Gazette Daily News Briefing, April 8 and April 9
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9.
It will be perhaps our first truly nice weather weekend of spring.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 67 degrees.
On Sunday it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 69 degrees.
The wind will also be mild, hovering between 5 and 15 mph, with gusts of 20 mph.
As student enrollment declines and school officials say Iowa’s per-pupil state aid has failed to keep up with rising costs, the Cedar Rapids Community School District is looking to trim $2 million in planned spending from its general fund — more than 80 percent of which pays staff salaries and benefits.
K-12 student enrollment in Cedar Rapids schools dropped 1,170 students — almost 10 percent — from 17,129 during the 2018-19 school year to 15,959 during the 2022-23 school year. The enrollment loss of 127 students from the current fiscal year to next is a decrease of about $2.57 million in per-pupil state aid, said Karla Hogan, Cedar Rapids schools executive director of business services.
State aid, which is based on the number of students attending a district, runs a year behind. The district's student count in October 2023 will be used to determine funding for the fiscal 2025 budget.
While the district is working to cut $2 million in spending from its original budget plan, those cuts are not expected to impact student learning, and school officials hope to avoid job cuts, Hogan said. The $2 million decrease is less than 1 percent of the district’s overall budget for fiscal year 2024, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2024.
Marion City Council members have advanced an ordinance that will open the door to deploying automatic traffic cameras in the city.
The traffic camera proposal initially was presented by Marion Police Chief Mike Kitsmiller in council work session Feb. 21, saying the cameras would improve safety despite a police staffing shortage. An ordinance clearing the way to begin a local program passed its first consideration March 23. It again unanimously passed Thursday night, and now must go to a third consideration.
The next City Council meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. April 20, though it’s not yet clear if the third and final consideration will happen at that meeting.
The proposed ordinance does not specify which company the city would contract with to supply and maintain the cameras — or where the cameras would go. The proposal simply gives the city the option of installing them.
The Jefferson High School academic decathlon team is heading to a national competition once again after taking top honors in the state for 23 consecutive years.
“It’s a legacy,” said Kevin Darrow, coach of the Jefferson High academic decathlon team. “Twenty-three years isn’t done by accident. It’s a formula. It’s not what we learn, it’s how we learn.”
The J-Hawks won the National Academic Decathlon for the first time in the school’s history in 2022. The students are now studying for the national tournament April 27-29 in Frisco, Texas. In 2025, the National Academic Decathlon will be held in Des Moines.
Have a good weekend everyone. I hope you can enjoy the nice weather.
