(Radio Iowa) – Maple sap harvesters across northeast Iowa got the season started nearly three weeks early thanks to warmer than normal temperatures. Floyd County Conservation Director Adam Sears says this is the earliest start to the sap season he’s seen in 10 years. “Normally, next week’s when we start thinking about tapping trees, not 10 days ago. Everything’s just moved forward, but we’re hoping we get a little longer season this year, rather than just an earlier season,” Sears says.

He says the recent series of 50-degree days changed his usual timeline and they’ve already collected about one third of their normal sap collection. ” We hope that we still get the full season that we’d normally get on top of it, but we don’t really know that. It depends on how much it warms up continuously,” he says.

Floyd County Conservation typically harvests close to ten thousand gallons of sap each season, which yields about 200 gallons of maple syrup.

(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans in the Iowa House have developed an alternative to Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed overhaul of Area Education Agencies that help educate students with disabilities.  “We wanted to provide certainty for special education,” Grassley says. “We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was.”

Reynolds wants to let schools use a private firm, a different A-E-A or hire more special ed staff in their districts for the next school year. The House G-O-P plan would start sending state and federal special education funding directly to schools rather than the A-E-As — as the governor proposed — but it may only be used for special ed services from the local A-E-A.  “We’re not changing the ability for AEAs and schools to work together,” Grassley says. “This plan would continue to encourage that.” Grassley says the plan calls for a study that would involve legislators, educators and parents.

A new state Division of Special Education would be created as the governor proposed, but with half as many employees and most of them would be assigned to work in the A-E-A regions. The nine A-E-A administrators would see their salaries cut to be in line with local superintendents in their region. In years two and three of the House G-O-P plan, schools would no longer have to use the A-E-As for media services or other education-related services, like teacher training and curriculum materials.

“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details,” Grassley says, “but we also know we’re against the clock right now and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of the concerns that have existed on all of these issues, to try to continue to move their conversation forward for the legislative session.”

House Republicans decided a few weeks ago to table the governor’s bill on A-E-As. In a written statement, Reynolds said she appreciates that she and lawmakers will be able to continue the conversation about A-E-A changes. In a separate bill, House Republicans propose raising the salary for new teachers to at least 50-thousand dollars — as the governor called for — but over the next two years. Grassley says that would give schools time to adjust the pay levels for current teachers. House Republicans want to send 14 million dollars to schools — to raise the pay for other school staff.

“Really looking at your in-the-classroom para educators and others that we know our school districts are struggling to find right now and retain,” Grassley says, “and part of that also gets back to that one-on-one instruction in the classroom dealing with special education students, so we think it feeds in and ties into what that other conversation is with the AEAs.”

These proposals are scheduled for debate in the House Education Committee later today (Thursday), along with a bill that would increase general state per pupil spending on public schools by three percent.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill to ban traffic enforcement cameras AND require motorists to mainly use smart phones in hands-free mode while driving is eligible for debate in both the Iowa House AND Senate. The bill passed out of the House Transportation Committee on a narrow 11-to-10 vote yesterday (Wednesday). Some committee said the two issues should be separated. Others oppose the ban on traffic cameras. Committee chairman Brian Best of Glidden says he hopes to craft a compromise.

“Sometimes in the political world…things we do don’t make sense completely,” Best said, “but, at the same time….my ears are open.” Law enforcement officials are raising concerns about an outright ban on traffic cameras, along with continuing to allow motorists to handle a smart phone while driving if they’re talking or using the phone for navigation. Johnston Police Chief Dennis McDaniel is president of the Iowa Police Chiefs Association.

“We’re going to partner with our legislators to find common ground…to take two totally separate traffic safety initiatives and make it safer for Iowans,” he says. “We believe that the hands free legislation can be likely strengthened to make it a safety option and an easier option that creates commonality for motorists across Iowa.”

Law enforcement officials say they’re open to state regulation of cameras that generate tickets for speeding or running red lights, but oppose an outright ban on automated traffic enforcement technology.