The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a work session this evening in the High School Media Center, beginning at 7:30. During the meeting, the Board will hear a presentation on the Fiscal Year 2011 Audit. They’re also set to discuss the 2012-2013 Budget, and Middle School Renovation project. Any decisions made during the session will be acted upon during the Board’s regular meeting next month.

Iowa Secretary Matt Schultz has introduced a bill that would change the method in which county supervisor redistricting plans can be challenged if questions regarding the consideration improper political purposes are raised. 

An Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board order dismissing a complaint, filed November 8, 2011, said “The system motivates the supervisors to appoint political allies to the commission to safeguard the interest of their respective political parties.” The bill would require Legislative Services Agency to draw a map for county supervisor redistricting plan if a petition containing signatures equal to 2% of the total votes cast for the office of Governor in the preceding General Election, are collected.

Schultz said “I share the IECD Board’s frustrations with the process and the need to change the current system.   However, I believe that local control must remain a key element in creation of the redistricting plans. I believe this bill takes a necessary step to remove politics from redistricting at the local level while maintaining local control of the process.”

For more information please visit www.sos.iowa.gov<http://www.sos.iowa.gov>

w/ Ric Hanson

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Last week, members of the Atlantic Education Association met with a team representing the District’s administration, and proposed a 6.9% salary package increase for the 2012-2013 Contract Year. Monday afternoon, those same entities met again, to hear the District’s opening proposal during the Collective Bargaining process. The Atlantic School District’s counter to last week’s salary and benefit proposal included no increase in the base salary rate, which was markedly different than the 5 percent increase in base pay presented by the union.

Atlantic School District Superintendent Mike Amstein proposed several changes in language to the current contract. Amstein says the proposed changes in particular, focused on parts of the contract that either are “permissive,” with no history of how the language was presented, or simply needed clarification. He says the proposed contract is not as long as the current version, and is more understandable.

Some of the language which was considered redundant, or “permissive,” were included in the following sections of the contract: Employee hours; Vacations and Holidays; Leaves; Transfer procedures; Staff reduction procedures; Professional Development; Salaries and Benefits; and Insurance. The Education Association will review the proposed language changes and meet again, most likely next week, with District officials. Both sides are still waiting for the district’s insurance rates to become known, before they can proceed with further, meaningful talks on salaries and benefits packages.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report a Red Oak man was arrested this (Tuesday) morning on charges of Possession of methamphetamine and Possession of marijuana. Authorities say 24-year old Timothy James Stewart was taken into custody at around 3:40-a.m..  Stewart was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on full bond.

The route for next summer’s RAGBRAI will be announced this weekend. RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz says the eight overnight towns for the annual bicycle ride across the state will be revealed Saturday night during an event at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines. This isn’t the first time RAGBRAI officials have held a special “route announcement party.” Juskiewicz says this is the third year for the event and the previous two years were “fantastically attended.” The event is scheduled on the same day as the Iowa Bicycle Summit and Expo – held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Iowa Events Center. The RAGBRAI Route Announcement Party runs from 8-11 p.m. The bicycle expo is free, but tickets to the RAGBRAI announcement are $30.

“The event benefits the Iowa Bicycle Coalition,” Juskiewicz said. The party will include a live band, door prizes, food and drinks. Video of the event will also be carried live on the Des Moines Register’s website. This will be the 40th year for RAGBRAI.”We’re planning some big stuff,” Juskiewicz said of the event’s 40th anniversary. “After the route comes out, we’ll clear up some of that stuff, but we’re looking forward to one thing at a time.” RAGBRAI XL will be held July 22-28. Bicyclists traditionally start the trip with their rear tire in the Missouri River and end the week-long journey with their front tire entering the Mississippi River. Juskiewicz refused to provide any clues to this year’s route. “It’ll be in Iowa,” Juskiewicz said. RAGBRAI typically draws 10,000 bicyclists from around the country and outside the U.S. Last year’s event began July 24^th in Glenwood, and included overnight stops in Atlantic, Carroll and Boone, in western Iowa.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A federal judge in Iowa has sentenced a Nebraska man to more than 13 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 42-year-old Kevin Hershman, of Lincoln, Neb., was sentenced last week to 160 months. Hershman pleaded guilty after his indictment in October.
 
Hershman was found to be an armed career criminal under federal law because he’d been convicted of three or more felonies for crimes of violence or drug trafficking. They include bank robberies in Washington and Nebraska and conspiracy to rob a store in Nebraska.  Court records say Hershman is facing Nebraska charges on four felonies: two counts of theft, one of arson and one of drug possession.

A Central Iowa organizations’ misfortunes have turned into a blessing for students in eight southwest Iowa counties, who will be the beneficiaries of free school supplies. “Teacher Tools 4 Tomorrow” is a volunteer run, FREE store for qualifying teachers in Iowa. The Des Moines store was established to allow teachers of qualifying schools to shop at no cost to them for the supplies that they need to educate the students in their classrooms.

The non-profit group usually works with metro schools to provide the supplies, but because they’ve lost their warehouse, the excess school supplies must be removed from the facility in the Des Moines area.  Adams County Community Economic Development Executive Director Beth Waddle says it’s the first time they’ve been able to partner with Teacher Tools For Tomorrow. 15 pallets of school supplies were donated to help eight area schools, including: Corning, Prescott, Villisca, Lenox, Cumberland-Anita-Massena, Orient-Macksburg, Bedford and Clearfield.

Capital Sanitary Supply and Hy-Vee transported the pallets to Corning. Precision Pulley and Idler allowed use of its facility to store and sort the items. Akin Building Center provided supplies to sort and wrap the boxes. Corning Rotary Club and Southwest Iowa REC brought in volunteers to help sort the items. The schools were then notified to come to Corning to pick up their free materials.

A collision between a semi and a car this (Monday) morning in Crawford County has claimed the life of a Schleswig woman. The Iowa State Patrol says 61-year old Margaret Rebecca Irvine, who was wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene of the crash on Highway 59, about 3-miles north of Denison. Officials say a 2004 International was traveling south on Highway 59 at around 8:35-a.m., when a northbound 1993 Oldsmobile driven by Irvine went out of control on the slick road surface, and crossed the center line. The vehicle was then struck broadside by the truck.

The driver of the truck, 51-year old David Charles Joslin, of Galva, was not injured in the crash.