The Harlan Community School Board of Education has approved an amendment to the 2013-2014 budget. In a regular board meeting Monday, the board made the motion after discussing the amendment at length at the public hearing held on Tuesday, May 27th. The amendment was in regards to PPEL funding and the Merrill Field Project. In other business, the school board approved milk bids with Anderson Dairy, bread bids with Bee Bo bakery, fuel bids with Agriland FS for $170,176.40 and a new Thomas Bus for $84,069. Primary School Principal Scott Frolich reported to the board, the school district submitted an elementary school wide title 1 application to the state for flexibility in using reading resources for all students in the elementary school district. Superintendent Justin Wagner said those dollars will help students who struggle in reading.

“It’s a federally funded program from the federal government. And basically it helps kids who struggle in reading. Well our reading rate at the elementary building has typically hovered around the 40 percent rate. Now that it has increased over 40 percent, we were able to put in our application to really use our Title 1 funds, resources and staff for all students instead of certain students.”

The application was approved by the school board. Mr. Frolich also mentioned the primary building has 55 students taking summer school, 35 in the intermediate and 16 more in the high school. In the discussion items, Wagner spoke about the blue zones initiative in the Harlan Community. The school district must meet the Wellmark Blue Zone criteria in order for Harlan to become a blue zone designated community.

Wagner spoke for quite sometime on the recommendations Wellmark handed out to the school district. The school district is focusing solely on the elementary building first before trying to install the new proposals in the other school buildings. Some of the recommendations included not using physical activity as a punishment, no unhealthy foods to be used for fundraisers and not using foods at class celebrations. The school needs to hit 54 points in order to pass for a blue zone designation. Wagner says some are controversial.

“Things like out at recess, if a student misbehaves you would send them to a timeout. They go stand by a wall and we do other things. In the blue zone initiative, they say that takes away physical activity during recess. It makes sense. I understand the physical side of it. The flip side, what do we do to students who aren’t following direction or bullying other students? There has to be some kind of consequence.”

Wagner said the school district is in negotiations with Wellmark and more details will follow at a later school board meeting.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund has announced their sponsorship of the “Scary Guy,” who will be sharing his message with Atlantic, CAM and Griswold Schools in August 2014. Scary will be working with over 2,400 students, faculty and community members during his 10 day stay in Cass County.

The Cass County Child Abuse Prevention Council is declaring 2014-2015 the year of Violence Prevention in Cass County Schools. Prevention begins with our youth and teaching them the skills they need to eliminate hate.

For further information or if you would like to donate please contact Kristen Templeton at 243-8006

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Atlantic Board of Education had no problem approving the 2014-2015 District Supervisors’ contracts during their meeting Monday night, but they were less than enthusiastic about approving Administrator contracts, and opted to continue discussions on that topic instead of approving the increase. Superintendent Dr. Mike Amstein recommended the Board approve a four-percent increase in compensation for district administrators, at a cost to the district of $21,980, and a 3.8-percent increase for the District Supervisors, which amounts to $14,182.

When it came time for discussion on those recommendations, School Board Member Dennis Davis asked Amstein if all the goals set for the 2013-2014 school year were accomplished. “No, we didn’t meet all of our goals 100-percent, but our district certainly made progress in regards to student achievement on those goals,” noted Amstein. “For instance in reading, math and science, our district showed an increase in proficiency in every one of those areas.”

Board Member Rod Hartwig said he thought “Our principals…deserve the four-percent [raise]…I am not sure everyone else on the list does.” Amstein said the increases fall in-line with what other administrators and supervisors in Hawkeye 10 Conference schools are making. Amstein said “Basically the goals that the building administrators took at look at this year was 85-percent of their students would be proficient in reading, science and math.” He says they made good progress. The other was to reduce the special education deficit by 10-percent. Amstein says the majority of the school district did just that.

Amstein said “Based on that information, I believe our principals were deserving of that raise along with our Supervisors.” After the Board approved the Supervisors’ increase as a separate motion, they discussed at length, but did not act on approving an increase for the Administrators because they want to see more progress in the attaining Board established goals for those administrators.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Another survey released today (Tuesday) is showing a lot of companies in the state have plans to add employees. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey shows 22-percent of the companies surveyed expect to increase staff levels over the third quarter of the year. Another 72-percent plan to maintain staffing levels, while four-percent anticipate layoffs. That’s good for a Net Employment Outlook of 18-percent. Manpower spokesperson Karen Miller says the results, while positive, show weaker optimism about hiring expectations compared to recent surveys.

“The Net Employment Outlook is 18-percent, as compared to last quarter when it was 21-percent and last year at this time when it was also 21-percent,” Miller said. The Des Moines metro area remains one of the top performing markets in the country, according to the Manpower survey. For the third quarter, Des Moines posted a Net Employment Outlook of 24-percent. “Iowa, in general, has always performed very strongly, but Des Moines has been a very strong pocket for the state,” Miller said.

Nationally, the Net Employment Outlook for the third quarter is 14-percent. That’s up from 13-percent three months ago. More than 18,000 employers across the U.S. take part in the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, approved the hiring of some new teachers. Superintendent Mike Amstein read from a list of recommendations submitted by the district school administrators. Among the new hires is Eric Waldstein (Wald-stine), as Physical Education & Social Studies teacher. Waldstine will also serve as Head Coach of the Trojan Football Team.  His wife Hillary Waldstine will serve as the Level 2/3 Special Ed teacher.

Ashley Hack was recommended as a temporary Level 1 Special Ed Instructor at Schuler Elementary. Kelly Juhl was hired as the High School Business Teacher for the upcoming school year. Juhl comes to Atlantic from the Exira/EHK School District.

Also coming to Atlantic from the Exira/EHK District is Stephanie Graham, who will serve as High School English Teacher. And Alisha Lindquist, who previously worked in the CAM School District, was hired as K-1 Multi-Age position.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CHEROKEE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a person who was found in the Little Sioux River in northwest Iowa. Investigators say a local resident discovered the body in the river near Wescott Park on Monday afternoon. Sioux City television station KTIV says authorities have confirmed the body is that of a local resident, but a name wasn’t released. Investigators say they aren’t ruling out foul play.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Senate Government Oversight Committee continues its investigation into executive branch practices with a hearing focused on construction projects at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. The committee placed seven witnesses under oath to discern whether state bidding practices were followed and money was appropriately spent on construction projects designed to update and expand the housing facilities at the home. About $100 million in projects were authorized by the Legislature and were eligible for federal grants that pay 65 percent of the costs. The first project began in 2008.

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors say a 14-year-old girl charged with attempted murder and other crimes should be tried as a youthful offender, a hybrid alternative to Iowa’s juvenile and adult court systems. The Buchanan County Attorney’s office has filed a motion to move the case out of the juvenile court system. The girl is accused of using a cord to choke a staff member at Four Oaks, a facility on the state’s Mental Health Institute campus in Independence.

LAKE DELHI, Iowa (AP) — Delaware County supervisors have delayed bids for a planned bridge replacement because of concern the project timing might interfere with grant funding from the state. The Delaware Board of Supervisors rejected the lone bid of $426,673 to replace the Turtle Creek Bridge. The bridge is intended as part of an effort to improve public access to Lake Delhi, which was drained in 2010 when a dam collapsed.

ZWINGLE, Iowa (AP) — A fire that destroyed an eastern Iowa barn was apparently caused by twin 5-year-olds who were curious about fire. Tthe Friday afternoon fire near Zwingle destroyed an old barn and damaged another nearby barn as well as other out buildings.. Two 5-year-old children apparently started the fire by using a cigarette lighter to burn twine in the barn. Authorities say the children had received fire prevention training in school and were apparently curious. The children escaped unharmed.

The lastest U-S-D-A crop report out Monday shows a majority of the corn and soybean crops have emerged, but some farmers are heading back to the fields. Corn and soybean growers in six-county area of southwest Iowa have to replant thousands of acres of crops destroyed by last week’s wind and hail storms. Iowa State University’s Southwest Iowa Extension Agronomist, Aaron Saegling rates the damage that stretches from Oakland to Council Bluffs as- among the worst he’s seen during his 25-year career.

“Those plants are gone. They’re not laying down in the field. They’re gone. They’re just not even in the field,” Saegling says, “And so that tells me there is probably as much wind as hail. We have some fields that are pretty bare.” Saegling says farmers can try to get a crop out of some of the fields.  “There will be a lot of soybean replanting. A lot of the corn I don’t believe will make it. …so a lot of those acres will probably not be replanted because it’s pretty late in the year.”

Saegling says many barren fields will be getting erosion-preventing cover crops. The report says 98-percent of the corn crop has emerged, which is 18-percent ahead of last year and four percent ahead of the five-year average. The U-S-D-A report says soybean planting is nearly complete and 87-percent of the crop has emerged. That’s three weeks ahead of last year and about one week ahead of normal.

(Radio Iowa)