First Perry Fine Arts Concert of 2015 Sunday
Perry Fine Arts will host their first concert of 2015 this weekend.
Exit 113 will perform at the Perry High School Performing Arts Center Sunday at 2pm. The five piece band from southern Dallas County will entertain the audience with 50s, 60s and 70s tunes.
Duane Griffin with Perry Fine Arts says these concerts are a great chance to see high quality entertainment for free.
If you have questions, contact Griffin at 465-4782.
Dallas County Conservation Receives Grant for the Raccoon River Valley to High Trestle Trail Connector
Some more positive news to pass along as far as trail funding locally.
The Iowa Transportation Commission has awarded the Dallas County Conservation Board with a grant to support the Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail Connector project.
The Board will receive $119,575 toward the first phase of the project which includes land acquisition and construction from Perry to Bouton.
The local project is one of six that are receiving funding from the federal Recreational Trails Program, for a total of $1,304,133 this year.
The Recreational Trails Program was created in 1991 to develop and maintain trails and trail-related facilities for both motorized and non-motorized users.
Senator Chapman Says Gas Tax Increase Isn’t the Way to Fix Infrastructure Fund Issues
We’re just a few days into this year’s legislative session and one thing being talked about a lot is infrastructure funding.
District 10 State Senator Jake Chapman says something needs to be done but he doesn’t feel increasing the gas tax is the way to do it.
“It’s no secret that there’s issues with our secondary roads and bridges in Iowa and there’s a lot of different ideas on how we should be funding that, ranging from gas tax to sales tax to local option tax. I’ve been of the opinion that we can actually be putting more money into secondary roads than a gas tax can, in fact my bill that I proposed would have put twice as much money into secondary roads as a gas tax would. We can do it without raising taxes, we just have to make it a priority” says Chapman.
Chapman says he feels there will be a change in infrastructure funding this year, though it’s too early to tell what exactly that will be.
Dry and Eventually Warm Week in the Raccoon River Valley
It has been a dry week here in the Raccoon River Valley. One that started with bitterly cold temperatures and has since warmed up.
According to the National Weather Service, after receiving above normal snowfall the first week of the month, Perry’s totals remain at 5 inches of snow and 0.26 inch of total precipitation.
Jefferson also received no new precipitation this week, keeping their total at 4.3 inches of snow so far this month and 0.28 inch of precipitation.
Guthrie Center’s totals remain the same at 3.5 inches of snow so far in January and 0.22 inches of precipitation.
Average snowfall totals for the area in January range from 4.6 to 6.6 inches, while precipitation totals range from 0.82 to 0.95 inch.
Perry School Board Hosts First Meeting of 2015
The Perry Community School District Board of Education held their first meeting of the 2015 calendar year last night.
At the meeting, it was announced that adult Bluejay fans are receiving low ratings from the Raccoon River Conference for sportsmanship. Activities Director Tom Lipovac says this is a new process implemented by the athletic conference. Student athletes, coaches, adult fans and student fans are all rated at each conference contest. Perry has over half of the negative ratings of all of them obtained in the conference right now. Lipovac said conversations have been had with some people who they’re concerned about and recent games show all positive ratings. High School Principal Dan Marburger says last time there was such an issue, a letter was put out to winter sports parents. He says they want to make sure “parents are representing our school well like our students and our coaches are”. He says they try to pick an appropriate time and place to address the issue without embarrassing anyone. After discussing the topic, the Board said they support administration in addressing the issue through additional conversations or a letter to parents.
Superintendent Lynn Ubben then updated the Board on several topics. The first was in regards to early start date waivers. Typically the district has been able to apply for a waiver to be able to start classes before the official state start date in September. Under direction from the Governor, schools will no longer automatically have their waivers approved. Ubben says it is difficult to plan for the upcoming year because of this. They will continue to monitor what’s happening at the state level and take action appropriately. She also touched on the State Literacy Initiative which states that all students need to be reading at a 3rd grade level by the end of their 3rd grade year. Additionally, Ubben mentioned that the district will be having their Department of Education site visit Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. She says this will be the last year of site visits as they know them and they look forward to see what recommendations they have for improvement.
A request for proposal for the district’s auditing services was then approved. They’re looking to hire an auditor for the next three fiscal years. The 2015-2016 Modified Supplemental Amount Application for dropout prevention was then approved. This helps determine the amount of money received to help students who need additional assistance. The requested amount is $528,000, compared to last year’s request of $540,000.
Next the Board reviewed and approved the Secondary Business Education Program as submitted to the Department of Education. A new school bus purchase was also approved. Transportation Director Troy Griffith says it has been three years since the district purchased a new bus. The new bus will be ready for the upcoming school year.
Revisions to the Voluntary Early Retirement Policy were then approved to clarify that the program is for licensed employees who work 40 hours per week for and support staff who work 30 hours per week. The program was also extended until January 30th this year.
Board policy revisions were then approved in regards to organization of the Board, meeting procedures, responsibilities, elections, oath of office and vacancies. Kathia Davila was approved for early graduation and the Board approved personnel changes.
The next meeting will take place January 27th at 8:30am in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank Building so the board can approve final review of the elementary parking and traffic project.