Western Iowa Tech Community College officials have approved an early retirement package for a few employees, including the president.
WITCC President Terry Murrell on Tuesday told Siouxland Public Media News that he is deciding whether to retire. He said that decision will be coming by the September board meeting.
Murrell has been president for 14 years and has worked at the college for nearly two decades.
The WIT Board of Directors in their Monday meeting passed the early retirement measure, after first airing it in the prior meeting.
The voluntary early retirement package would allow six workers who are at least age 57 and with specified tenures to get a special compensation package if they retire.
Western IowaTech has a main campus in Sioux City, plus satellites in other towns such as Denison and Cherokee.
*Additionally, President Donald Trump continues to crack down on immigration enforcement.
As part of his plan, the administration backed out of a 2011 policy and now allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,or ICE, to make arrests at schools, hospitals and churches.
In light of the arrest guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security, some of Nebraska's schools have instituted new policies, restated former policies, and contacted legal representation.
Nebraska Public Media contacted larger school districts and those in towns with large immigrant communities, to see what they are doing as far as immigration enforcement on or near school grounds.
The South Sioux City School District does not have a policy exclusively written on ICE. South Sioux City school officials do not collect or have information about a student's immigration status and therefore are unable to share that information.
If ICE makes a request to speak with a student in the district, it must first go through the superintendent's office and the district's legal counsel before any action is taken.
The Omaha Public Schools Board of Education has restated the district's resolution from Trump's first administration regarding practices related to ICE.
This resolution states, unless specifically required by law, no district employee, contractor, volunteer or representative will assist in the detection or apprehension of an individual who may be undocumented.
The district will not ask any student or parent about immigration status nor require documentation.
*Additionally concerning schools, the 2025-26 school year has begun in the Siouxland tri-state area. South Sioux City Schools held classes on Monday, as officials work to educate students as they also aim to modernize increasingly tight buildings amid growing enrollment.
Iowa schools can first have school on Monday, August 25, or two weeks after Nebraska.
But preparations for the year continue, as new teachers in the Sioux City School District had training on Tuesday, and that will also begin for some teachers in the Spirit Lake School District on Wednesday.
The first day of classes at Dakota Valley in South Dakota comes on Monday, August 18.
