(Radio Iowa) – The superintendent of a small, southern Iowa school district based in Humeston has died of Covid, two days after the death of his father. The Des Moines Register was first to report that the Mormon Trail School District had announced on Facebook that Superinendent Kerry Phillips “lost his battle with Covid” on Sunday. According to an online obituary, Phillips was a native of Ottumwa and died at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. He was 61.

Phillips had worked as an educator at Indian Hills Community College, Simpson College, Buena Vista University, and in the Cardinal and Harmony School Districts. Phillips had been Mormon Trail’s superintendent since the start of the 2017 academic year. His 85-year-old father died Friday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics according to an online obituary that does not list a cause of death.

Gene Phillips owned and operated Phillips Sanitation in Ottumwa for nearly 50 years before retiring in 1998. The obituary for Kerry Phillips indicates he has been owner/operator of the family business.

(Radio Iowa) – The Internal Revenue Service opened the tax filing season today (Monday). I-R-S Commissioner, Chuck Rettig spoke with reporters and says there are three things you can do to speed up the process. “File electronically, file accurately, and request a direct deposit of refunds,” he says. Rettig says it has been tough during the pandemic to process all of the tax returns and the challenges continue. He says that’s why it is important to get everyone to file the most accurate return they can.

“If there’s a problem with their return it can create an extensive delay and I-R-S notices sent in the mail than then the back and forth between the taxpayer and their representative. And we are trying to avoid that to the extent that we can,” Rettig says. He says electronic filing is a key to getting your refund quicker. “If they avoid errors when they file, we still anticipate that most people will not experience delays. They will receive their refund within 21 days when they file electronically requesting a direct deposit. And we fully expect the vast majority of folks to receive their refunds in a timely manner,” according to Rettig.

Rettig says there are still issues with calling the I-R-S for help. “Phone lines have been jammed — our phone lines we anticipate will continue to be jammed up for the foreseeable future…there’s just many, many reasons — but the demand is significantly up. Our folks are working as hard as we can, we’ve automated and made automated changes during the course of the past year to the extent that we can. But we anticipate an extremely high call volume as well going through this filing season,” Rettig says. He says going online is the best option to get information.

“To the extent people can, we are encouraging people to use the various online resources through IRS.gov, that will be the fastest way to get information,” Rettig says. The federal tax filing deadline is April 18th.

(Radio Iowa) – Advocates say waiting lists are still growing for child care slots in Iowa and it will take more money from all sorts of sources to boost the pay AND benefits for child care workers. Dawn Oliver Wiand is C-E-O of the Iowa Women’s Foundation, which has a program focused on helping communities come up with new child care options.

“This issue is really big,” Wiand says. “…It’s going to take multiple solutions in multiple ways. We need to see both federal and state dollars, but we also need to see business dollars and philanthropic dollars.” Alex Glenn is the human resources director for Generation Next, a company that has 250 employees working in five different child care centers in central Iowa. The company recently increased benefits for its workforce, but Glenn says it may not be enough to keep employees.

“Once they leave us, they don’t go another child care center. They leave the field entirely. They go to somewhere where there’s less burnout, where there’s less stress and where they have better benefits,” he says. “…Nobody goes from Wells Fargo to child care.” Glenn and Wiand made their comments this weekend on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

Iowa lawmakers are considering a series of proposals to boost child care options for Iowa parents, including regulatory changes for building and operating a child care center as well as tax incentives for opening a child care business.