The Exira-EHK School Board, Monday night, discussed but took no action on, offering an Early Retirement incentive package. Superintendent Trevor Miller says instead, they’ll make that decision during their meeting in December. Miller said three people are eligible for Early Retirement this year.

In other business, the Board hired Mark Emgarten as Junior High Girls Basketball Coach, who formerly served as the Adair-Casey Boys Basketball Coach, and, they accepted the resignation of long-time teacher Julie Christensen, whose resignation is effective at the end of the current school year. Christensen retired once, and came back to serve part-time. Now, after having served the district for 42-years, she’s decided to pursue other avenues in life.

They also approved the sharing of a Human Resources position with the Neola/Tri-Center School District. And, the Board also talked about what they discussed and had learned at the IASB Convention last week, as well as acted on approving the SBRC (School Budget Review Committee) application for Modified Allowable Growth for Increasing Enrollment, Open Enrollment Out, and LEP (Limited English Proficiency) Instruction beyond 5-years.

The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, spent a considerable amount of time discussing the possibility of offering Early Retirement for the current school year. Superintendent, Dr. Brett Gibbs, said they talked about what that package could look like. He said they’ve offered Early Retirement in the past, but the past year was the exception, because of declining enrollment and the uncertainty of State funding, Gibbs is recommending the District offer the option to its current staff, but it would not become effective until July 1, 2017.

Gibbs said they discussed how many years a person would have to have served in the District in order to qualify. The Board will determine what type of package they would like to offer and act on approving, it during their meeting in December.

He says “Sadly, we need some people to take early retirement due to help our financial situation with declining enrollment…and the lack of State aid.” He says if personnel take the option, assuming it’s offered, it would clear up some space in the District’s General Fund. Gibbs didn’t want to say right now how many people might be interested in taking the option, since it hasn’t officially been offered. He said there are some who he thinks would take Early Retirement if it’s offered, but he has not officially solicited any responses so as to not get anyone’s hopes up.

In the past, a person had to have served the District for 15 or more years. Currently about a dozen employees would meet the requirements, and who are at least 55-years old. Dr. Gibbs said also, they talked about, but did not take action on, their Drop Out Prevention/At Risk program, which needs to be completed by Dec. 15^th and submitted to the State. He says since it just came online yesterday (Monday), they didn’t have time to get the forms filled out detailing how they use those funds and what types of services are provided to students through the use of the funds.

He said also the District’s Principals submitted a report to the Board on the “Smarter Balance Testing” for students, that’s scheduled to start next year in Iowa. The subject was discussed at last week’s IASB Convention.

Iowa roadways have been a dangerous place this year. Patrick Hoye, chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says traffic fatality numbers in Iowa had been declining, year-over-year, earlier this decade. Last year, 320 people were killed in traffic crashes in the state. “Unfortunately, we are already at 351 for this year with about a month-and-a-half to go,” Hoye said. “It’s scary, but we could be looking in the neighborhood of 380 to 390 fatalities if this trend would continue, which would be a sharp increase from a year ago.”

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest times of the year on Iowa’s roadways. A campaign is underway and runs through Sunday involving an increased law enforcement presence on Iowa’s highways and interstates. “Obviously, the things we’ll be looking for are impaired drivers, speeding vehicles, and people who are not properly buckled,” Hoye said.

Officials have been studying why there’s been such a sharp increase in traffic fatalities this year. Hoye notes roughly half of the traffic deaths in Iowa involved people who weren’t wearing a seatbelt and 30-percent of the fatal crashes were alcohol-related. Another reason for the spike in fatal crashes could involve the low gas prices we’ve had this year. “People are traveling more and anytime you have more vehicles traveling, there is the (potential) for an increase in crashes,” Hoye said.

Over the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday, five people were killed on Iowa roads.

(Radio Iowa)