(Area News) – At least three area school district boards of education will hold their regular monthly meetings this coming week. First-up, at 5:30-p.m. Monday (Oct. 16th), is the Griswold School Board meeting, which takes place in the Conference Room at the High School.

During their session, the Board will receive information with regard to 2023-24 Certified Enrollment, and discuss Open Enrollment Data, in addition to their Board Goals. The Board is expected to act on approving Veteran’s Day Program Expenses, and consider the activation status of the District’s Early Retirement Policies, and act on the First Reading of some 500- and 700-series Board Polices.

The Audubon School District’s Board of Education is set to meet at 7-p.m. on Monday, in the High School Board Room. Their meeting begins with a Work Session for Policy Review, and the First Reading of a Policy pertaining to the “Discipline of Students who Make Threats of Violence or Cause Incidents of Violence.” The Board will act on approving the first reading of that policy later on in their meeting.

In other business, the Audubon School Board will act to approve: Mid-Term graduates (pending completion of Requirements); Appointing a delegate to the IASB Delegate Assembly; Appointing a member to the County Assessor Conference Board; Setting the date/time for the Audubon School Board’s annual meeting, and other matters, including the Audit Report, and a request to the SBRC (School Budget Review Committee) for Modified Supplemental amount for Asbestos Abatement ($134,066), and the exhibits associated with a Hazardous Material Mitigation request. They’re also expected to approve Early Retirement Plans and Personnel matters.

In his report to the Audubon School Board, Superintendent Eric Trager will provide updates on the District’s Building Project, Schoolhouse Fund Budget, and Certified Enrollment.

The Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton School Board will hold their monthly meeting in Elk Horn on Tuesday (Oct. 17), at 5-p.m., in the Exira-EHK Conference Room. Among their action items is:

A. A Request for Allowable Growth for LEP Allowable Costs in the amount of $2,540.88
B. An Agreement to Establish a Consortium to Jointly Administer an Instructional Program Located in space within the boundaries of the Glenwood Community School District
C. A District Renovations Contract with INVISION Architecture
D. Policy Adoption – First Reading: 503.08 – Discipline of Students Who Make Threats of Violence or Cause Incidents of Violence
E. Personnel Resignations, Hires, & Transfers….
i. Resignations: Stacie Hansen – Associate;
ii. Hires: Cody Parmley – Play Director; Jacki Piva – Associate.

DES MOINES, IOWA — A Polk County jury has found Bravon Tukes not guilty on all five counts he was facing for his alleged role in the shooting inside Starts Right Here educational center in Des Moines on January 23rd. The 20-year-old Tukes was accused of discussing the shooting with gunman 19-year-old Preston Walls beforehand and then giving him a ride minutes after the shooting that killed 18-year-old Giovanni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr and injured school founder Will Keeps, a former Chicago gang member and rapper who started the program for at-risk teens.

Tukes was charged with two counts of First Degree Murder and individual counts of Criminal Gang Participation, Willful Injury and Attempted Murder.  The jury, Friday, returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on each of the five charges on Friday afternoon.  Tukes has continued to maintain that he didn’t know Walls was about to open fire on classmates inside the school.

Walls was facing the same charges as Tukes in his trial last month.  A jury found Walls guilty of the lesser charges of Second Degree Murder and Voluntary Manslaughter for the deaths of Carr and Dameron.  Walls was found not guilty of the other three charges.  Walls faces up to 50 years in prison with the possibility of parole.

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (KCAU) — A group of Siouxland students exercised their right to protest in support of a former member of staff. Students at Sergeant Bluff Luton Middle School didn’t let the pouring rain stop their walkout on Friday in support of the school’s principal, Bill McKelvey, who resigned from his post earlier this month. Mckelvey tendered his resignation voluntarily, following an internal investigation by the district.

According to a Facebook post by the district, they are not able to say what led to the investigation. However, community members allege that the investigation is related to a fight McKelvey intervened in and that contributed to Friday’s protest.

In a statement to KCAU in Sioux City, school officials said “The district provided a safe environment for students to learn and an appropriate forum to share their voice. Personnel matters are confidential and therefore the district is unable to provide comment.”

NEVADA, Iowa (KCCI) — The mother of an infant girl who died in Story County this summer is now in an Iowa jail on a murder charge. Sheyenne Shore was booked into the jail Thursday. She was charged in June but was in custody in California on unrelated charges at that time.

Court documents say, on June 11, she brought the baby to the Story County Medical Center. A hospital employee says the baby was cold, stiff, and her pupils were dilated. They tried saving her life but couldn’t. A search warrant was carried out, which found baby clothes covered in blood.

The medical examiner’s office confirms the baby died of multiple injuries, including many to the head. The baby’s father, Juan Montalvo Jr., is also charged but has not been booked into the Story County Jail yet.

(Radio Iowa) – The president of Northeast Iowa Community College — on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons — says he’s done nothing wrong. Janelle Tucker reports.

Northeast Iowa Community College has campuses in Calmar and Peosta.