Saundra Clem Leininger, Executive Director of the French Icarian Society, located in Corning, will present a program for the Cass County Genealogical Society’s monthly meeting this week, with regard to the six Icarian Colonies in America, and the French Icarian Village, near Corning.  The village was the longest-living Icarian community.

The 34-acre settlement features a restored cemetery, one-room school house and communal dining hall. A meeting about the Icarians will take place 1-p.m. Thursday, March 24^th,  in the meeting room at the Atlantic Public Library.  The program is free, and open to the public.

Historians say the colonies were part of a social experiment began in France in the 1840s. Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa were locations for the non-religious communal experiment. The Iowa Icarian Colony located 3 miles east of Corning was established in 1852 and disbanded in 1898. Many descendants live in the area.

Everyone is invited to learn more about the remarkable Icarian story during this Thursday’s meeting, in Atlantic.

Superintendent compensation is slightly higher in southwest Iowa than across the state, on average, based on an analysis of area district’s contracts with school chiefs. The Daily NonPareil cites a report in the Cedar Rapids Gazette which conducted an analysis of superintendent contracts from 314 school districts. The Gazette requested records from Iowa’s 336 school districts, with 93.5 percent responding.

Analysis by The Gazette showed a median salary of $135,000 with four weeks of vacation, on average, and a variety of benefits typical for public school district’s de facto CEOs, who manage multimillion-dollar budgets and employ up to thousands of people. The 271 superintendents’ whose compensation was reviewed are largely new to their districts, with nearly half on the job for fewer than five years and 12 percent finishing their first year at superintendent. Many superintendents are splitting their time between two districts or serve in additional roles, such as a building principal, trends that are mirrored in southwest Iowa as well.

The Nonpareil conducted an analysis, based on The Gazette’s data plus additional reporting, of the 29 public school districts in its coverage area in southwest Iowa, showing superintendent compensation is slightly higher than the average for the rest of the state, although Council Bluffs may throw off the comparison. The analysis shows across southwest Iowa, the average superintendent salary was about $142,000. Council Bluffs Superintendent Martha Bruckner has the largest paycheck, with an annual salary of $215,000, although her district is more than three times the next nearest in terms of student enrollment.

The second through fourth largest districts were also the second through fourth largest in terms of compensation, although Harlan pays about $12,300 more to Justin Wagner than Glenwood pays Devin Embray, even though Glenwood is considerably larger than Harlan. Fifth in terms of enrollment, Atlantic, pays Michael Amstein wages that are more middle-of-the-pack despite being one of the area’s fifth largest school district. All three superintendent – Wagner, Embray and Amstein – took over their school districts in 2010. Bruckner has been at the helm in Council Bluffs since 2007.

On the other end of the salary table is Tony Weers, the outgoing superintendent of Tri-Center, who is paid $122,000, the least in total of any of area’s full-time superintendents. Southwest Iowa is typical for the state in terms of women serving as superintendents: Bruckner, Deidre Drees of Missouri Valley and Kerri Nelson of Shenandoah. The Gazette found statewide the rate was about 15 percent, and it’s about 14 percent in the area. National statistics are either dated or unclear, but the superintendency of public school districts remains a male-dominated field despite education generally being a female-dominated profession.

Police in Creston report the arrest Sunday night, of 27-year old Dustin Giles. The Creston man was taken into custody for Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $300 bond, and, on two warrants from other counties.

Authorities said also, a resident in the 300 block of W. Montgomery Street, in Creston, reported that sometime between last Thursday and Saturday, someone broke into his truck parked near his residence, and stole a black, 12-gauge shotgun with shell catcher. The loss was estimated at $550.

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have released the name of a worker who died while working to build a fertilizer plant in northwest Iowa.  The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 44-year-old Arturo Castor-Cavanzon, of Tecumseh, Nebraska.

He was one of two men were working inside a tower tank Saturday afternoon when the problem occurred at the CF Industries construction site near Sergeant Bluff. Authorities say Castor-Cavanzon fell unconscious inside the tank and couldn’t be rescued before his death. The second man escaped the tank and was hospitalized in Sioux City. His name hasn’t been released.

The company is nearing the completion of a $2 billion expansion of its Port Neal fertilizer plant. The project includes new ammonia and urea plants.