While other school districts have seen a decline in student enrollment over the years, the classes continue to grow in the Atlantic Community School District. Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein to the Board of Education during their meeting Tuesday night at the High School, that as of Tuesday, the District has 1, 484 students, which is an increase of 59 students from what was certified last year at this same time. Amstein said if those numbers continue to hold, it wouldn’t surprise him if they have somewhere between 60 and 70 new students by the time the District actually certifies its numbers to the State at the beginning of next month. Amstein says for rural southwest Iowa, those types of numbers “Are basically unheard of,” and he’s “very pleased,” but he acknowledged it does “create problems,” as far as classroom space is concerned.

The subject of classroom space came up during discussion about the District’s Capital Needs 5-year Plan, at the end of the night’s meeting. Amstein said his priorities in their five-year plan include additional classroom space , and an overhaul of the Heating, Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) system at the high school, which are nearly the end of their expected life span. The plan tentatively includes additional classroom space at the high school for the 2014-2015 school year, which is expected to cost around $1-million. Matt Alexander, Schuler Principal and Curriculum Director, said if the enrollment numbers Principal Stacey Hornung is seeing in the Washington Elementary school continues to grow, he’ll need an additional six-to nine-classrooms in his facility by 2015. That means the district could be expanding its use of “Mobile classrooms,” but leads to the question of where those classrooms would be located. One factor that will help the District with its funding for those projects, is an expected increase in the School Infrastructure Local Option (SILO) tax funds, which Amstein said will likely grow based on projections, and generate an additional $50- to $60,000 in revenue.

Kristy Pellett (left) is sworn-in as Atlantic Board of Ed. President for 2012-2013, by Board Secretary Mary Beth Fast, Tuesday night. (Ric Hanson photo)

In other business, the Atlantic School Board Tuesday, re-elected Kristy Pellett as Board President, and Dennis Davis as Vice-President, for the 2012-2013 school year. They also voted to approve Mary Beth Fast as Board Secretary, and Melinda McDermott as Treasurer. And, the Board opted to return to their Monday night at 7:30 twice monthly meetings, effective in October, instead of holding those meetings on Tuesday’s, at 7:30-p.m.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Iowa Transportation Commission Tuesday, meeting in Ames, approved nearly 500-thousand dollars in grants for railroad planning studies, including $78,400 for the Mills County-Pottawattamie County Rail Port Study. D-O-T spokesperson, Rose Wazny, says the grants will go to six city or county studies. “The planning study grants are a pilot project that was initiated by the legislature in 2001 and we are no implementing that idea that areas as they have rail development and rail needs, that there needs to be some thought as to how that development will happen in a much broader picture,” according the Wazny. A study that includes Pottawatamie and Mills County is the largest project in terms of the area it covers.

Wazny says, “That’s the largest one and they are looking at potential areas that might be suited to a railport. And it’s a large area, so they are going to look at both man-made and natural constraints that could impact how rail is developed in the future.” The Central Iowa Planning Group won a 100-thousand dollar grant to look at what’s called a “transloading” facility, which most often is a combination of trucking and railroad transportation. “A couple of years ago the Central Iowa Planning Group did a study on the idea of an intermodel facility, which is kind of a very, very large capital intensive type of transloading facility. And now they are going to look at maybe different shapes to see how transloading might be applicable in the central Iowa area,” Wazny explains.

Sioux City won a 100-thousand dollar grant for a second phase of their study.Phase one laid a basis for some freight activities that might occur in the future. And phase two is going to look at a very broad picture of rail and road-freight transportation and those needs through the city and surrounding areas, and how those future investments will best serve the movement of freight and people through the Sioux City area,” Wazny says.

Iowa Falls won the third 100-thousand dollar grant. “They are in the process of developing a new rail industrial park…and they are looking at very specific things about how it will be structured and how it too will play off existing structure in that area,” Wazny says. Waszny says the idea with all the planning grants is to be ready to meet the transportation needs across the state. She says rail transportation is becoming more and more of an option for Iowa shippers, as many of the things produced here are very heavy and are sent long distances.

(Radio Iowa)