The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, tabled the hiring of a superintendent to succeed Brett Gibbs, who retires at the end of the current school year. Gibbs said the decision is not something the Board takes lightly. They’ll follow up on a couple of interviews Wednesday (12/19) and hope to make their decision sometime soon thereafter.”

There were originally 13 applicants for the Superintendent’s job in Audubon. Those were narrowed down to five finalists for interviews. They included: Eric Trager, Audubon 5th-12th grade Principal; Dennis McClain, current shared Superintendent/Elementary Principal for the Clay Center Everly Community Schools; Michael Still, Secondary Principal for the Lenox Community School District; Jeff Privia, Elementary Principal for the Underwood Community School District, and Cory Lahndorf, PK-12 Principal for the HLV Community School District, in Victor.

Once the final choice is made, Gibbs said they’ll hold a public meeting and vote. The Audubon School Board chose not to hire a search firm for the job of finding a Superintendent. Instead, they relied in-part on Gibbs’ experience in guiding them. In other business, the Audubon School Board approved three Early Retirement Applications: Randy Spies, Roxanne Hansen and Jo Littleton.

(9-a.m. News)

A woman from Crawford County was arrested on an OWI/1st offense charge Monday morning, after Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s deputies received a call from a motorist on Interstate 80, who reported an erratic driver in the area of the 27 mile marker. The motorist described the vehicle to be all over the road, with varying speed. The vehicle, a 2014 GMC Sierra pickup, was subsequently stopped. During the course of the stop, the driver, 22-year old Selena Elizabeth Gomez-Argueta, of Denison, displayed clues of impairment were observed. She then taken into custody at around 4-a.m. on the OWI charge.

And, 23-year old Derick Wayne Fuller, of Council Bluffs, who was already serving time in the Pott. County Jail on two counts of Disorderly Conduct and Harassment in the 1st degree, was presented with a warrant out of Sarpy County, NE.,, Monday, for Being a Fugitive from Justice. He was then returned to the custody of Corrections Staff and held without bond.

GREENE, Iowa (AP) — Two rural northeast Iowa school districts intend to offer firearms safety courses for middle school students this spring. Joel Foster is superintendent for both the Clarksville and North Butler school districts, and he says he hopes the courses will prepare students in both districts to react in the event of an active shooter situation. Students will use inoperable guns with replica ammunition to learn how to load and unload bullets and hold and care for firearms. Foster says they’ll also learn how to safely carry guns and how to recognize when firearms are loaded.

The hunter safety courses are expected to last about a week as part of the physical education curriculums and will be taught by a naturalist from the Butler County Conservation Board. Parents can opt to have their children sit out the courses.

The Creston Police Department reports 29-year old Steven Behlers, of Afton, was arrested Monday afternoon. Behlers was arrested at the Union County Jail on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 3rd Degree. He remains in the jail on the latest, and other charges, with his total bond set at $17,300.

And, a Creston woman reported to police Monday morning, that sometime between 7-p.m. Sunday and 8-a.m. Monday, the back window of her vehicle was smashed while parked outside her residence in the 400 block of N. Oak Street. The damage was estimated at $200.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — The Fort Dodge City Council has approved a plan use a portion of fireworks fines to help pay for professional pyrotechnics show on Independence Day. The Messenger reports that the council voted 5-1 for the plan Monday. The city will give to the fireworks show whichever is greater: $5,000 or half of the fireworks fines collected each year.

City ordinances say people may use fireworks from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. July 1-3 and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. July 4. They also may be used between 5 p.m. Dec. 31 and 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1. People convicted of violating the fireworks rules can be fined $500. Fort Dodge police officers responded to 604 fireworks complaints between June 1 and July 8 and issued 49 citations.

(Radio Iowa) — Managers representing Governor Kim Reynolds are negotiating new contracts with four unions that represent state employees. The Republican governor’s administration has just offered the union representing about 24-hundred social workers and scientists in state government a one percent raise in each of the next two years. Reynolds isn’t sending any public signals about the negotiations.

“We’re grateful for our state employees. They’re the boots on the ground. They’re the ones that’s carrying out the mission every single day. They do a great job,” Reynolds told reporters Monday. “I am so proud of our state workers and, you know, it’s no different than what a business does when they’re putting a budget together, so we’re going to do the best that we can with the resources that we have.”

All the unions representing state workers are asking for raises for all employees covered by union contacts. Administrators representing Reynolds will make more counter offers to other unions before the end of the year. Reynolds says “a lot of preliminary work” has been done on her proposed state spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1st. A missing piece of the puzzle was revealed last week. A panel of financial experts set the official estimate of state tax revenue growth during the period at one-point-eight percent.

“We really can’t start to finalize stuff until we get the numbers, which we have those now,” Reynolds says, “and so we’ll sit down and get those kind of hammered out over the next week or two.”

Reynolds will deliver her policy agenda and proposed state budget to legislators on Tuesday, January 15th. Reynolds will be inaugurated to a full, four-year term on Friday, January 18th.