The big yellow buses are hitting the roadways today in numbers greater than yesterday, as some school districts get classes under way this week and the rest prepare to start next week. The Iowa Department of Transportation now has more penalties to hit drivers who pass the buses that are stopped and picking up students. The D-O-T’s director of driver services, Kim Snook, says you should be alert to a potential stop anytime you are on a roadway with a school bus. And then take action when you see the warning lights. “It’s kind of like what we all learned in drivers ed, when you see yellow you slow down, you get prepared to stop. That’s exactly what you need to do with a school bus. When you see the yellow, slow down and assume you are going to stop, because when the red comes out you need to stop,” Snook says. “And don’ proceed. If the stop arm is out there and the red light’s are on, stop.”

Snook says after you properly stop for a bus, don’t be in too big a hurry to take off again. “Even if it looks like all the kids have been discharged, just stay where you are at until the bus driver makes it very clear that you are able to proceed,” Snook explains. A law increasing the penalties for passing a stopped school bus was created following the death of seven year old Kadyn Halvorson of Northwood on May 10th of 2011. Snook says they’ve found too many people are not paying attention to the bus laws.

“A one day count conducted earlier this year was 43-point-seven percent compared to 38-point-two percent in 2011, that was the number of people illegally passing a school bus, that’s really significant,” according to Snook. “And when you think of the passengers in school buses, young children, it should be zero.” Drivers may think stopping for a school bus will make them late, but Snook says you have to think about what could happen if you don’t.

She says there is precious cargo in the school buses, and while everyone is in a hurry, you always want to be aware of that and follow the law. Snook says you may think you are going to get to your destination faster, but you won’t. Under the news rules, your driver’s license could be suspended for 30 days on the first conviction of illegally passing a school bus. That moves up to 90 days for a second conviction, and 180 days for a third or subsequent conviction. The law also allows for jail time of up to 30 days for the first offense and one year for repeat violators and also includes fines that start at 250 dollars and move up.

(Radio Iowa)

Home sales and prices increased in Iowa again last month. Dale Gross, of Atlantic, is president of the Iowa Association of Realtors (IAR). “We’ve had a tremendous 13 months in a row where everything continues to go a little bit up or a lot up,” Gross says. Home sales have increased in Iowa for 13 consecutive months. A new report from the I-A-R shows 3,367 homes were sold last month, compared to 3,274 homes sold in July 2011. The median sale price of a home in Iowa last month was $134,900, up from $130,000 in July 2011. Gross says the inventory of homes available for purchase has dropped 13-percent over the past year.

“We’re down from nearly 25,000 houses to 21,600 houses available for buyers to look at,” Gross said. “That, along with the low interest rates – which we’re seeing the 30 year (interest rate) at just under 4% and the 15 year under 3% – means there are still people out there buying or involved in the home buying process.” Gross said he’s concerned about the impact the drought will have on home sales in rural Iowa communities.

“And yet, the statistics don’t show that anybody is backing away here in the summer months,” Gross said. “I guess maybe the farmers have the right amount of crop insurance or something like that and everybody is talking like, ‘well, we’ll get by.'” The new I-A-R report shows pending home sales were up 4.2 percent in July compared to the previous year. The average number of days on the market in July was 96 days, down from 106 days in July 2011.

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – The founding president of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs has died.  Robert Looft was 87.  Bill Cutler, of the Cutler-O’Neill mortuary in Council Bluffs, said Wednesday that Looft died Monday at a nursing home in Council Bluffs.  Looft’s daughter Diane Machmuller said that her father had been ill for a couple of years.

Looft began his work at the college in 1966, after he’d been awarded a doctorate from Iowa State University. He pushed hard for Iowa Western’s development at a hillside location on the east side of Council Bluffs. The school continued to grow after he left in 1987. Carl Heinrich, who succeeded Looft, says Looft possessed intelligence, vision and creativity. Heinrich says it was an honor to have known Looft.

Students enrolled in the first-ever Iowa Legislature approved pilot online learning academy for K-through 12^th grades, will begin classes Thursday, just as their counterparts head-off to the classroom learning environment in a traditional brick-and-mortar type building. The CAM School Board in January approved the entering into of an agreement with Iowa Connections Academy, for the 2012-2013 school year. IACA Principal James Brauer said the response they’ve received since enrollments started to be accepted after the open enrollment deadline of March 1^st, has been phenomenal. Brauer said as of this (Wedneday) morning, 217 students had enrolled full-time in the online program, and it is possible they could have 225 students by the time the “virtual bell” rings Thursday morning.   Students enrolled in the online academy – which will have a building located in Anita – receive their education from fully-licensed, totally-endorsed teachers in their respective contact areas, on a daily basis.

Brauer says students will communicate with their instructors through a variety of electronic media. In addition, different field trips and club activities will be planned throughout the year, where students can get together with others, in order so they may socialize. And, while some people may be skeptical of students “sloughing-off” by not attending an actual classroom setting, Brauer says the power of being able to guide your own learning and have it facilitated by a teacher, provides students with a sense of “autonomy.” He says adults in the family will have to provide proof the student has spent a certain number of hours each day in the online classroom, just as traditional schools have to certify attendance figures.

But there is no online tracking of the students per se. Brauer says however, that some of the high school courses are set up so that students will be required to attend a webinar-type setting, and interact with other students as well as the teacher. He says one of the reasons online courses are becoming more and more popular, is the issue of bullying in the traditional school setting. He says while he has no hard numbers, the parents he’s heard from cited that problem as one reason for keeping their students home. Brauer says in the more than 125 phones calls he’s made to families enrolled in the Connections Academy, more than three-quarters of them indicated some form of bullying or harassment lead to their decision to enroll their child in the online program.

Brauer says as a virtual public school they still have to the various accreditation guidelines and all the State laws and regulations. Since they work with the CAM District, the requirements are tied to what the CAM School Board has approved, and the graduates receive their diploma from CAM. Connections will coordinate and host the graduation ceremonies. Currently around a half-dozen students will graduate next Spring from the Academy, if they successfully complete the program.