Severely cold weather is causing some Siouxland school districts to have late starts and call off classes. Wayne State College in Nebraska is halting classes and other campus activities from late Monday through noon Tuesday.
The Sioux City School District has called off school entirely for Tuesday.
South Sioux City Schools will have two-hour late starts Tuesday through Thursday.
The extreme cold spell that is forecast through Friday currently has Tuesday morning as the coldest day. The temperature could plummet to 15 degrees below zero that morning in Sioux City, amid a streak of six days with morning temperatures below zero.
Once the wind chill factor is added in, temperatures are much more concerning, so people are urged to be careful in being outside.
At the same time, flu cases across Iowa continue to increase according to the latest figures from state officials.
Iowa hospitals reported more than 10 percent of emergency room visits last week were for the flu. That’s significantly higher than this time one year ago.
*The Iowa Legislature has missed a deadline by which to let public school districts know the amount of new money they will receive for the year ahead.
Per Iowa law, that funding increase is supposed to be reached within the first month of the session, at 30 days after the Condition of the State speech by Governor Kim Reynolds.
School board members and administrators are working on setting 2025-26 budgets. Sioux City School District Superintendent Rod Earleywine on Monday said, “The budgeting process gets very difficult when school districts do not know the amount of funding.”
Earleywine said the Iowa schools must set their budget public hearings by March 15, so crunch time is approaching.
Republicans control both chambers in the Legislature, and are working towards the funding decision. Senate Republicans are moving forward with Reynolds’ proposal for a 2% increase, while House Republicans are advocating for a 2.25% boost. Democrats are pushing for a more significant increase of 5%.
State Representative J.D. Scholten, a Democrat from Sioux City, said the delay in meeting the funding law timeline shows Republicans “seem to treat public education as a nuisance rather than a priority.”
There is no penalty to the state lawmakers for missing the deadline.
*Additionally concerning education funding, a South Dakota bill aiming to offer tax credits to help fund private K-12 education was killed on the state Senate floor.
It comes amid both a budget crunch, and a legislative push to create a new program to steer public dollars for private schooling.
If passed, the bill would have used as much as 80 percent of property taxes otherwise dedicated to local public schools, as a rebate to families enrolling in private K-12 education.
The bill was killed on a vote of 11 to 24, with majority party Republicans, such as state senator Kyle Schoenfish, saying they could not support it.
*In other news, animal shelters across Iowa are seeing a higher number of people surrendering their pets due to the economy.
The Animal Rescue League in Des Moines says they took in more than 13,000 animals last year. That’s the largest amount in the past several years.
Jerry Dominicak is with the Siouxland Humane Society. He says during a recent call with about 20 other shelters, all reported more people just dumping their animals, because they can no longer financially take care of them.
“People are struggling to pay bills, and they look at pets as being expendable. All the shelters, you know, we're here to help.” Dominicak said.
Dominick says his shelter saw an increase in requests for assistance from pet owners last year. The facility offers a food bank, spay and neutering programs, and funding for emergency vet bills.
*Additionally, a federal freeze on certain U.S. Department of Agriculture grant programs has delayed payments to farmers and recipient organizations that are administering the funds.
One of the affected programs is Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which aims to create market incentives for farming practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases.
Kevin Burres [BURR-ehs], a farmer in Wright County, says he covered the upfront costs for planting 500 acres of cover crops last year, expecting that he would be reimbursed mid-January. He’s still waiting.
Burres says he expects the USDA will honor its contracts with farmers. But it’s not clear how long the wait will be.
Groups like the American Soybean Association are urging the new administration to honor its legal obligations and resume payments.
