A delegation from southwest Iowa spoke to the Iowa Transportation Commission Tuesday, asking the commission to consider building a Highway 30 bypass around the south edge of Missouri Valley. John McCurdy of the Southwest Iowa Planning Council in Atlantic, told the commission the time is right to move ahead.  McCurdy says the D-O-T studied the issue in the 1990’s and it was put on the shelf. He says one of the reasons it didn’t move forward is that there wasn’t the local support needed. Missouri Valley Mayor, Clint Sargent, says the biggest reason to move ahead with the bypass now is that the support has changed in favor of the bypass. Sargent says they would like to combine the building of the bypass with FEMA flood mitigation measures to improve the flood protection in the area. 

 Sargent says they know the importance of Highway 30 as a “corridor for commerce,” and he says the was evidenced by the efforts of the D-O-T to keep it open during the flooding this year. Sargent says there’s also a safety issue as the amount of truck traffic through the town on Highway 30 has increased. He says the businesses that rely on the truck traffic have already moved to the nearby interstate and those in Missouri Valley are not dependent on that traffic, so they support a bypass. Sargent finished his remarks with a call for action on the issue.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Hundreds of University of Nebraska at Omaha students will use their fall break later this month to help clean up the flood-damaged Salvation Army Camp Eppley in Bellevue. The students will also renovate and repair other community facilities and low-income housing as part of UNO’s annual Three Days of Service project. The UNO students will combine efforts with high school students from Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The students will begin the work Saturday and continue through Tuesday on numerous renovation and beautification projects. Camp Eppley suffered extensive damage from the Missouri River flooding this summer.

Interstate 80 westbound remains closed at this time near Adair, following a collision earlier this morning, between two semi tractor-trailers. The crash occurred at the 75-mile marker, or about one-mile west of Adair. The Cass County Communications Center dispatched Anita and Wiota Fire and Rescue at 5:48-a.m.  One person was injured and transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital, in Atlantic.  Rescue crews are no longer on the scene. The Iowa DOT reports traffic is being detoured around the crash through Anita.

No other details are currently available. The accident was under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol.

Atlantic Community School District Superintendent Dr. Mike Amstein, Tuesday, announced the district has been selected by the Iowa Department of Education (IDOE) for a “Breaking Barriers to Learning and Teaching” Award. The award is presented each year to those districts which make major progress in closing gaps in student achievement, by improving instruction, curriculum and programs for students, and professional development opportunities for school staff.

Amstein says the IDOE analyzed achievement scores from the Fall of 2010. The Atlantic School District had two instances of significant decrease in the achievement gap in the subgroups. The subgroups include English Language Learner (ELL), Individualized Education Plans (IEP), or Socio-Economic Status (SES). Districts earn the Breaking Barriers award if they saw proficiency in math or reading improve by at least 20% among two or more subgroups of students, while not allowing a decline of more than 5% in any other subgroup of students.

Amstein says the Atlantic School District received recognition for its efforts in reducing the achievement gap in the third-grade reading, SES group, and in 6th grade reading, between the SES group and the general academic peer groups. He says he applauds the administrators and teachers across the district for their efforts to narrow the achievement gap, especially as they prepare for another round of Iowa Assessment Tests later this month and in November.

The award will be presented to school board member Phil Hascall, on behalf of the district, on November 16th, at the Iowa Association of School Boards’ Annual Convention at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.  Amstein says the award is a great honor for the district, and it reinforces the boards’ focus on instruction in the classroom.

A$300,000 settlement with the families of three girls who were involved in the Atlantic High School strip search incident will be mostly covered by the Atlantic Community School District’s  insurance policy. Atlantic Superintendent Mike Amstein wanted to set the record straight on how the settlement would be paid for, during the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night.

search (click here to listen to audio from the meeting)

(as said – Amstein says the district’s carrier, EMC Insurance, has indicated the district is only responsible for the cost of its deductible, which is $1,500.)

Last month it was announced the Atlantic School District had agreed to pay $300,000 to the families of three students who were stripped search by a school employee in 2009. The settlement resolved a lawsuit brought by Holleigh Jo Jacobsen and her father, Matthew Jacobsen; Griffin Ferguson and her mother, Lisa Ferguson; and Paige Brianna Lank and her mother, Lee Lank. Each family of the three students will receive $100,000.

The lawsuit alleged that former Atlantic High School Assistant principal Paul Croghan ordered a strip search of five female students when another student reported they were missing $100. No money was found after the searches. Croghan resigned in 2009. The plaintiffs alleged the school violated the girls state and federal rights against unreasonable searches. On September 20th, Atlantic School officials admitted that the searches were against school policy and state law. They also said the girls did not do anything wrong.

The settlement however, did not absolve the district from its legal problems associated with the case. Last month, an open records suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa (ACLU) reached the Iowa Court of Appeals. The civil-rights organization has been trying to find out what disciplinary action if any, was imposed on school officials involved in the search. The organization had initially lost its bid to have the information disclosed in district court, but appealed the decision.

The district has denied the ACLU’s request for information on the matter, saying disclosure would violate the employees’ privacy. ACLU officials have said that because the public has a legitimate and compelling interest in what transpired at the high school, the information should be disclosed.