(Atlantic, Iowa) – The much anticipated Atlantic School District Robotics Team and Program will not continue, due to a lack of interest among students. Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen provided that update to the Atlantic School Board during their regular meeting, Wednesday evening.

She said also, with regard to snow days, they’ve had quite a few, and only limited time remaining before any make-up days are needed.

And, Dr. Johnsen spoke with the Board about the District’s cell phone policy. Right now, she said, any changes to the current policy are in limbo, until or unless, the legislature takes action.

She said if a revision to the policy is needed, the Board can definitely come back and do that. Johnsen asked, and the School Board agreed, to wait until the legislature makes its move, before the cell phone policy is changed. High School Principal Heather McKay said the policy isn’t being followed at the high school because there is so much confusion over what it entails. Board member Kristy Pellett…

In another update, as Councilman Mike McDermott mentioned during the Atlantic City Council meeting last week, the City and Atlantic Schools are exploring the possibility of splitting the cost of renovating the Washington Elementary School tennis courts, to incorporate a pickleball court.

The School Board discussed two possible options for the 2025-26 School Year Calendar. The school start date on both is August 25, because the normal start date of Aug. 23^rd is on a Saturday. One version of the calendar includes a full week off for a combined Spring Break and Easter. Another version splits-up the break.

No decision was made on the School Calendar, because it was a discussion item only. A public hearing on the 2025-26 Calendar and Budget (including the proposed FY26 Property Tax Levy), will be on March 26^th at 6:30 p.m., in the High School Media Center. A Board work session will follow the pulblic hearing.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Economic Development Authority has awarded grants totaling more than three-point-seven million dollars to eight communities for water and sewer infrastructure. Chelsea, Duncombe, Fort Madison, Lawler, McGregor, Mediapolis, Wellman and Yale will receive the money through the U-S Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The community of Yale, in Guthrie County, was awarded a $425,000 grant for water system improvements. Other funds will add $415,000 toward the total project cost.

The I-E-D-A reports it received 19 applications totaling nearly nine million dollars in funding requests. Grants are awarded based upon the benefit to low and moderate income residents, financial need, project impact, and readiness and commitment of local resources to the project.

(Radio Iowa) – A new population report on monarch butterflies finds conservation efforts in Iowa and elsewhere are starting to show promising results. Mykayla Hagaman, a program specialist at the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium, says researchers track the progress of the vital orange-and-black insect by measuring how much land the pollinators take up when overwintering in Mexico. “They occupied 4.4 acres, which is nearly double last year’s size of about 2.2 acres,” Hagaman says, “so, this is really encouraging to see this increase.” The annual survey from the World Wildlife Fund-Telcel Foundation Alliance demonstrates a sizeable boost in monarch numbers, but it’s still a long way from where the experts say the population needs to be.

“It does highlight the need for continued voluntary conservation efforts,” Hagaman says. “Scientists recommend to maintain a sustainable population of monarchs, we need, on average, about 15 acres of overwintering habitat, but we haven’t really seen those numbers since about 2018.” About 40-percent of all monarchs that overwinter in Mexico are estimated to come from Iowa and neighboring Midwestern states. In recent years, many thousands of Iowans have carved out portions of their properties to offer a haven for the butterflies, but Hagaman says additional help is needed.

“We can do so through establishing more monarch habitat,” Hagaman says. “Monarch butterflies really rely on people planting native milkweed, such as common milkweed or butterfly milkweed, and there’s other species that are native to Iowa as well. So people can go online and search up what milkweed are native to their areas.” She says plantings should include a variety of native species that bloom from early spring to late fall, to help provide nectar resources for monarchs during their migration.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the monarch as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in December of 2024.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s Convenience store chain reported in-store and gas sales were up slightly, as was their net income in the third quarter. Casey’s Darren Rebelez says weather conditions have been more of a recent concern than a potential recession. “Casey’s for a long time, has performed very well during recessionary times, and I think that’s for a couple of reasons. One is that we sell basic daily needs that people need. They’re low dollar denominations,” Rebelez says. He spoke during a conference call on the quarterly results and says their products are not the first to go.  “In the grand scheme of things, when people have to pull back on discretionary spending, a lot of what we sell would be considered by our guests to be non discretionary,” he says, “and because there tends to be a lower price point, it isn’t the first thing to cut on the list, because these are daily needs.”

Rebelez says when it comes to food, only about half of their stores have a national brand competitor in their trade area that Casey’s has to compete with. “As consumers start to look for value, we’re a great trade down opportunity from a price perspective, but not a trade down in quality,” Rebelez says. “So think consumers feel really good about being able to stretch their dollars with us on the food side.” Rebelez says their low income consumers who makes less than 50-thousand dollars a year make up only about 25 percent of their customers. He says they still see positive growth from those customers, it’s just not at the same rate for other income customers, and when they are cutting back, it’s in the alcohol and tobacco areas.

Rebelez says the weather can have a much more immediate impact. “I don’t have specific numbers to share with you on that other than to say February was a tough weather month. And I can tell you when the temperature difference is 50 or 60 degrees colder than the prior year. I mean, you see it in the numbers,” he says. Rebelez says the numbers come back when the weather starts to normalize. He says the weather impacted some of their newly acquired stores in Texas and Florida this quarter, where they had snow that they rarely see.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Attorney General says two Black Hawk and one Bremer County deputy acted appropriately following the death of a man they arrested. Deputies say Willie Earl Washington fled at speeds of more than 120 miles an hour when they tried to stop him for a traffic violation in December. Once he was stopped, deputies say Washington battled with them and they held him face down to put handcuffs on him. Washington said he couldn’t breath and was unresponsive when deputies turned him over. He later died at the hospital.

The D-C-I investigation found Washington was face down approximately 87 seconds and the cause of death was a combination of cardio-respiratory arrest, an enlarged heart, obesity, methamphetamine use, and positioning. It concluded officers used no more force or time than was necessary to handcuff him.

CRESTON, Iowa [KCCI-TV] — A Union County man could spend up to 15 years in prison after taking a plea deal in a child sex abuse case. 29-year-old Dennis Simmerman, of Creston, plead guilty on February 28th to child endangerment as a registered sex offender and third-degree sexual abuse. He originally faced 12 charges. Court documents say Simmerman sexually abused a 14-year-old girl in his home last July.

As part of the plea, Simmerman must also enter a sex offender treatment program. If he fails the program, he will be required to serve 100% of his sentence. Simmerman will be eligible for parole in three years.

Isabel Pettit is also charged in connection with this case. She is scheduled to be back in court March 21st. Simmerman was previously accused of abusing a child in 2017. Those charges were dropped after the county attorney at the time failed to show up for a plea hearing.

In 2019, Simmerman pleaded guilty to enticing a child. He was sentenced to 10 years but was paroled in 2021. In February of 2022, he violated the sex offender registry and received a two-year probation.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines man was sentenced Wednesday to 54 months (4 1/2 years) in federal prison, for wire fraud and money laundering charges.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says, that according to public court documents, 49-year-old Bryan David Sampica executed a scheme to defraud financial institutions responsible for issuing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans between May 2020 and March 2021.

Sampica fraudulently obtained two PPP loans for a company that had no employees, no operations, and no payroll. Sampica falsely claimed that the company had approximately 100 employees and annual payroll in excess of $1 million. Sampica also provided false claims by submitting fraudulent tax documents asserting that the company had millions of dollars in annual receipts and expenses.

The PPP loans obtained by Sampica totaled nearly $2 million. Once Sampica received the fraudulently obtained PPP loan funding, he used the fraudulently obtained funds to, among other things, pay off a car loan, transfer money to a family member and trust accounts, and to purchase a yacht.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Sampica will be required to serve a three-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Sampica was also ordered to pay $1,978,345.82 in restitution.

“It’s unfortunate that a relief program such as the Paycheck Protection Program was targeted by fraudsters looking to enrich themselves,” said IRS-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “Mr. Sampica used millions of dollars in stolen taxpayer funds to pay for cars and yachts while legitimate businesses struggled to survive the pandemic. We’re committed to working alongside our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to protect taxpayer resources by holding thieves like Mr. Sampica accountable.”

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.

(Des Moines, Iowa/Iowa News Service) – The Iowa Legislature has advanced a bill to provide a $1 billion tax cut to companies covering unemployment benefits for out-of-work Iowans. Iowa lawmakers reduced the maximum number of weeks Iowans could file for unemployment benefits in 2022 from 26 weeks to 16. The money the state has saved by not paying the additional benefits went into a trust fund, which has reached nearly $2 billion. Now, lawmakers are giving half the money back to business in the form of a tax cut.

Peter Hird, secretary-treasurer of the Iowa Federation of Labor, said Senate File 504 is a blow to people who are looking for work and now have a lot less time to find it while watching companies get a tax cut. “If you take a benefit, a protection for workers, and then turn that into a tax savings for employers, it’s a totally man-made tax cut,” Hird pointed out. “This isn’t just because of good luck.” The bill is through committee and awaits action on the Senate floor. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she is following through on a campaign pledge to lower taxes for Iowa companies, making the state more attractive to those considering locating in the state.

Hird noted labor groups also worry about what happens in the event of an unexpected economic downturn and added the fears are prominent in rural Iowa. “Especially if you’re working in the ag sector where your job is at stake, and you’re talking about giving more benefits to rich people?,” Hird emphasized. “I feel like that’s just something that’s resonating across the country right now.”

Reynolds has proposed cutting the highest unemployment tax rate companies pay from 7% to 5.4%, which would save them nearly a billion dollars over five years.

(Radio Iowa) – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — the Democratic Party’s 2024 V-P nominee — says he’s hitting the road, traveling to red states and his first stop will be at a town hall meeting in Iowa Friday. During an interview on M-S-N-B-C last (Wednesday) night, Walz said he’s headed to Iowa to use the platform he has because Democrats must make it absolutely clear there’s a difference between the two major parties.

Walz will be in Des Moines and the site was picked because it’s in Iowa’s third congressional district. Walz said he intends to let people know how Zach Nunn, the Republican who represents the third district, has voted this year. Nunn was reelected to a second term in the U-S House last November by a four point margin.

Following Walz’s stop in Iowa, he will make his way over into Nebraska. His team is also planning stops in Wisconsin and Ohio in the coming weeks, with even more stops expected to be added in the future.

Walz did not campaign in Iowa last year as his party’s vice presidential nominee, but Walz did visit the 2023 Iowa State Fair with Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart to campaign on Joe Biden’s behalf. Last month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders held events in Iowa City and urged Iowa Democrats to contact Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks to oppose G-O-P spending plans. The first district, where Miller-Meeks won reelection by fewer than a thousand votes, and the third district, which Nunn represents, have been labeled as targeted races for Democrats in the 2026 election.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education, Wednesday evening (March 12th), acted on resignations and retirements of: A Communications Specialist, and Middle School Football Coach. They also approved the following recommendations to hire:

• Softball Coaches for 7th and 8th Grade: Brett Johnson – 8th grade; Makenna Askeland – 7th grade.
• Assistant Girls Soccer Coach, Irelyn Gundy.
• Volunteer Coaches for 2025 Spring and Summer sports.
• Internal Transfer Teacher for 25-26, Dara Bartz . Washington Elem. Principal Stacey Hornung said in her recommendation to transfer Ms. Bartz from Kindergarten to an open Art position at Washington, Bartz has done an excellent job since she began teaching at the school since 2007, and will continue to build relationships with students and staff, as well as “grow students’ love of both art and literacy.”
• Substitute Bus Driver, Harrison Hoegh.
• Building Secretary, Emma Langer. AMS Principal Casey Pelzer recommended Ms. Langer for the position, because of her work history with the school, which includes her tenure as the District’s Communication Director, and her her ability to multi-task efficiently while maintaining a positive, friendly demeanor and genuine care for those around her.
• Teachers for 25-26: Bri Wilson; Val Torres;Ben Andersen and Ashley Coffman.

Atlantic School Board mtg. 3-12-25 (YouTube image)

Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen asked the Board to approve the addition of a Special Education Teacher for the 2025-26 School Year. As part of the rational for hiring another Special Ed Teacher, Dr. Johnsen said in her recommendation letter, “The additional position will provide a layer of support for all levels of Special Education that we currently do not have. We will work to place or keep staff in current positions if possible.”

Following approval of the position, the Board acted on approving the hiring of Bri Wilson as Special Ed Teacher. Dr. Johnsen explained earlier, why she recommended Wilson.

The Atlantic School Board discussed the 2025-26 School Calendar, and FY26 Property Tax Levy. They agreed to set March 26th at 6:30-p.m., as the date and time for a public hearing on the 25-26 Calendar and Budget. The hearing will take place in the HS Media Center.

They concluded their meeting with a closed session for an evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen.