Home News Tuesday Afternoon News, March 14th

Tuesday Afternoon News, March 14th

Superintendent Wendt Explains School Financing Formula To School Board

(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Community School Board were given preliminary budget figures during last evening’s school board meeting. The Board of Education heard from School Superintendent, Dr. Todd Wendt explain the school funding
formula that is used to determine the school’s budget and projected revenue from tax levys. Wendt says many schools across the state may find themselves in a bad financial position simply because of declining enrollment. Wendt says that
Le Mars Community is in better financial position, in part because of the increase in student enrollment. Wendt informed the school board that the city of Le Mars has released some Tax Increment Financing funds, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more money for the school district.

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Dr. Wendt explained the difference between what counties and municipalities can do to raise taxes, compared to the limitations of a school district.

Wendt further explains the limitations of school districts for raising taxes from property assessments.

The Le Mars Community School Board is expected to adopt the new fiscal year budget on April 10th.

 

Sioux City School Board Urges Congress To Accept Immigrant Students

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Sioux City school board is urging Congress to support immigrant students.
The board voted Monday for a resolution that urged members of the U.S. House and Senate to adopt the Bridge Act. The measure would continue protections granted to young people under the program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which is
aimed at helping young people who arrived in this country as children.
The Bridge Act would grant provisional protected-presence status and impose restrictions on the sharing of information for immigration enforcement.
Last month the Des Moines school board decided the district will act as a sanctuary for students who entered the country without legal permission and will require that immigration inquiries go through the superintendent’s office and the district’s attorney.

 

Farmers Have Until Wednesday To Sign-up For Crop Insurance

(Le Mars) — Farmers have until tomorrow (Wednesday) to sign up for the government-backed crop insurance program. Chuck Kellen of Mark Crop Insurance Company of Le Mars says there are not a lot of changes to this year’s crop insurance coverage. However, if a farmer wants to make changes on the coverage
plan, they need to make those changes by March 15th.

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Kellen says the optional plan allows farmers, who have several partials of land within the county, to keep different coverage plans separate from one another.

The crop insurance agent points to the year 2012, when western Plymouth County had suffered from dry conditions, as a good example of why farmers may want to have separate plans for each farm.

Kellen says farmers can decide on either having crop insurance coverage for protection against both revenue and yield loss, or just yield loss. He says many Plymouth County farmers have chosen to protect themselves against both the revenue and production loss. Kellen reminds farmers if they have made changes to the business structure of the farming operation, they need to note those changes to both the Farm Services Agency and to their crop insurance agent.

Kellen says approximately 80 percent of his clientele have already signed up for crop insurance, leaving the other 20 percent to do so before Wednesday’s deadline.