UNDEFEATED
Newton Cardinals start 4-0 for first time since 2011. Complete coverage of homecoming win against Benton inside today.
Newton
Daily News
Monday, Sept. 22, 2014
www.newtondailynews.com
Jackson wins county championship Jasper County Gun Club home to central Iowa trap shooters By Kate Malott Daily News Staff Writer
Newton, Iowa
Newton school official downs No Child Left Behind, proud of local results By Ty Rushing Daily News Senior Staff Writer
On any given Saturday, you can hear the sounds of repeated gun shots echo throughout the west side of Newton as members of the Jasper County Gun Club trap shoot on farm land owned by the Maytag family. Many shooters, primarily men but a few women, participate in trap shooting at the small facility on the outskirts of the city limits. Groups of five stand in a row and one-at-atime shoot a clay pigeon released from an automatic trap. The shooters rotate after five pigeons until they’ve each shot at 25 and then the flight is over. The JCGC was first
Kate Malott/Daily News 84-year-old Gordon Jackson stands outside his farm with his Jasper County Gun Club Championship trophy. Jackson won the county and senior trophy at the annual event on Sept. 13. His name is also the first name on the trophy for his win in 1950.
organized more than 80 years ago by Fred Maytag and although participation has declined, it still has more than 40 members who meet on Saturday and Sundays to shoot and socialize. Newton resident Gordon Jackson, 84, has been shooting at
the club since the late 40s when he started going with his uncle Bill Kreager. “It’s the type of thing you get hooked on,” he said. “I usually go every Saturday but not so much in the spring and fall.” Jackson has spent
his life working on the farm. He farmed more than 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans on his land in southwest Newton and is still farming 200 acres to stay busy. But when he’s not JACKSON See Page 5A
Fit for a homecoming king
Jocelyn Sheets/Daily News The 2014 Newton Senior High School Homecoming King Chris Thorpe plays with the band prior to the varsity game at H.A. Lynn Stadium Friday night. See more photos from Newton’s homecoming game and activities online at www.newtondailynews.com
The Iowa Department of Education released its Annual Yearly Progress Report Tuesday — which is like its grade card for schools and school districts — and Newton had several schools deemed “in need of assistance,” in either math or reading. As a whole, the district was considered in need of assistance in math. Newton wasn’t alone in struggling to meet the 100 percent proficient benchmark required by the No Child Left Behind Act — whose measures IDE uses to develop its Gilbert annual report — as more than 50 percent of schools in the state are considered SINA. State officials, such as IDE Director Brad Buck, have spoken out against it saying that NCLB has outlived its usefulness. Locally, Jim Gilbert, associate director for elementary education services for the Newton Community School District, agrees. “All this No Child Left Behind stuff, it was a good idea at its conception. Now, we are in 2014 where the trajectory targets are at 100 percent,” Gilbert said. “What they are saying is that all students, in all subgroups, in all schools — 100 percent of those students should be proficient in math, reading and science. That is the difficulty. As you approach that 100 percent, it just becomes more statistically improbable.” Gilbert explained that this was a difficult thing to accomplish because students develop at different rates and times, and some work better with certain learning styles than others do. “The analogy would be to say that in 2014 everyone will be able to dunk a basketball, or run a four minute mile or whatever analogy you want to make. The fact is that we got kids coming from different backgrounds, with different learning abilities and some have disabilities and its our job to make sure all those kids meet their potential, and really that’s what we should be measuring,” Gilbert said. Although results from within the district weren’t ideal in the broad sense, Gilbert said he is proud of how the students fared, and feels that more attention should be to positive notes. He also pointed out in a lot of cases it was the sub-groups that may have caused a building to miss its trajectory. REPORT See Page 5A
Supervisors to vote on contract for $55K loan for 911 upgrade By Ty Rushing Daily News Senior Staff Writer The final step in a loan agreement needed to make upgrades to the 911 phone system at the Jasper County Law Enforcement Center is set to take place at Tuesday’s Jasper County Board of Supervisors meeting. Ed Roach, of the 911 commission, originally approached
the board to seek approval for a $55,000 loan that the commission would agree to repay the county within two years. The JCLEC houses the county’s sheriff ’s office, jail and dispatch, which in turns serves as dispatch for every law enforcement office within the county. Members of the 911 commission have stated they felt the current emergency phone system in place
is outdated and this upgrade is needed “This is very imperative that we change this telephone system. I mean, we are having some troubles — otherwise, I wouldn’t be up here asking,” Roach previously told the board. Terms of the loan contract state the county won’t charge the commission any interest on the loan and that if somehow
the commission failed to repay the loan in the allotted amount of time, the commission agrees to pay any debts the county incurs in the process of trying to collect upon the loan. While a verbal agreement was previously reached, if this contact is approved, it won’t be the first time the county has agreed to loan the commission money to finish a project. A similar loan was provided in
the late ‘80s and in 2005, the county loaned the commission $100,000 to build the law enforcement center. The state of Iowa has oversight of the commission made up of community members from every municipality in the county. It receives its funding quarterly form the surcharge PHONE See Page 5A
Changes in finances help improve Skiff
Valle Drive-In celebrates 65 years
A focus at Skiff Medical Center has been the financial department and where procedures can be streamlined and better applied to save both time and money. | 7A
Even as the oldest drive-in in Iowa, Valle Drive-In hasn’t seen too many changes in its 65 years. The marquee and the building are both originals from 1949. | 8A
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Calendar • 3A Obituaries • 3A
Today
High 71 Low 49
Police Blotter • 2A Opinion • 4A
Comics & Puzzles • 6A Dear Abby • 6A
Classifieds • 4B Astrograph • 5B
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Volume No. 113 No. 88 2 sections, 14 pages