Legislative Update: Summary Report
After a long month, Community Colleges for Iowa, along with their marketing team Sliced Bread, are proud to present you all with our year-end summary report. Highlights of this report include an Executive Summary by Community College's Executive Director Emily Shields; a recap on the success of our 2024 legislative priorities; other policy bills that passed this session; bills of interest that didn't quite make the cut; and of course, the appropriations bills. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to Katrina Callahan (kcallahan@ccforiowa.org) or Emily Shields (ejshields@ccforiowa.org).
Winners of the Statewide "Design Challenge" Announced
Build Iowa's Future Design Challenge brought together K-12 students from across the state to create innovative projects and connect them to rewarding careers. Iowa Workforce Development and the Iowa Department of Education announced the winners of the Build Iowa's Future Design Challenge, and opportunity for K-12 students to create innovative projects, connect to rewarding careers and compete for up to $1,000 awards for their schools. First-place awards of $1,000 each will be made to the following schools for outstanding submissions by their teams: DeSoto Intermediate in the elementary school division; ADM Middle School in the middle school division; and Van Buren County High School in the high school division. Elementary and middle school students participated in the Design Challenge by constructing a model home using toy plastic construction bricks, wood blocks, or other materials and making the case for why it would be a great place to live. The Iowa Clearinghouse for Work-Based learning and HBA of Iowa hosted the challenge to provide a framework for professional authentic project development and resources for schools, including videos about careers in building trades and information about how the challenge aligns with Iowa's K-12 math and science standards. Learn more about the design challenge and details about all of the winning teams here.
Eastern Iowa Community College gets $1 Million for Industrial Technology Center
Four community colleges in Iowa will get a share of $3,6 million to expand their educational programs. EICC is getting $1million to add to the Muscatine Industrial Technology Center that serves six school districts. Click here to learn more.
State Grants go to Four Community Colleges to Support Career Academies
Four community colleges will use grants provided by the state to launch or expand career academies for students to get a head start in a high-demand career. Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education awarded $1 million each to EICC, IWCC, and IVCCD, and almost $618,000 to ICCC through the Career Academy Incentive Fund. Since 2019, the Career Academy Incentive Fund has provided grants to support partnerships between community colleges and school districts, who collaborate on programs for students to learn technical and educational skills and earn high school and college credits, as well as job credentials. To learn more, click here.
Iowa Central's English Language Learners Celebrate End of Semester
Students for ICCC's English Language Learner class enjoyed a festive end of semester celebration Thursday at Briggs Woods Park. They shared food from their native countries, listened to music, played a game of volleyball and relaxed with other informal lawn games. They also received awards for making gains on the CASA's national testing curriculum, an assessment tool used by ICCC to measure English proficiency gains. To learn more, click here.
Northeast Iowa Community College Maintains High Quality Investment Status
Moody's Investors Service has assigned an Aa1 rating to NICC's Taxable Industrial New Jobs Training Certificates, Series 2024-1. Moddy's a credit rating business, maintains an Aa1 rating on the College's outstanding general obligation unlimited tax debt. The Aa1 rating reflects the College's diverse economy in northeast Iowa, solid median family income at 100% of the nation and strong full value per capita at about $140,000. To learn more, click here.
Changes to Policies Set in Place by the Iowa Public Information Board.
During the 2024 legislative session, legislators passed Senate File 2385, an Act relating to boards, commissions, committees, councils, and other entities of state government. Division VII of Senate File 2385 amends Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code as it relates to electronic meetings and requires options for electronic meetings for governmental bodies. You no longer have to include a statement in the minutes explaining why a meeting in person was impossible or impractical. Our office is waiting on IPIB guidance and will alert you all when we know more. To read the bill's official language, click here.
IPIB is currently working on answering the following question: "Can government officials subject to Iowa Code chapter 21 attend ministerial and social events without violating open meetings laws?" Iowa Code Chapter 21.2 defines what constitutes a meeting under Iowa Code chapter 21. Specifically excluded from the definition of a meeting under chapter 21 is "a gathering of members of a governmental body for purely ministerial or social purposes when there is no discussion of policy or not intent to avoid the purposes of this chapter." Chapter 21 excludes events attended by members of a government body, such as social, political and civic events, so long as the members avoid deliberation on policy issues within their policy-making duties and their attendance at the event is not to avoid the transparency requirements of the open meetings law. When the full opinion is released, we will send this out.