BIKING TO PANAMA A Canadian family stopped by Creston yesterday as part of a year-long bike trip to Central America. See a photo of the family and learn more about their trip on page 12A >>
SPARTANS RALLY The SWCC Spartans rallied from a 2-0 deficit for an ICCAC league win Wednesday night. More on SPORTS page 9A >>
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015
Robbery reported at Casey’s on South Elm Creston Police Department is investigating an alleged robbery that took place Wednesday at Casey’s General Store, located at 200 S. Elm St. According to a Creston Police report, at approximately 6:30 a.m., officers received a phone call in reference to an armed robbery at Casey’s. The subject is described as a white male in his 20’s between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall
CNA photo by IAN RICHARDSON
Three-year-old Kylin Allen analyzes colored pies on a folder during playtime at Trinity Lutheran Preschool Thursday morning. Located at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, it is one of five Creston preschools that offers free preschool to 4-year-olds through the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program.
CRESTON SCHOOLS
4-year-old preschool enrollment plummets, K-12 sees slight dip By IAN RICHARDSON
cipal, said the school takes these numbers into consideration when planning for the future. “We are anticipating a smaller kindergarten class in the fall of 16-17,” she said. “Numbers fluctuate Anderson from year to year, but we’ve not had a class this small since Iowa began the Statewide Volunteer Preschool Program.” Anderson said the school will have a better idea of who plans to send their 5-year-olds to kindergarten or junior kindergarten after Kindergarten Kickoff in the spring. During Monday night’s school board meeting, Creston Superintendent Steve McDermott said the district
CNA staff reporter irichardson@crestonnews.com
With significantly fewer 4-year-olds attending preschool this year, Creston Community School District could be looking at a much smaller incoming kindergarten class next fall. According to Creston’s yearly enrollment report compiled earlier this month, 4-year-olds attending the five Creston preschools affiliated with the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program totaled 86. That number is down from 135 last year. It’s also at least 25 students lower than any year since 2008 when Creston began the statewide program, which provides 10 hours of free preschool a week to area 4-year-olds. Callie Anderson, Creston’s pre-kindergarten through second grade prin-
is, as a result, considering whether it will need to decrease the number of kindergarten sections next year. But, he also said the num- McDermott ber of students entering kindergarten is hard to track at this point since not all children go to preschool. “It doesn’t mean that we are down 50 kids that age in the community,” McDermott said. “But we don’t know for sure. It does mean we’re down almost 50 taking advantage of the program.”
K-12 enrollment Creston’s K-12 enrollment dropped by seven this year, putting total certified enrollment at 1,389.59 students. Fractions of a stu-
dent, like the .59, occur when home-schooled or privately schooled students take only a few classes in the district. Certified enrollment had dropped by 28 students last year. But enrollment is still more than 70 students higher than it was five years ago. Certified enrollment numbers are compiled every October and used for budgeting and for calculating state funding at the legislative level. In other Creston Schools news: • The board recognized junior Chase Shiltz, who was nominated for the KCCI and Fareway Stores Student Athlete of the Week. It also recognized the Creston and Orient-Macksburg Special Olympics bowling
and weighing between 160 and 180 pounds. The subject is described as wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants with his face covered and a weapon at his side. An undetermined amount of cash was taken from the store. “Right now, the case is currently under investigation,” Please see ROBBERY, Page 2A
Contributed photo
This photo, taken from video of Casey’s General Store, 200 S. Elm St., shows a male taking money from the register at Casey’s at approximately 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. The incident is currently under investigation by Creston Police Department.
Please see ENROLLMENT, Page 2A
CNA photo by BAILEY POOLMAN
CNA photos by KELSEY HAUGEN
Breathing treatment:
Nursing student Jennifer Moss, left, of Prescott provides a breathing treatment to a SimMan Essential mannequin through a hand-held nebulizer in the simulation lab at Southwestern Community College Tuesday morning. Also pictured is nursing student Kelsey Wheeler, right, of Lenox assessing the mannequin’s lung sounds.
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Volume 132 No. 103
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Great Scott: Creston High School student Keith Haatz shows St. Malachy third-grade students, from left, Charles Rudolf and Omar Lara how to build a robot with linkable robotic blocks during “Back to the Future” day Wednesday in the St. Malachy library. Wednesday was Oct. 21, 2015, which marked the day Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown chose to travel to in the future in the cult classic “Back to the Future: Part II.” St. Malachy students put things in a time capsule to be opened in 2045 and looked at different technology such as robots and circuitry to explore where technology will be in the future.
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Staff Writer Allison Leah Hurt, Wal Shaw, der, Cheyan Sama