The Audubon School District Board of Education held their regular monthly meeting Monday night. Superintendent Brett Gibbs told KJAN News the Board took a look at their policy concerning Foreign Exchange Students He says as the District has gotten smaller there’s been concern about the number of students they’re getting. There were three students this year, which amounts to 10-percent of the Senior Class. There’s also the matter of timing, as some have started 2-3 weeks after school began.

Enrollment numbers, as projected, are down in the Audubon District, as they are in many area school districts, but there is some good news on the horizon. He said this will be their smallest year, but the biggest classes are in the Elementary. The two smallest classes are Juniors and Seniors, so it appears there will be some slow growth in class sizes. He said also they looked at the FY17-18 financial statements. The sharing dollars (Harlan  Coon Rapids) are starting to show-up in their budget, which is helping the bottom line. Coon Rapids has seen an increase of 14 or so students in the Certified Enrollment to the State. Gibbs said the School Board Monday,  set goal-setting and performance indicators for Fiscal Year 2018. Their goals, he said, were the same as last year. More importantly, he said, they took a closer look at some of the indicators that show progress that’s being made toward their goals, and made adjustments as necessary.”

The District he said they starting setting Board goals about four or five-years ago. It’s something that’s helped the District stay focused on their priorities and not get side-tracked by other issues that may arise. That’s especially true when it comes to professional development and funding priorities. The Audubon School Board also held the first reading of the District’s Wellness Policy, which is important in light of a recent change in policy by the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB). They also have a site visit this Spring from the State of Iowa Food Service, so they wanted to make sure the Wellness Policy was up to date.”

Gibbs said they had a site visit recently, with regard to the District’s 21^st Century Afterschool Program. This is the first full-year for the Summer and Afterschool program but second year of funding. He said the visit last Friday went very well. There are more than 40 K-4^th grade students participating in the afterschool program that runs from 3:30-p.m. to 6:30-p.m. Monday through Friday. The kids and community benefit from the program, because the kids never leave the school, there’s time for homework, physical activity, and STEM-based learning.)

The District received a $100,000 for the two programs.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Documents say employees maintained a secret waiting list of veterans for some Omaha mental health appointments. The Omaha World-Herald reports that a compliance officer’s memo to the director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System says the list dodged VA requirements for establishing and maintaining waiting lists. The compliance officer’s audit included two whistleblower complaints made about lists for appointments at the VA’s mental health psychotherapy clinic in Omaha.

The VA acknowledges the audit but won’t answer questions about it. It also says no veterans were harmed. The VA set up strict requirements for establishing waiting lists following a 2014 scandal that showed VA employees were covering up chronic delays with false paperwork and secret lists.

A man from Union County was arrested Monday afternoon on a warrant out of Nebraska. Creston Police arrested 29-year old Christopher Woolums, of Creston, on a Sarpy County, NE., warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original, Possession of a Controlled Substance, charge. Woolums was being held in the Union County Jail pending extradition to NE.

And, a Creston man reported to Police Monday morning, that someone had stolen property from his home valued at $1,500 altogether. The incident at a residence in the 600 block of Grand Avenue, took place sometime between August 1st and Oct. 13th. The missing items included a gold watch, 2 teeth with gold fillings, and a prayer blanket.