Officials at the state’s so-called “special schools” are aiming to improve their students’ math and reading proficiency by 15 percent. Steven Gettel, the superintendent of the Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Educational Services for the Blind, says the goal is within reach.

“In the first four years with the Iowa Educational Services for the Blind students’ proficiencies increased by 13.3 percent in reading and 13.6 percent in math and at the Iowa School for the Deaf the achievements were 12.3 percent in reading and 13.3 percent in math, so we’ve nearly achieved our goals there,” Gettel says. “It shows what you can do when you consolidate your efforts and your resources around improving instruction and understanding the needs and the that our kids have.”

There are 109 students enrolled at the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs this year. Students no longer attend the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton. Instead, teachers are sent around to Iowa school districts to teach 562 students who are blind or visually impaired. “And we’re providing sign language instruction across the state to between 400-500 adults and children,” Gettel says. Those sign language classes are conducted online. About a dozen students who graduated from the Iowa School for the Deaf are also enrolled in what Gettel calls the “Four-Plus” program.

“Brings students back who finished their high school credit requirements, but they still need additional training and education around the areas of literacy, math skills, pre-vocational skills and independent living skills,” Gettel says. In total, the state’s “special schools” for deaf and blind Iowans are providing services to more than a thousand children and adults in the state.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa has been scrambling to pay about 2,400 employees after a computer problem caused a delay in direct deposits to their bank accounts. A university vice president, Michael Hager, wrote in an email to the employees on New Year’s Eve that paper checks would be delivered to “as many of our employees’ financial institutions as possible” before the end of business on Wednesday.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A Dubuque nurse has fulfilled her dream, spending more than 60 years caring for ailing babies and their families. The Telegraph Herald Weber reports Betty Weber retired Wednesday from her work at Mercy Birth Center in Dubuque.

FARLEY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa couple has been credited with helping a man get out of his wrecked vehicle before it caught fire. Peosta Police Department Sergeant Nicole Minnihan says the couple was traveling westbound Tuesday on U.S. 20 in northeast Iowa when another vehicle driven by 65-year-old Mark Schuster went off the roadway. The Telegraph Herald reports Sandy Gassman, along with her husband, Tom, pulled over to help. Sandy Gassman put Schuster’s arm over her shoulder and they walked away from the wreck. Tom Gassman called 911.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a Des Moines man who fatally stabbed an intruder in self-defense likely won’t be prosecuted. Police Sergeant Jason Halifax says 35-year-old Christopher Bear killed 34-year-old Jahron Parker after Parker attacked Bear at a house on Amos Avenue early Wednesday morning.

With Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Several locations in Iowa recorded low temperatures in the double-digits below-zero over the final two days of 2014 — which will enter the record books as one of the coldest years in the state’s history. State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says only three of the 12 months posted an above normal average temperature (May, June, and December). “And we had three top 10 months as far as low temperatures — the 7th coldest February on record, 5th coolest July and 4th coolest November,” Hillaker said. “Those are all based on 142 years of records, so rather unusual in all those cases.”

The statewide average temperature for the entire year was 45.4 degrees. “The year as a whole…almost the coolest in nearly 100 years. You have to back to 1917 to find a cooler calendar year than 2014,” Hillaker said. The coldest official temperature recorded in Iowa this year was 29-below zero in Elkader — both on January 28 and February 11. “On the other extreme, the warmest reading we had was only 97 degrees on May 7, very early in the season,” Hillaker said. “Clarinda, Shenandoah and Sidney all hit 97 on May 7.”

Not a single Iowa city recorded a temperature in the triple digits through all of 2014.  “Statewide, I think we’ve had about a dozen years when no place in the state reached 100 degrees during the course of the year. So, that’s somewhat unusual, but not unheard of by any means,” Hillaker said.

Two-thousand-fourteen will go down as the 15th wettest year in Iowa history. The month of June was especially wet — with record flooding across northwest Iowa. “Some part of the state had a lot of rain during the late summer, especially west-central and southwest Iowa,” Hillaker said. “We had a very wet August. Greenfield has almost a foot-and-a-half of rain just during the month of August.”

Although the year was a wet one, there weren’t many large snow events.  “I think the largest snow storm total was 9 inches, which is kind of small for a statewide extreme,” Hillaker said. According to the National Weather Service, there were 55 tornadoes in Iowa in 2014 — slightly more than the 46 twisters that Iowa sees in a typical tornado season (averaged over the years 1980-2013).

For the month of December (2014), the Average High in Atlantic was 36. The Average Low was 22. The normal average High is 33. The normal average Low is 14.We had just 1.06 inches of precipitation last month, with some of that coming from the four-tenths of an inch of snow and/or mixed precip. Normal precipitation for the month is 1.11 inches.

RED OAK, Iowa (AP) – A southwest Iowa man accused of planting audio recording devices in a woman’s home now faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of firearms. As we reported earlier this week on KJAN, 38-year-old Aaron Johnson was arrested Monday at his Red Oak home on a federal warrant. He’d been freed on bond. He’s pleaded not guilty to state charges of eavesdropping and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Johnson originally was arrested Nov. 3 on the state charges. The woman reported finding one of the audio bugs, and then authorities found another in her bedroom. She says the only person granted access to her residence was a pest control technician, Johnson.

Police say a search of Johnson’s home turned up similar devices and guns and ammunition.

Quitting smoking is a popular New Year’s resolution, but a federal study finds teenagers who use e-cigarettes are twice as likely to say they intend to smoke traditional cigarettes in the next year. E-cigarette retailers are popping up in cities across Iowa, though state law forbids their sale to anyone under 18. Tobacco researcher Michael Fiore says the report from the Centers for Disease Control confirms long-held suspicions.

Dr. Fiore says, “One of the biggest concerns about e-cigarettes is that they will serve as a gateway drug to lifelong nicotine dependence and all of the harms we know result from cigarette smoking.” The population tracked by the C-D-C study included kids in grades six through 12, years when they’re considered particularly vulnerable. “We know that the adolescent brain is very sensitive to nicotine,” Fiore says. “Use of e-cigarettes, with its exposure to nicotine, puts these adolescents at risk of lifelong nicotine addiction.”

The C-D-C study found more than 263-thousand young people who had never smoked used an electronic cigarette last year, three times the number from 2011. About three out of four teen smokers become adult smokers, according to the report. Fiore says the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes among young people is worrisome. He says, “We are at risk of having a generation of young people who are exposed to e-cigarettes, begin using them and both have changes in their brain related to this nicotine exposure but also tend to go on to use combustible cigarettes.”

The overall smoking rate in Iowa is 19-point-six percent, just slightly below the national average of 19-point-seven percent.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A February trial has been scheduled for a Sergeant Bluff man accused of head-butting his teenage son. The Sioux City Journal reports that 47-year-old Bradley Graff entered a written plea of not guilty on Monday in Woodbury County District Court. The charge is child endangerment causing injury. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3.

Court documents say the incident occurred while Graff was practicing wrestling with his 11- and 13-year-old sons at his business, Wall of Fame. The documents say the older boy asked to stop practicing, but Graff threw him onto a mat several times and head-butted him. The documents also say Graff later stomped his son’s head onto the mat, giving the boy a bloody nose.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say two frozen hydrants hampered efforts to extinguish flames that destroyed a mobile home in Sioux City. Firetrucks were sent to the mobile home park around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Sioux City Deputy Fire Marshal Frank Fulton says firefighters couldn’t tap into the two frozen hydrants, so they had to go to a third hydrant farther away to get water. Fulton says the problem may have cost the residents more property than they would have lost otherwise.

The three adults and three children who lived in the home escaped safely.

On the first day of the New Year, Red Oak Police report two arrests and two citations. Early this (Thursday) morning, officers cited 20-year old Dillon Makenzie Terry for Possession of Alcohol under the legal age of 21. Rodney Earl McAlpin was also cited for Providing Alcohol to a person under the age of 21. The citations were issued at 419 E. Reed Street, in Red Oak.

Red Oak Police report also the arrest of 25-year old Megan Renea Guffey, of Villisca. Guffey was taken into custody for Public Intoxication just after 12:30-a.m., at 106 E. Coolbaugh Street. She was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center (LEC) on $300 bond.

And, 30-year old Zachariah Michael Holland, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:30-a.m. for Domestic Abuse/Simple Assault, Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree, and Trespassing. Holland was being held without bond at the Montgomery County LEC.

(6:30-a.m. News)