THROWBACK NEWS
Ten years ago, Creston native Haylee Walters was selected to the Kansas City Chiefs cheerleading team. See Throwback news, page 2A. >>
COYOTES SWEPT
Iowa State sweeps South Dakota in Coyote senior Madison Frain’s final appearance in Ames. For more on Frain’s final weeks in the pitching circle for USD, see page 9A. >>
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Iowa senators Creston Schools to hearing about offer high school experience exploratory Medicaid By KELSEY HAUGEN to teach those courses.” CNA staff reporter khaugen@crestonnews.com
Registering for high school classes is generally a challenge for eighth graders, as many don’t know what those classes will entail. In seeking to aid eighth graders as they consider high school classes and future careers, Creston Middle School will offer a new exploratory course: high school experience. “When our kids register for classes, the high school counselors scope out what they want to do in life and what classes they’d like to take, and we found the eighth grade didn’t have a good understanding of some of the elective classes like home (economics), industrial tech, art – just some of those specialty classes,” said Brad Baker, Creston Middle School principal. “So, we developed this exploratory to where we’re working with the high school staff
The high school experience will be built into the rotation of required exploratory classes at the middle school. It will begin next fall, replacing the Spanish exploratory. Baker said it has not yet been determined who will teach high school experience. “We basically have 100 kids in eighth grade, and 25 of them will be in what we call the exploratory wheel, so they’ll go to computers for nine weeks, the next nine weeks will be health, then careers, then high school experience,” Baker said. “We do that with all of our grades, but some of the exploratories are differ- Baker ent. The eighth grade will obviously be the only one that has the high
school experience as part of their exploratory wheel.” Baker said the school pulled the plug on the Spanish exploratory at the eighth grade level because nine weeks wasn’t long enough to give the students an accurate experience of what Spanish class in high school is really like. Further, offering the Spanish exploratory wasn’t raising the number of students choosing to take Spanish at the high school level. “So, we tried to look at an offering that would impact more kids and be useful for more kids,” Baker said. “Some of the (exploratories) are mandatory, like they have to have health and computers in eighth grade. The other ones are our choice, so we’ve replaced Spanish with the high school exploratory.” Students in exploratories attend them every other day, so it’s essentially four and a half weeks of classes taken in a time frame of
nine weeks. For high school experience, Baker said some of the high school teachers involved so far are Phil Wardenburg and Bill Mullin in industrial technology, Kelsey Bailey in agriculture, Bailey Fry-Schnormeier in art and Anthony Donahoo in the Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) program. “The teachers will come in or develop a presentation, like for ag, Kelsey Bailey is going to send some students over to explain and give our eighth graders an understanding of what those classes are, the careers they may be able to choose after taking some of those classes and future classes that would expand on them,” Baker said. “We think what it’s going to do is give those eighth graders a better understanding of how to track their high school career and really SCHOOL | 2A
CNA photo by KELSEY HAUGEN
Pay it forward: Southwestern Community College (SWCC) nursing student Mariana Medina of Creston donates blood
Tuesday afternoon during an American Red Cross blood drive held in the Instructional Center as part of SWCC’s Pay it Forward week. Also pictured is phlebotemist Penny Vanecek. In total, 43 units of blood were gathered during the drive.
problems DES MOINES (AP) — State senators said Wednesday that they have heard complaints about Iowa’s Medicaid program under private management and that state officials providing information on the new system should stop telling the public the transition has been smooth. Members of the Senate Human Resources Committee said they have received emails and heard in person from Medicaid service providers and program recipients about problems, including questions over rejected claims and confusion about coverage. Members of the committee in the Democratic-majority Senate challenged a report at the start of the meeting from a state official that there are no systemic issues. “You’re not hearing what we’re hearing,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. “It’s not all roses.” Lawmakers said the problems clearly conflict with reports from Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s office and others that there have been no serious problems since three insurance companies took over Medicaid on April 1. “I would hope that we could just end the rosy press releases,” Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City. “It’s really insulting to Bolkcom people.” Ben Hammes, a Branstad spokesman, defended reports from the governor’s office over the program. “These stories are just a small sample of the positive interactions that some Medicaid patients are experiencing,” Hammes said in an email. State officials and representatives for the insurance companies countered some
alleged issues, but they also said they’ll investigate ongoing complaints. They also said they wanted to work with service providers over any billing issues. “Our interest is to ensure that providers understand every detail and we will work with them, whether that is in person, whether it is via a webinar. Whatever meets their schedule to ensure that they understand how to interact with us,” said Kim Foltz, a representative for UnitedHealthcare, one of the three insurance companies. The legislative committee plans to meet over the next several months to continue investigating complaints. The $4.2 billion Medicaid program provides health care to about 560,000 poor and disabled Iowa residents. The program switched to private management amid calls from Branstad to contain growing costs within the program, which is funded with state and federal dollars. Critics have challenged possible savings under the new system. Branstad says privatization of Medicaid will offer better care to patients. Democrats were vocal for months about their criticism of the privatization plan and the ensuing transition. They argued the state wasn’t ready and federal officials overseeing the switch delayed implementation by several months over readiness issues. State officials with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which used to run Medicaid, defend the new system. They’ve appeared alongside representatives for the insurance companies to answer questions from lawmakers. The Iowa Legislature is in the midst of passing a budget bill that would include more state oversight of privatized Medicaid, but those details are still being sorted out.
Police: Shooting on campus possibly road rage ST. LOUIS (AP) — A school employee who was shot in the arm while riding in a car on the Washington University campus told investigators that road rage was behind the incident that led to a 90-minute lockdown Wednesday, suburban St. Louis police said. Clayton Police Chief Kevin Murphy said both the woman and the driver of the car she was in said they had argued with someone in a black sport utility vehicle just before the shooting and that the SUV
then drove away. Murphy said the woman told police she didn’t know who shot her. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday evening. The woman, whose name was not released by police, was taken to a hospital for treatment. Murphy said she was expected to survive. University officials said the woman was a campus food service worker. The shooting happened about 1:30 p.m. near the student union and performing arts building, along a road that
separates the main campus from the university’s primary residential housing area. The private university is located on the border of the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County. A university alert issued just before 3 p.m. advised that “the campus emergency is over” and told those who received it “you may resume your normal activities.” An earlier alert advised those on campus to “shelter in place.” Vice Chancellor Jill Friedman said that “no students
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were involved.” By midafternoon, activity on campus had resumed, with students walking to and from class. Many talked on their cellphones, assuring their parents that they were OK. Freshman Jordan Isikow said she was finishing a psychology experiment when people ran inside the building and said there was a shooting right outside. “Everybody else was freaking out,” she said. Sophomore Alessandra Sil-
va said she was in the middle of campus when she heard several shots ring out. “It rang out across the Quad,” Silva said. “We looked up like, ‘Is it thunder? Was it a skateboard?’ But seconds later, a siren sounded alerting students to go to a safe place.” She took shelter in the student center. “I was pretty scared,” she said. The 163-year-old university has an enrollment of about 15,000. The school’s location next to sprawling Forest Park
— among the venues of the 1904 Summer Olympics — serves as a physical buffer of sorts from the rest of St. Louis. But the campus isn’t immune from the gun violence that is more prevalent in other parts of the community. Earlier this month, a teenager was shot near the university’s medical school close to Barnes-Jewish Hospital. In March, Washington University briefly issued an emergency alert after a report of gunfire by a light rail station.
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