ORIENT, Iowa [KCCI] — For the first time in nearly a decade, a school district in Iowa is closing its doors for good. The Orient-Macksburg School Board voted Monday night to dissolve the district. During the school board meeting, officials said low enrollment, staffing issues and financial shortfalls all led up to the decision.

It’s still not clear where the 160 Orient-Macksburg students will attend in the fall of 2025. Moving forward the school board will have to form a committee to figure out how the school district will be divvied up and consumed by the surrounding districts.

The next step for students will be up to voters. Once officials come up with a proposal, people in each impacted school district will vote on the plan in a special election. If the proposal is voted down, the director at the Iowa Department of Education will make the decision.

The O-M District issued this statement late Wednesday morning on social media:

“While this was a difficult and emotional decision to make, during the regular school board meeting on June 10, the Orient-Macksburg Board of Education unanimously approved a motion to begin the process for dissolution. A dissolution committee consisting of seven members has been established as required by the dissolution process. Two election options are available for district patrons to vote on the dissolution question: September, 2024 and March, 2025. It is likely the vote would occur in March, 2025 because of the amount of decisions that need to be made prior to an election. If approved by voters, dissolution would become effective on June 30, 2025. In addition, the board is considering the creation of committees for memorabilia and the district facilities. As more information is available, additional communication will be provided. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 15, beginning at 5:30 p.m.”

GREENFIELD, Iowa — The Adair County community of Greenfield will host still RAGBRAI® riders in July as planned despite last month’s deadly tornado, according to event organizers. The 2024 route announced earlier this spring starts in Glenwood and ends in Burlington. Day three included Greenfield as the meeting town between Atlantic and Winterset.

That plan came into question after multiple tornadoes swept through Iowa this spring, including a May 21 tornado that destroyed more than 100 homes and killed four people in Greenfield. On Tuesday, organizers in a press release clarified the community’s status ahead of the ride, saying in-part:

“After careful consideration and many conversations with local officials and partners, we have decided to welcome the RAGBRAI community on this year’s ride,” RAGBRAI Greenfield committee co-chair Gina School said in a news release. “We have changed our theme for the day to Greenfield Strong, Rising After the Storm.” (read the full statement below)

RAGBRAI LI is scheduled to begin Sunday, July 21 and end Saturday, July 27. It’s among the shortest routes in ride history, but with 18,737 feet of climb, it’s the hilliest ride ever.

(Radio Iowa) – A former biology professor who’s been a college administrator for over two decades will become president of Briar Cliff University in Sioux City in July. Matthew Draud has been the vice president of academic affairs at McMurray University in Abilene, Texas, since 2020.

“With the advent and the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence…what our students are going to be doing in the very near future is really transforming, at a pace that’s actually kind of spectacular,” Draud said. “And what that’s going to call all of us to do (at) every institution is sort of re-imagine what we’re doing to prepare our students for that future.”

Draud, one of four finalists for the job, says his interview was capped off by a dinner with students — and that’s what convinced him to take the job. “And then, they said: ‘Hey, this has been nice, but we have some questions,'” Draud said, laughing. “I didn’t expect that, but let me tell you, I got the best questions that I had gotten all day – absolutely no doubt about it — the most probing, honest questions I had gotten the whole day.”

Briar Cliff’s website shows 941 students were enrolled at the school last fall. Draud says Briar Cliff, like every college and university in the country, is heading into the next academic year behind the eight ball due to the revamped and delayed federal financial aid application process. “Financial value transparency coming up is something every institution is going to have to deal with,” Draud says. Federal rules that go into effect later this year require colleges to show students and parents how much they’ll be paying for college and the financial outcomes they can expect to achieve after graduation.

Briar Cliff was founded by the Sisters of Saint Francis and started as a women’s college in 1934. Men were admitted in 1965. Draud will be Briar Cliff’s 13th president when he takes over July 1st. The university’s 12th president resigned in January to become the chief financial officer at a small Catholic college in Kansas City, Kansas.

(Iowa News Service) – One version of the Farm Bill being debated in Congress would cut billions of dollars in SNAP benefits from agriculture-dependent states, including Iowa. Groups fighting hunger in the state are pushing back. The version of the Farm Bill released by House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson would cut nearly 30-billion dollars in SNAP benefits over the next decade – 170-million in Iowa, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Iowa Hunger Coalition Board Chair Luke Elzinga says based on those projections, the cuts would have a big impact on the most vulnerable people in the state.

The so-called Thrifty Food Plan, which creates funding formulas for SNAP and other food assistance programs, would also freeze future benefits. Thompson (R-Penn.) and others have argued this version of the Farm Bill amounts to responsible budgeting and future planning.

Elzinga’s coalition has provided numbers showing SNAP benefits are already not enough to keep up with providing the lowest-cost meals in the state, and come in about 20-percent below what it takes to make ends meet at the dinner table.

This isn’t the final version of the Farm Bill to be debated, but Elzinga argues releasing a measure with such major cuts to SNAP benefits isn’t a good starting point for negotiations. In his view, it creates the perception that for Congress, low-income people are not high on the priority list.

(Massena, Iowa) –  The Cass County Conservation Board (CCCB) and the Massena Public Library are holding a Kids Book Club Program on the book- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Kids are invited to read the book, discuss it, and learn more at the Massena Public Library in Massena, on Tuesday June 25th, 2024, beginning at 10:00-a.m.

The event is program is FREE, and geared to 3rd grade readers and up. If you need to borrow a copy of the book, both the Cass County Conservation Board and the Massena Public Library have additional copies.

The program on the 25th will feature activities that tie to the book besides discussing the book You DO NOT have to be a registered card holder to attend the program!

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03) today (Tuesday) was promoted to Colonel in the United States Air Force during a private ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. alongside family, friends, and colleagues.

“After 20 years of service, I am honored to earn the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Air Force,” said Rep. Nunn. “It is a privilege to serve our country not only in Congress, but also as a member of the armed forces. My time in the Air Force has taught me patriotism, courage, and service above self – values I rely on every day as a father, Colonel, and Congressman.”

Rep. Nunn served our country for two decades in the United States Air Force. As an airborne intelligence officer, Rep. Nunn flew recon missions off the coasts of Russia and China. After 9/11, he deployed three times to the Middle East and flew over 700 combat hours, including being awarded “Aircrew of the Year” for combat operations to save special forces in Afghanistan.

In his 20 years of military service, Rep. Nunn has served as an active-duty officer in the Air Force and the Iowa National Guard. Rep. Nunn currently serves as a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

(Radio Iowa) – State Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig is asking the U-S-D-A to compensate dairy operations struck by bird flu. Naig says it’s a typical move when there’s an animal disease outbreak that leads to the loss of livestock or production. “You see a loss of milk production when a herd is affected, so we think it’s right that those producers, kind of like a crop insurance type concept, would be compensated for those losses,” Naig says, “and we are finding that some animals do have to be culled or sold off of the farm.”

Modern dairy operations have all sorts of ways to monitor cows, including how much they eat and how much milk is produced daily. Naig says those sick cattle are then isolated from the rest of the herd. “Their milk, then, is also captured and siphoned off and so that milk, from the sick pen, does not make it into normal production,” Naig says. “I think this is the good news is that there were already very well established food safety protocols on dairy farms and those certainly serve us well in normal times, but in times like this where there’s a developing situation with an animal disease, those protocols really are important.”

Bird flu has been confirmed among cows at dairy operations in Sioux and O’Brien Counties. A team of U-S-D-A veterinarians is in Iowa this week, trying to determine what might be the connection among poultry and dairy operations that recently have been hit by bird flu.  “We requested those resources,” Naig says. “We’re going to probably request some additional resources to really, really run down these leads and really figure this out.” Naig says it will hopefully identify how the virus is moving and help develop new biosecurity strategies for poultry and dairy operations.

When bird flu was first confirmed at poultry farms and in backyard flocks nine years ago, testing was done in nearby poultry operations to try to contain the virus. Now, both dairy farms and poultry operations near a bird flu outbreak are included in testing protocols. “What you’re trying to do, again, is to prevent the spread,” Naig says. “You’re trying to identify early whether there may have been a connection between farms.”

Dr. Jeff Kaisand — the State Veterinarian — says they don’t yet know how bird flu is transmitted from cow to cow within a herd, but there is a key sign a dairy operation has cows infected with the virus.  “In certain animals, they’ll see very serious drops in milk production. The milk may have a yellowish color or colostrum like color to it…but it does not usually cause major issues in the dairy farm,” Kaisand says. “We have had some reports that there is for a period time, about four or five days, a marked decrease in milk production.”

Kaisand briefed a state legislative committee at the Iowa Capitol Tuesday. The state vet says once bird flu has been confirmed in a dairy operation, workers are advised to wear protective gear, like face masks and public health officials ask the owner of the dairy to monitor the health of their employees. “We don’t know for sure how it’s being transmitted to people,” Kaisand said. “We don’t know whether it’s milk or other body secretions from the animals.”

While no cases of bird flu in humans have been reported IN IOWA, three dairy workers in other states recently have been infected with the virus after working around sick cows.

(Radio Iowa) – A U-S Appeals Court heard arguments today (Tuesday) for lifting the injunction against a state law the prevents some books from being in school libraries. The state argues the law keeps sexually explicit books out of schools and inappropriate lessons out of school curriculum’s. The Iowa State Education Association teacher union is one of the groups that seeks to block the law, saying it is unconstitutional. I-S-E-A attorney, Christy Hickman, says it is too vague for schools and school boards to interpret.

“They have been tasked with trying to carry out a law that prohibits school libraries to include books with, quote, descriptions and depictions of sex acts without any additional meaningful guidance,” she says. Hickman says the penalties for violating the law have made teachers hesitant to take action. “Loss of employment licensure complaints that could lead to loss of license licensure the inability to you know practice as a public educator for a certain period of time,” Hickman says.

One of the judges asked why they should act if the book was available through other sources outside the school.  “Public school libraries are intended to provide access to books to all children, regardless of whether or not they can buy it at the bookstore,” she says. “So, such an argument, while it might make sense in other contexts, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the context of of our K-12 Public Schools.”

A judge also questioned why the law should be declared unconstitutional and where it was a better tactic to sue individuals school over the issue. Hickman says the law has already had an impact with reports that thousands of more books than needed being removed from school libraries. “It seems like an obvious chilling effect across the state and I don’t see that changing unless we get some acknowledgment from the Department of Education that there needs to be some additional guidance,” Hickman says.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird issued a statement after the arguments that says, inappropriate books do not belong in the hands of school children and “they made the case in court to defend Iowa’s law that protects kids, families, and parental rights. It is common sense.”