council Bluffs Police Department Criminal Investigation Division (712) 328-4728 or Crime Stoppers (712) 328-7867.

AMES, Iowa (AP) – A former teacher in the North Polk Community School District has been accused having a sexual relationship with a teenage student. Twenty-nine-year-old Kevin Muehlenthaler, of Ames, was arrested Wednesday. Court records say he’s been charged with four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist.

Authorities say a woman told police she had a relationship with Muehlenthaler between November 2013 and July 2014 when she was a student of 16 and then 17 years old.  The district says Muehlenthaler was employed August 2013 to June 2016 and that the district became aware of the allegations only after he left the district.

Tempers flared as the House Labor Committee spent more than three hours debating the G-O-P’s plan to change the state’s collective bargaining law for public sector unions. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, opened the debate at about 3 p.m. “The common-sense reforms in this bill will result in a state government in Iowa that is more responsive and more affordable for the people paying the bill, the taxpayers,” Holt says.

He added “Under the current system that has not been reformed in over 40 years, the taxpayer is at a disadvantage.” Representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says “corporate handouts” rather than union wages are what’s breaking the state’s bank. “There is no common sense in this bill,” Running-Marquardt said. “This bill isn’t about reform. This bill is about political agendas and attacking Iowa workers. It’s extreme.”

Representative Bruce Hunter, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans have hatched an “evil” plan. “This is how we ‘Make America Great Again’ by literally taking away the rights of 180,000 public employees in the state of Iowa,” Hunter said.

Republicans who hold a majority of seats on the committee advanced the bill last (Wednesday) night, making it eligible for debate in the Iowa House next week. Holt, whose wife is a teacher, says the bill is a “win for the children of Iowa” because it gets rid of the seniority system for teachers. “These changes will allow school districts, the boards elected by the people, to reward high-performing teachers, while more quickly removing those not meeting acceptable standards,” Holt said.

There were two committee hearings at the statehouse earlier in the day. Critics of the bill say their comments are unlikely to sway Republicans who are intent on passing the bill quickly. A public hearing will be held Monday night on the issue. It’s likely the House AND Senate will vote on the bill and send it to the governor early next week.

(Radio Iowa)

A bill to legalize the limited sale and use of fireworks in Iowa has easily cleared a senate committee. Fireworks would be legal in June and just after the 4th of July as well as in early December through the beginning of January. Republican Senator Jake Chapman of Adel says many Iowans want to celebrate New Years and Independence Day with fireworks. “It’s about freedom,” Chapman says. “Look, we’re one of just a handful of states that prohibit the use of consumer-grade fireworks.”

The bill easily cleared the Senate State Government Committee on an 11-to-four vote. Senator David Johnson of Ocheyedan, an independent, attended the committee meeting and argued the bill would give Iowans undesirable new freedoms. “Freedom to blow their fingers off, freedom to take an eye out, to harm a kid, to overload our ERs,” Johnson said.

The bill would let Iowa cities and counties “opt out” and establish ordinances banning fireworks during the two holiday periods. The measure includes new fees for retailers that want to sell fireworks, so the bill has to clear another senate committee that reviews tax policy before the proposal is eligible for debate in the full senate. Nearly all fireworks are illegal to sell and set off today in Iowa. There have been several attempts to legalize fireworks in Iowa over the past few years, but they’ve all fallen short.

(Radio Iowa)