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Four Newton players earn a spot on all-conference teams / 1B
DAILY NEWS MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2016 • WHERE TO GO WHEN YOU NEED TO KNOW
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Vets Affairs hopes to keep part-time position Assistant to director funded through April 30 By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News
Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Aurora Heights Elementary School and the rest of the Newton Community School District will hopefully have fewer open-enrollment students and their parents opting to attend school outside the district in the years ahead. Recent committee and board discussions have focused on reducing the number of students who live in Newton but exercise their choice in attending public schools in another district.
Newton schools see open enrollment loss
Slight increase in opting out of district By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News Iowa gives parents the open-enrollment option to take their children to nearby public-school districts — even if a family’s residence is not in that district. Parents have many different reasons for taking a child to a different district, ranging from maintaining continuity with older siblings or early school years to wanting a different sized school. At Newton Community
School District Board of Education meetings and other special meetings held within the past year, Newton’s open-enrollment gap has been a occasional topic of discussion. In 2014-15, Newton had about 25 students who “opted in” to the district, living outside the district boundaries and attending a Newton school — while about 121 Newton-area students “opted out” and attended public schools that are part of other districts. The number of students opting into Newton went down slightly in 2015-16, but the number of students opting out went up to about 135. A School Improvement Advisory Committee meeting and some recent regular board meeting discussions have addressed the need to stem — and hopefully reduce
— the amount of students who have opted out. “I’d like to reach out to some of the families who have left the district and get some feedback from them,” board member Donna Cook said at a recent board meeting. The issue is as much financial as it is related the district’s image. General funding of public schools is done on a per-student basis, so if 17 more students were to opt out next year, Newton would have to pay those districts to educate students at the current Legislature-approved funding rate, which is at least $6,446 per student for 2015-16. It is not an issue in terms of a paper deficit; Newton must simply turn around and pay other ENROLLMENT | 3A
Several items were discussed briefly at Wednesday’s Jasper County Veterans Affairs Commission meeting, including efforts to ensure the position held by their most recently hired department employee is renewed for another year. Newly hired Veterans Affairs part-time employee Charlotte Ross, whose hire was approved by the county board of supervisors in February, replaces Keith Thorpe, who resigned in the fall of 2015. The part-time position was approved last year for a 12-month du-
ration, set to end April 30, 2016, so the commission discussed what Ross has accomplished in her first several weeks on the job, and how to bring that to the supervisors to make a pitch for extending her position for at least another 12 months. Ross discussed her visits at various nursing homes and senior-living facilities in the area, attempting to contact veterans to see if they’ve inquired with the Veterans Administration and learn all of the benefits that might be available to them. She said she has been to four of the 10 area facilities on her list to visit with veterans. “It’s good to match up records, because they have some that we don’t have, and we have some that they don’t have,” Ross said. VETS | 3A
Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Jasper County Veterans Affairs Commissioner Jerome Gunderson listens to Charlotte Ross during Wednesday’s meeting. The commission discussed several items at the meeting, including making a pitch to the county board of supervisors to ensure Ross’s position is renewed beyond its initial one-year approval, which expires April 30.
Newbotics Several landfill fees increased team 10th in division at state By Jamee A. Pierson Newton Daily News
Newton Daily News Newton High School’s robotics team, known as “Newbotics,” placed 10th in its 24-team division at this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge competition, held the weekend of March 4-5 in Coralville. “It was a great (weekend),” advisor Eric Grabe said. “The robot and the kids preformed well. We finished the day with a record of three wins and two loses. Unfortunately it was not good enough for us to advance to the final rounds.” Grabe said Newbotics didn’t have an official overall place ranking but finished somewhere around 20th. The team finished with a final match record of 22-6. Newbotics became one of the 48 teams to advance to state by placing first overall at a Feb. 6 regional competition in Ottumwa. There are 201 registered FTC teams in the state.
An increase to the minimum garbage charge in the landfill fee schedule was approved at $8, up from $6, by the Newton City Council at its March 7 meeting. Also approved in the schedule was maintaining the garbage tipping fee at $52 per ton. Other increases in materials brought to the landfill include tractor tires up $1.50 to $15 each and heavy equipment tires formerly at $170 per ton, now at $51 each. The approved changes were discussed by the Newton Landfill 28E members during a budget workshop in January before being presented to the city council. Additional increases came in all areas of sold crushed concrete rubble material. The 1.5 inch diameter increased 50 cent to $8 per ton while two- to four-inch diameter crushed
Jamee A. Pierson/Daily News Select items in the landfill fee schedule were approved for increased fees including tractor tires up $1.50. Heavy equipment tires, which were previously $170 per ton and are now $51 each.
concrete and nine- to 19inch diameter riprap with rebar increased from $7.50 to $14 per ton. Finally, screenings increased to $5 per ton, up from the current price of $3. “Among 13 comparable landfills in central Iowa,
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“The minimum charge covers our cost to operate the scale and maintain the customer service area.” Current quarry prices are used to establish the sale of crushed concrete
FEATURE
WHERE IT’S AT Astrograph......................5B Calendar..........................5A Classifieds......................4B
the average minimum charge is $10 and Newton’s minimum charge of $6 is the second lowest. The proposed minimum charge of $8 would still be less than the average minimum charge of $10,” city administrator Bob Knabel said.
Comics & Puzzles...........6A Dear Abby........................6A Local News......................2A
Obituaries.......................5A Opinion............................4A State News......................7A
FEES | 3A
Mojo Cycling gets new look
Owner remodels portions of store / 2A
Volume No. 114 No. 211 2 sections 16 pages
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