NEWTON
GEARBOTS SUCCESS
4-H robotics team earns two trophies at regional / 2A
DAILY NEWS TUESDAY, DEC. 23, 2014 • SERVING NEWTON & JASPER COUNTY SINCE 1902
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High quality of life a priority for city By Jamee A. Pierson Newton Daily News Fostering a high quality of life and having effective, efficient, democratic governance were two pieces of the strategic action plan the city set for the coming years. Foster a High Quality of Life The city plans to continue to build upon the high quality of life in Newton by focusing on several areas including neighborhoods, community engagement and housing. “By focusing on growing community livability, cultural and historical resources, recreational amenities, and community aesthetics, in order to benefit existing households and draw young families to choose Newton as their home,” Bob Knabel, city administrator said. In neighborhoods, the city set goals to improve
quality as well as general curb appeal throughout the community by implementing cost saving measures for the nuisance enforcement program and having an annual allocation for low-conditioned buildings and demolition programs. The city found several areas for community engagement from improving handicapped accessibility to improvements in the parks. Also, growing and elevating Newton’s reputation in central Iowa and starting the Hometown Pride “Keep Iowa Beautiful” program will help further the support of the comprehensive plan. Housing has been an area of focus and continues to draw attention by the city. The city wants to continue to grow new housing units and encourage improvements QUALITY | 3A
Jason W. Brooks/Daily News Newton Community School District Food Service Supervisor Cristy Croson gave the first reading of Wellness Policy 504.11 at Monday’s board meeting. The board’s first meeting of the new year will be Jan. 12.
NCSD board discusses student-to-device ratios Amount of ‘screen time’ for youngest students discussed By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News
Jamee A. Pierson/Daily News In an effort to improve curb appeal and safety in Newton, the D&D program has torn down low-conditioned buildings through out the city.
How many iPads, Chromebooks and other devices does the Newton Community School District need at each grade level? And how many devices should be around the district’s youngest learners? Those were two questions discussed at length Monday night during the NCSD’s only regular meeting of December. The 2.5 hour meeting, held in the Emerson Hough building’s conference room, covered a number of im-
portant topics, even though many were not action items. One item that was only up for discussion was a purchase schedule and student-to-device technology ratio. While the district has had extensive discussions in the past couple of years in putting together a technology plan, there still might be more to talk about in the months ahead. “We do have some older laptops that we’ve re-conditioned that were staff-use,” NCSD Technology Supervisor Chris Bieghler. “We put a band-aid on it, put in a classroom and it can
be used to get on the Internet. Some of those computers are nine years old. To me, those aren’t usable devices.” Bieghler’s primary concern, however, was meeting student ratios regarding devices, as requested by teachers and principals. While there was no argument that the high school ratio should be at or near 1:1 and the middle school not far behind, the discussion got more interesting when the lower grades were mentioned. While there is currently a 40-student discrepancy between the district’s two kindergartenthrough-third-grade schools (reconfiguration proposals could change that), the board president SCHOOL | 3A
Power outage impacts 1,250 Newton residents Newton Daily News Approximately 1,250 Newton residents lost power Monday evening on the southeast side of town. At 9:45 p.m., a piece of equipment on a power pole
malfunctioned causing a cross arm to catch fire, leading to the power outage, according to Alliant Energy. Most customers had power back by 11 p.m. Eleven residences that came back up at about 2:30 a.m.
‘Hour of Code’ Jason W. Brooks/ Daily News Firefighters responded to a kitchen fire at Walnut Creek Apartments at 17th Street East and South Fourth Street on Monday, but the fire was out by the time they arrived.
Firefighters respond to kitchen fire By Jason W. Brooks Newton Daily News
By the time the Newton firefighters arrived to a call to Walnut Creeks Apartments late Monday afternoon, a small kitchen fire had already been put out by a resident.
Firefighters inspected the building where the fire had begun in the kitchen of a second-floor apartment in the three-story building, located on the southeast corner of South Fourth Street East and East 17th Street South. Newton Fire Chief Jarrod
Wellik said there were no injuries, and no one was transported to a hospital as a result of the fire. The department was dispatched at about 4:30 p.m. Monday. Wellik said the fire was a grease fire, FIRE | 3A
Submitted Photo Rep. Dan Kelley and Newton Superintendent of Schools, Bob Callaghan joined fourth grade students and teachers from Aurora Heights Intermediate as they were presented the “Hour of Code” award from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Advisory Council. The STEM Council awarded $4,000 for further computer education. Aurora Heights Intermediate was one of only six schools statewide to receive this recognition.
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Powering past North Florida
Iowa Hawkeyes back in the win column / 8A
Volume No. 113 No. 153 1 sections 12 pages
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