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CWI forms guns task force Members of ‘Weapons on Campus’ group will be appointed within two weeks By KELCIE MOSELEY kmoseley@idahopress.com
© 2014 Idaho Press-Tribune
NAMPA — College of Western Idaho will form a Weapons on Campus Task Force to assess Idaho’s new guns on campus law,
which goes into effect July 1. The community college’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday discussed the ambiguities that still surround the law and the concerns that need to be addressed. President Bert Glandon said many are confused about what the new law — which allows those with enhanced concealed carry permits and retired law enforcement to bring weapons to
campus — will mean for CWI. “The faculty are very concerned, the students are very concerned,” Glandon said. Glandon has met with North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho to coordinate a response to the law, and he hopes to soon have a statement that will go out to the campus and public. But he acknowledged the three campuses have different needs
and will need to shape their policies accordingly. “It isn’t the intent to have a single, uniform policy, it’s the intent to have a uniform response,” he said. The college also has 12 buildings under lease, so they need to communicate with landlords about policy changes.
Senate OKs food stamp bill New measure would stagger release of funds to help offset ‘grocery store chaos’
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By KATIE TERHUNE The Associated Press
YOTES FANS SCRAMBLE FOR TICKETS
BOISE — Lawmakers said they hope a new bill that passed the Senate 33-2 on Tuesday will allow Idaho to stagger when food-stamp recipients receive money to buy groceries. Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, said spreading out the release of those funds over 10 days could help offset “grocery store chaos” on the first of every month. The change could tackle consumers’ frustration over long lines, as well as give stores time to restock in-demand products, Guthrie said. Grocers reported the biggest problems were felt in Idaho’s largest cities, which have a higher concentration of the state’s 218,000 receiving food assistance, also known as SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “Grocery stores can’t keep up with the demand,” Guthrie said. He added that preventing a rush on stores would give Idaho’s bakers, growers and dairy farmers more time to get their goods onto tables around the state. Idaho is one of only nine states that do not use a staggered-release system. The state switched to the single-day benefits payout in 2009 because of economic downturn. But implementing the system — which determines which day a person gets money for food based on birth year— isn’t cheap.
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Adam Eschbach/IPT
Nick Brady, of Boise, purchases 14 season tickets from Bev Robinson during the first day of ticket sales for The College of Idaho football program’s 2014 season Tuesday at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center. Reserved section tickets for a season are $100, and single-game tickets are $25. The College of Idaho Athletic Department reported that 962 of the initial 1,000 ticket allotment of reserved seats were sold Tuesday. The Yotes kick off their first football season since 1977 at Pacific Sept. 6. Their home opener is the following weekend against Montana Western.
KUNA LEVY CORRECTION The Kuna School Board will hold a special session at 5:30 p.m. today to discuss whether or not to put the district’s supplemental levy on the ballot again this year in Kuna.
Education stakeholders find common ground in 2014 session Idaho Ed News
BOISE — They still are three separate groups, with distinct memberships — the Idaho School Boards Association, the Idaho Association of School Administrators and the Idaho Education Association, the state’s teachers’ union. But for most of the 2014 session, these three groups have spoken as one, with a good deal of success. They are pushing for a teacher pay raise and teacher leadership “premiums.” They Deaths Reid Brown Jerry Clagg
Joseph Conklin Randall Gamble Christine Godfrey
The IASA and the ISBA were sponsoring bills directly modeled after Proposition 1, the collective bargaining overhaul rejected by voters the previous November. They said their membership needed the financial and decision-making flexibility the legislation would provide. The IEA opposed most of these bills, labeling them as a series of “teacher attacks.” At the same time, the groups were at the table, as part of Gov. Butch Otter’s education reform task force. The 31-memTHE RECENT HISTORY ber task force did not discuss labor issues A year ago, the stakeholders’ work- — the group’s chairman, State Board of ing relationship can best be described as Education member Richard Westerberg, complicated. declared those off-limits at the start of the Warrren Gossett Wanda Harrell John Rathbone
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first meeting. The group instead worked on other topics, from teacher pay to school funding to technology, and forged nearly unanimous consensus around a far-ranging list of 20 recommendations. IASA executive director Rob Winslow, ISBA executive director Karen Echeverria and IEA President Penni Cyr served on the task force. Since August, when the task force wrapped up its work, the three have advocated for the group’s most spendy recommendations: a teacher career ladder that could cost slightly more than a quarter billion dollars; and restoring $82 million in district “operational funding” cut during the recession.
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endorse a plan to begin reversing recession-era budget cuts. They support a controversial pilot exam aligned with the new Idaho Core Standards. A year after battling publicly over a series of labor laws, they even agree about keeping three of the laws on the books for another year. And the stakeholder groups agree on two other points. They appreciate the improved working relationship, and know it will take effort to stay on the same side.
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Groups push for teacher pay raises, teacher leadership premiums
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