At least four area school district Boards of Education are set to hold their regular monthly meetings this evening. The Griswold School Board meeting gets underway at 5:30-p.m. in the Central Office. The Board will receive an update on the facilities project from KPE architects/Estes Construction. They’re also expected to discuss and act on Girls basketball practice procedures, backpack restrictions and a Resolution Authorizing the voter approved issuance of slightly more than $9.7-milion in General Obligation Bonds and the levying of taxes to paid for those bonds.

The CAM School Board will gather at 6:30-p.m. in the High School Media Center. The Board is set to act on any resignations and contract, approve a contract with UNI (The Univ. of Northern IA), to host student teachers, and they will consider a request to purchase weight room equipment.

In Audubon, the School Board meeting begins at 7-p.m. in the High School Board room. Action items on their agenda include: Discussion of a Policy pertaining to Foreign Students; Approval of Mid-Year graduates; and the 1st reading of Employee as well as Wellness Policies.

In the Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton District, the Board will gather at 7-p.m. in the Conference Room at the Elk Horn Building. New Business includes Discussion with regard to Superintendent Sharing, Facility Planning (Update), approval of a contract with KPE architects and a proposal from R.L. Craft with regard to roof repairs, along with a lighting upgrade for the Exira Building and early graduation requirements. The Exira-EHK Board will also act on approving personnel, transfers and resignations.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say two people have died in a West Des Moines collision caused by a wrong-way driver. The collision occurred just before 2 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 35. Authorities say a car headed south in one of the northbound lanes collided with an oncoming vehicle.

Both drivers were killed. Police identified the driver of the southbound car as 49-year-old Monte Johnson, of Hartford. The driver of the northbound car was identified as 32-year-old Nripin Chinni, of West Des Moines. His passenger, 27-year-old Durga Papina, was taken to a hospital.

A Nebraska man was arrested on a drug charge following a traffic stop at around 2:30-a.m. today (Monday), in Montgomery County. The Sheriff’s Office reports 21-year old Rasheed Faheem Barze, of Lincoln, NE., was arrested at the intersection of Highways 34 and 71, on a charge of Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Deliver. Barze was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $5,000 bond. Sheriff’s Deputies were assisted by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Montgomery County K9 Unit, in conducting the arrest..

A passenger in an SUV was injured during a collision Sunday evening in Red Oak. Red Oak Police say 11-year old Kiley Jolene Steinman, of Red Oak, complained of back pain, was transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital by private vehicle. Authorities say the collision happened at around 6:10-p.m., at the intersection of Highways 34 and 48, when a 2001 Chevy pickup driven by 16-year old Lukas Daniel Moore, of Emerson, struck the rear passenger door on a 2007 Hyundai Tucson, driven by 37-year old Mindy Lynn Riibe, of Red Oak.

The accident occurred when Moore’s foot slipped off the brake as he was approaching the intersection from Highway 34, and Riibe was traveling north on Highway 48 with the right of way. Moore was cited for Failure to Obey a Stop Sign or Yield the Right of Way.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst says she’s talked directly with the head of the federal agency reviewing Iowa’s “stopgap” plan to shore up the state’s individual insurance market.”We should know the administration’s decision, somewhere between the 20th and the 30th,” Ernst said. “I have been on calls with Seema Verma. I just talked to her last week. We’ll continue to push just how important this is to Iowa.”

Verma heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s the federal agency that must grant a waiver for the state’s plan to help 72-thousand Iowans buy individual insurance policies for 2018. “We may get all the measures approved, maybe not all of them,” Ernst said. “But one way or another, we expect that we’ll see a difference for Iowans.”

The state’s insurance commissioner is asking for permission to redirect federal subsidies to ensure younger, healthier people buy insurance — and send more of ObamaCare subsidies to two insurance companies to cover the costs of care for older, sicker individuals. If the waiver is granted, Medica and Wellmark have said they’ll sell individual policies to Iowans.

Without the waiver, an estimated 20-thousand Iowans will be unable to afford to buy health insurance next year. Ernst says she’s still hoping a bipartisan effort in the U.S. Senate can come up with a wide-ranging health care reform measure.”We have to correct the deficiencies out there,” We find a way forward. It’s going to have to be bipartisan at this point.”

G-O-P efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare have failed to get the support of enough Republicans in the Senate to pass. Ernst made her comments Saturday after a townhall meeting in the northwest Iowa community of Brunsville. About 50 people attended the event and Ernst answered questions about a variety of topics, including health care, immigration policy and legalizing gun suppressors.

(Radio Iowa)