(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds visited Rock Valley today (Thursday) and announced the opening of a temporary school for middle school students. Reynolds stood in front of the new building and spoke of the devastation that greeted her on her first visit to the community after the June flood. ” One of the images that I won’t soon forget was the school we’re at today, Rock Valley K-12 public school building was an island that was completely surrounded by water. Not far away, the Rock Valley Christian School stood with its doors and windows wide open in an effort to help the interior dry out, and the sidewalk surrounding it was piled high with damaged classroom materials and equipment,” Reynolds says.

Rock Valley Community School Superintendent Matt Van Voorst says he looked at the devastation knowing they had only two months before school would start again. ” Every square inch of our district K-12 building was inundated by mud. Contents were destroyed, as well as our grounds, our bus barn,” he says. “To be quite frank, it felt a little bit lonely at first.”
Van Voorst says that lonely feeling didn’t last long as volunteers started arriving along with contractors.

“Saying the word community has taken on a little bit of a new meaning to me. I think I’m going to bold caps and underline that from now on, community, it really is a whole other meaning,” Van Voorst says.

All the public school buildings were hit by flooding and are still under repair. The new modular school will house 150 students in six classrooms, and includes bathrooms, offices, and a common area. Some elementary students will go to class at a local church. Superintendent Matt Van Voorst says the district did meet its goal to have all students learning in person when they come back to class next week. Rock Valley Christian School Principal Marcus De Jager echoes the sense of community.

Governor Reynolds in Rock Valley. (photo from Governor’s video feed)

“Just like Rock Valley community, we are so motivated, so motivated to teach the whole child, because we know how important it is to have some sort of normalcy,” De Jager says. “So it’s our honor and our privilege to host these students starting next week. So let’s celebrate.” De Jager says Rock Valley Christian is ready with finishing touches in the kitchen being made now and buses are on their way from different states. Rock Valley Mayor Kevin Van Otterloo says it’s been 68 days since the flood. He expressed his gratitude to the Governor and her staff, the emergency personnel that worked tirelessly during the disaster, and the sheer number of volunteers that showed up.

“Volunteers have come into Rock Valley to help 104,000 man hours were put in to help us. Without them, we would not be where we’re at today,” Van Otterloo says. He says he received a text early on in the recovery from the governor telling him to never give up. He says the community hasn’t and won’t, and is confident the community will heal. Tours of the new classrooms were held after the event.

The classrooms will be repurposed into a daycare for Rock Valley, once the school recovery is complete. Classes in Rock Valley begin September 5th.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Democrats says changes made by the Iowa Legislature and approved by the governor have left Area Education Agencies short staff as the school year gets underway. Representative Lindsay James of Dubuque says there’s a drop of more than 400. “What does this actually mean? Four-hundred-29 fewer staffers in the A-E-As means that there are 429 fewer professionals on the ground providing vital services for kids in our public schools,” she says.

The reorganization plan of the governor gives the school districts the same amount of money and the Department of Education is taking over some services. James and other Democratic lawmakers say they don’t know how many of the A-E-A employees have left to take other education jobs in Iowa.  “And if you look at the Department of Ed those positions that they are hiring for have not been filled. Many, many, many have not been filled. And so what we’re seeing is an incredible loss and re-shifting to bureaucratic rules in Des Moines and positions going unfilled in Des Moines,” she says.

The Governor’s spokesperson issued a statement that says:

“While the Governor and her team were in Northwest Iowa celebrating getting students back to school after a natural disaster, the Democrats were looking backward and telling Iowans half-truths about special education reform. They are stoking fear, but these are the facts: no funding has been cut for special education or any educational services-it’s been given to the local school districts to control. Some schools have hired former AEA employees, while others have chosen to continue to work with AEAs. As schools decide how to best use their resources to serve their students with special needs, resources will naturally shift. That is the intent-to strengthen the education experience for all students, including students receiving special education services.”

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a wastewater discharge at the City of Fort Dodge, in Webster County. Officials say the DNR Field Office in Mason City was notified Wednesday by the City of Fort Dodge, of a wastewater discharge due to a contractor hitting a force main at the Kenyon Road bridge near the Des Moines River.

The discharge was discovered around 4:00 PM. The main transports untreated wastewater under the river to the wastewater treatment plant. It is estimated that approximately 400,000 gallons of untreated wastewater flowed into the river. Repairs are complete, and cleanup efforts have begun.

Any downstream recreational users should take caution and stay out of the river at this time. No dead fish have been observed at this time. The Iowa DNR will follow up with the city for further assessment, and the investigation is ongoing.

To report a release after hours, please call the DNR’s emergency spill line at (515) 725-8694. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of an incident. The DNR website has more information about spill reporting requirements.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol today (Thursday), identified a teenager who died in a downtown Des Moines crash Wednesday morning. The crash ended a pursuit that began at around 1-a.m. Wednesday, when troopers tried to stop a stolen car that was speeding on Interstate 235 at 31st Street.

The chase entered the downtown area, where the stolen 2013 Hyundai Elantra with five occupants went the wrong way on Grand Avenue. At that point, Troopers backed-off, but the car crashed into a 2019 Jeep Cherokee on 7th Street. A passenger in the stolen car, 16-year-old Chad Nicholson, of Des Moines, died at the scene. Four others in the stolen car — a 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds (one of them the driver) and a 20-year-old — were were taken to local hospitals with undisclosed injuries. All passengers are from Des Moines. None of the persons in the car were wearing seat belts.

The driver of the SUV, 35-year-old Aaron John Stonehocker, of Adel, and his passenger, were treated for injuries and released.

(Radio Iowa) – A health insurance company is investing millions of dollars in mental tele-health services in Iowa’s K-12 public schools. The Cedar Rapids Community School District received one-and-a-half million dollars this week from Minnesota-based insurer UnitedHealth Group. Superintendent Tawana Grover says the money will help pay for an online tele-health portal that students can use to access mental health counseling.

“It’s one thing to check in,” Grover says. “It’s another thing to spend 30 minutes or an hour with someone that is solely focused on your needs, what you need, what you’re dealing with, and helping to not only listen, but to provide you with strategies that you can use whenever you go beyond the session.” The provider is Hazel Health, which focuses on school-based care. Brian Masterson, UnitedHealth’s senior behavioral health medical director, says starting in the schools could prevent longer term, more acute behavioral issues.

“We’ve been contemplating this for a few years, working with how do you address the mental health crisis in in our society, but also how to address that by working through it so you start an earlier time period,” Masterson says. “So in schools and those types of things, is an opportunity to teach people about the constructs of mental well-being.” UnitedHealth says it aims to provide the resources to historically under-served and rural communities. In the end, the program goal is to impact 100-thousand students.

As of Wednesday, it has funded the creation of two such programs in Des Moines and Council Bluffs. No rural programs have been announced.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a woman on drug-related charges this (Thursday) morning. 38-year-old Sara Sue Batten, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9-a.m. in the 1200 block of N. Broadway in Red Oak, on charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance and Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia. Batten was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa)- Iowa’s Congressional delegation is back in Iowa for a work period to meet with people in their district. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, hopes they can get some work done when they return to Washington. “We’re not in session next week, but we’re in session the next three weeks after that, I’m hopeful we’re still able to move forward with good legislation,” she says. “There’s a lot of time-centric bills that we’ve put out that I’m continuing to advocate to our leadership that we need to move the ball forward on those.” This is an election year and that can often keep legislation from moving forward.

Hinson says one of the key things they have to address is the Farm Bill. “I’m hopeful we’re able to get our bill across the finish line in a bipartisan way, but again, if we can’t by that September 30th deadline, I will support an extension,” Hinson says. Hinson says she’s not sure what a Farm Bill extension would look like.

She made her comments during her weekly conference call with reporters.