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The
Official Newspaper of Anamosa, located in Jones County, Iowa
Anamosa News
Since 1855
 Thursday, March 4, 2010 |
Dolan Charged with Sexual Abuse
By Michelle Phillips |
Rural Olin resident and Iowa City Regina teacher Robert Dolan was arrested last week on charges of sexual abuse third degree and providing alcohol to a minor.
Jones County Sheriff Mark Denniston said the 49-year-old Dolan was arrested after a 17-year boy came forward in January.
“Initially, the parents had come in because the boy had said something to them, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue it,” said Denniston, who added that Dolan’s family and the boy’s family were acquainted with one another.
The boy, also of rural Olin, told the sheriff Dolan had come over to his house while his parents were out of town. He claims that Dolan brought a 12-pack of beer to his home and after drinking four beers, “passed out.” When the boy awoke he said his pants were down and Dolan was fondling him.
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At that time, Denniston said he advised the boy to write everything down. The boy then pressed charges against Dolan on February 4. Denniston served arrest warrants to Dolan in Independence on February 25.
Denniston said the investigation is nearly wrapped up and was waiting for phone records to review text messages between Dolan and the boy.
Dolan is in the Jones County jail on a $51,875 bond for the two charges. A bond review hearing is scheduled for March 3. He remains in the Jones County jail. Dolan has sought legal counsel from Jim Thomas of Anamosa. |
School Board Focuses on WMS Repairs, Budget
By Michelle Phillips |
The Anamosa School Board presented awards to a group of West Middle School students who won most improved school at the Iowa Math Counts competition in Cedar Rapids last month during their regular meeting March1.
The board received an update from EMC insurance, telling them that EMC would pay for the repairs from a ceiling collapse at West Middle School in January. The insurance company will not, however, pay for future damages related to the concerns with the ceiling. The school may contest the decision if they choose.
The school received six bids for shoring up West Middle School, $41,960 was the low bid and the high bid came in at a little more than $94,000. Greeley Construction was the low bidder, and the recommendation of the structural engineer, IIW. The school could use Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds for the repairs. The bids do not include electrical and heating work. The school plans to use local contractors for heating and electric.
The board voted to go with Greeley and local contractors, using LOST funds for the work.
The school received two bids for the sale of the property it owns on Highway 151. The board voted to use Bret Barner as the realtor for the sale.
Administrators from each of the buildings gave proposals to the board concerning budget cuts at each of their respective buildings. Strawberry Hill Principal Josh Lyons began with the best-case scenario reducing music by .5, art by .6 and eliminating a para-educator. He would also look at Title I funding for St. Patrick School’s free and reduced services.
Sellnau asked how music and art would change and Lyons said scheduling would be tighter or teachers and music classes would be reduced to 50 minutes. Art would be on a six -day rotation. He said they could also look at using the middle school art teacher for fifth grade art.
At West Middle School, the best-case scenario would include moving a teacher from the middle school to Strawberry Hill to fill a spot left open by retirement. The other teachers would then pick up additional classes. Linda Vaughn, West Middle School principal, also suggested reducing the instrumental music program to six or seven periods a day rather than eight, but said it would not affect music lessons. The measure would also reduce art from 60 days to 45 days as well as health class from 90 days a year to 45 days a year. The plan would also eliminate a para-educator position from non-core curriculum classes and a part-time special education teacher’s job would also be eliminated.
Lowell Tiedt asked how this would affect the music program in the future? The impact is unknown. Tiedt said that he didn’t want to compromise the music program.
Anamosa High School Principal Steve Goodall was next with his best-case scenario. Goodall said he worked hard to keep all of the teachers in the classrooms. He said there were mandates that regulate some of the positions. He suggested eliminating .2 from health class, reducing administration by .5 and reducing the activities director position, a para-educator and possibly a special education position.
The district would also look at sharing transportation and food service. Sharing a superintendent with another district is also an option as is eliminating the SAM position at Strawberry Hill. The district could also look at sharing some positions as well as sharing services with other districts that are close.
Dan Kylie asked that the school board look back at budget cuts from 2002 and 2003 as a guide. He said there was a faster turn around than expected. “My question is the $1.1 million in cuts, do we really need to cut that deep?” He asked. He said that some of the money could potentially come from the schools cash reserves, and encouraged the board to make careful scrutiny before cutting certified staff.
If the district took all of the recommendations it would save about $750,000.
In the worst-case scenarios, additional positions would be cut from all of the schools.
The board then heard about levy options for the district. This year the school is levying $14.37 per $1,000. If the bond issue were to pass in April it would increase the levy by $4.05 per $1,000. The school’s business manager, Linda Von Behren, said you could decrease a levy after it has been published, but not increased. She suggested the board increase the management fund levy from 77¢ per $1,000 to 92¢ per $1,000.
For the 2010-2011 budget, Von Behren presented an option of adding $1.81 per $1,000 for a cash reserve levy, which would offset the 10% budget cut implemented by the state. Depending on the option the board chooses the levy rate would be between $12.82 per $1,000 to $14.65 per $1,000. If the board chooses the $14.65 per $1,000 option it would be an increase of 1.9%. These figures do not include an additional $4.05 for the bond issue, should it pass.
Other schools in the WaMaC conference levy as little as $12.10 per $1,000, Benton, and as much as $18.31 per $1,000, Center Point-Urbana.
“Those are just scenarios to kind of give you an idea of the impact,” Von Behren told the board.
The board told Von Behren to go forward with the 1.9% levy increase.
Superintendent Dr. Dale Monroe told the board there was a reduction in the Substitute Employee Management System (SEMS) through Grant Wood AEA. Tiedt suggested the school look at professional development costs as an area to cut from the budget. The board approved the renewal of the SEMS contract.
The school learned that the new middle school is $16.39 million, the 2009 amount was $16.5. The bonding capacity of the school went from $13.75 million in 2009 to $15.1 million available to bond. The high school renovations would amount to $7.4 million, with the difference coming from LOST funds that were approved last spring by voters. |
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