(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna reports, “DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER: The Montgomery County Courthouse will be closed today (Jan. 9th) for Non-Essential Services.  The doors will remain unlocked, but some departments may not be open.” Please call ahead. 712-623-6625

CANCELLATIONS/CHANGES

• BOARD OF SUPERVISORS REGULAR MEETING CANCLED TODAY – MOVED TO JANUARY 10, 2024 AT 8:30 AM
• BOARD OF SUPERVISORS BUDGET SESSION CANCELED TODAY – MOVED TO JANUARY 10, 2024 FOLLOWING THE REGULAR MEETING
• BOARD OF SUPERVISORS BUDGET SESSION FROM JANUARY 10 WILL MOVE TO JANUARY 11, AT 9 AM..

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School Board will hold their regular monthly meeting Wednesday, beginning at 5:30-p.m. The meeting will be held in the High School Media Center. Discussion items on their agenda include

a. Review scope of needs for facilities study (D3 goal)
b. Review next year’s school calendar
c. Change date of February’s Board meeting

Action items are expected to include:

a. Out-of-State Trip for Speech team
b. Modified Supplemental Amount (MSA) for Dropout Prevention, At-Risk Students (E1 goal)
c. Board Policy updates, first reading Board policies: 401.13, 401.13R1, 502.07, 605.06, 605.06R1, 605.08, 605.08R1,
701.01, 701.02, 701.03, 701.04, 703.1, 703.2

When it comes to the Consent Agenda, the Atlantic School Board is expected to approve:

c. Open Enrollment-In Applications
i. 11th grade student in from AHSTW school district
d. Resignations For current year:
1. Aya Hamanaka, 6th – 12th Grade, ELL Teacher, effective end of 23-24 school year
2. Traci Luke, Suburban/Car Driver, effective 12/29/2023
3. Aliyah Jordan, Elementary Sped Para 1 on 1, effective 01/10/2024
4. Linda Nichols, Home School teacher, effective end of 23-24 school year
5. Jessica Burcham, effective 01/10/2024
ii. Approve resignations of Early Retirement Incentive Policy:
1. Terry Hinzmann, HS History teacher, effective end of 23-24 school year
2. Kathy Hobson, HS teacher, HS Girls Golf Coach, TLC Mentor effective end of 23-24 school year
3. Janice Dickerson, Elementary Librarian, effective end of 23-24 school year
e. Contract Recommendations and/or Letters of Assignment
i. Kendra Henningnsen, Boys Golf Coach, Spring 2024 season
ii. Heath Kelley, Junior High Boys Track Coach, Spring 2024 season
iii. Aliyah Jordan, Middle School Library Para, effective 01/11/2024
iv. Jessica Burcham, High School Nurse,effective 01/11/2024

g. Fundraising Requests: I-Jag Fundraiser; Speech & Debate Club Fundraiser.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna reports the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors may be attending a Regional Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10th, beginning at 7-p.m. The meeting takes place at the Griswold Community Building. Ozuna says “There is a possibility that there will be a quorum. No official county business will be acted upon during that time.”

This notice is informational only.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston say two people were arrested Monday afternoon for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order-Contempt of Court. Authorities report 26-year-old Maranda Marie Campbell (No known address), and 26-year-old Ryan Michael Barker, of Waverly, were arrested at 612 Grand Ave. Campbell was taken to the Union County Jail and later transferred to Adams County Jail. She was released on her Own Recognizance, but held while awaiting extradition to Polk County Jail on a Polk County Warrant for Domestic Abuse Assault-Injury or Mental Illness 1st Offense.

Barker was transported to the Union County Jail and later released on his Own Recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – A flurry of campaign activity swept across Iowa this weekend as the Iowa Caucuses are just eight days away. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are competing to be the prime challenger to former President Donald Trump. Haley says Republicans need to start opening the tent and letting in Democrats and independents who may be interested in Caucusing. “Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president,” Haley said. “That’s nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans, but in order to do that you don’t do that by demonizing a group of people, you don’t do it by pushing another group away.” Haley, who made her comments during an appearance on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S, says the only way to bring the country together is to talk to everybody.

“What we’ve seen over the last few years: Republicans have left the Republican Party. Democrats have left the Democratic Party…and you’ve got a lot of people who are independents sitting in the middle, looking for a home. I want them to come to where we are,” Haley said. “I don’t want to send them the other way and that’s what the other candidates are doing.” DeSantis says his record as Florida’s governor sets him apart from his rivals. “When we made promises, we delivered on those promises. Talk is cheap. Sloganeering doesn’t matter. You can go do all the political stuff, do a rally. Do all this,” DeSantis said in Ankeny Saturday. “Are you actually going to deliver when it’s crunch time?” DeSantis says Republicans won a narrow majority in the U-S House last year, but nothing has changed with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House.

“We need a change agent in Washington,” DeSanti said. “We need a president that’s going to upend this apple cart.” During a speech in Sioux Center Friday, former President Donald Trump extended his sympathy to the victims and families impacted by Thursday’s school shooting in Perry. “To the entire community: we love you, we pray for you and we ask God to heal and comfort really the whole state,” Trump said. “…It is a very a terrible thing that happened…so surprising to see it here, but we have to get over it. We have to move forward, but to the relatives and to all of the people who are so devastated right now to a point where they can’t breathe, they can’t live — we are with you all of the way. We love you and we cherish you.”

Saturday was the third anniversary of the rioting in the U-S Capitol as congress was certifying Joe Biden’s election. During speeches in Newton and Clinton, Trump said people who’ve been jailed and charged but not convicted for alleged actions that day should be released. “Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe,” Trump said. “…This guy, what he’s done to people.” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart says Trump is trying to rewrite history and deny his role in inciting the violence that day.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) — An EMT-paramedic program at the University of Iowa is helping prepare people to work in a high-demand field. One of the things you can learn in the hands-on program is how to intubate someone to help them breathe. Several lifelike mannequins are available to students. The one-semester-long EMT program prepares students for an important career that allows them to start working quickly.

Paul Ganss, Director of Emergency Medical Services Learning Resources Center, told KCRG-TV, ”One of the nice things about the EMS profession is there’s not a firm college degree requirement to enter the profession. So you can start as an EMT get that certificate, get a state certification and work as an EMT, move on to paramedic school.”

It’s a career field that needs more workers. “We hear just around the state of Iowa alone. We have a lot of services that struggle to staff ambulances. We have smaller communities, as you probably heard, that have lost ambulance services because they don’t have enough EMTs or paramedics in the community to staff those vehicles,” Ganss said.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Student leaders with March for Our Lives Iowa organized a protest in the Iowa Capitol in response to last week’s school shooting in Perry. The group is calling for mandatory reporting of lost and missing firearms and allowing court orders to remove guns from people who are a threat to themselves or others. Trey Jackson of March for Our Lives Iowa read from a letter the group sent Governor Reynolds — it says “Iowans have had enough of prayers” and it’s time meaningful change. The 17-year-old student who killed a sixth grader and wounded seven others in Perry last week brought two guns into his high school.

(Perry, Iowa) – The parents of the 17-year-od student who killed a sixth grader and wounded seven others in Perry High School last week say they had no inkling he intended to commit such heinous acts. In a written statement released by their attorney, Jack and Erin Butler said they simply do not understand why their son chose to do what he did. The Butlers say they are devastated and their grief for all the victims is immeasurable. The couple says they are helping authorities who are investigating the shooting and hope to find answers that will prevent other young people from harming others.