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Serving Cass, Shelby, Guthrie, Audubon and Pottawattamie Counties for over 141 years. Volume 235 - No 013

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School News

Funding Concerns Loom

School District Begins Work 2016/17 Budget

By Jeff Lundquist
NT Publisher

ATLANTIC - With two and half

months to go before school budgets are due,
ofcials are already casting a wary eye toward the State and hoping they will have the
information and resources they will need in
the coming year. Earlier this week, Iowa
Governor Terry Branstad laid out a plan that
included more than $145 million in new
funding for pre-K through 12th-grade students and teachers - a 2.45 percent increase.
But he also included a plan to divert money
from an existing 1-cent sales tax currently
marked for school infrastructure improvements to a water quality fund.
Atlantic Superintendent Dr. Michael
Amstein said Wednesday the he had concerns over that idea.
I tend to agree with what Ive heard
several Legislators say - that money was

is seeking monetary damages and clean water permits for agriculture drainage districts.
We must signicantly accelerate our
Were going in to trying to prepare a
water quality efforts in order to avoid erodbudget where we dont know what our
ing our path to prosperity, Branstad said in
state supplemental aid is going to be;
his State of the State Speech last Tuesday.
The tax has generated about $3.2 billion
we dont know if there is going to be any
since 2008 and is set to expire in 2029.
increase to our insurance costs; and we
Still, adequate funding for K-12 edualso dont know what our contract necation and water quality could face an upgotiation dollar amount will be. So those
hill battle in the Legislature. Democrats
want to provide more basic aid for schools,
are three big items that impact what our
while Republicans support less new dollars.
budgets going to look like.
Democrats and Republicans are questioning whether to use that education funding
Dr. Michael Amstein source for water.
Both of those issues to me are critiAtlantic Superintendent
cally important, said Senate President Pat
Under Branstads plan, the tax would be Jochum, D-Dubuque. They should stand
set up for educational infrastructure and is
now the time, or is any time, a good time expanded by 20 years and a portion would on their own two feet and they each deserve
to start draining that and using it for other be diverted to a water quality fund. A water School .................................... see page 2
utility in Iowa has led a federal lawsuit and
purposes? he said.

n
n
I
g
n
i

Sw

AHS Music
Department
Takes Center
Stage
By Jeff Lundquist
NT Publisher

Above members of the Premiere

Show Choir perform a number
while below Katie Darrow performs a solo during Jazz
Ones performance of
Bison Blues

Photos
by Jeff
Lundquist

Web Special

Check out a video

of the Premieres
performance on our website
atlanticnewstelegraph.com

See more
on page 12

Weather

ATLANTIC - The Atlantic

High School Music Department
held its annual Swing Inn Thursday night at the high school auditorium.
The concert opened with the
Jazz One band performing three
songs. The rst song, Bison Blues,
featured solos by Amma Iekel on
the piano; the saxophone section;
Melanie Hart on the trumpet; Seth
Schulte on the trombone; Katie Darrow on the alto sax; Sarah
Schorle on the vibes and Kaleb
Richter on the guitar.
The followed that song with
Ballad for Benny which featured
Emily Yager on the clarinet and
nished the night with I Let a
Song Out of My Heart with solos
by Nadia Somers, trumpet; Josh
McLean, trombone; Anna Iekel,
piano and Corgan Petersen on the
trap-set.
The jazz band was followed
by the Diversity Show Choir
which performed three numbers,
Right Now, Free Ride, I Was Here
and Shut Up and Dance.
The Premiere Show Choir
nished up the night with a performance that featured six songs,
Alive, One Vision, Nothing to
Lose which featured solos by Max
Swing Inn .............. see page 12

Family deals with house fire

By Jennifer Nichols
NT Staff Writer

ELK HORN If
you look at the outside of
Terry and Holly Robertsons house on Pleasant
Street in Elk Horn, you
wouldnt think it was
much different then others around it.
But if you go inside now-you will notice a difference. First,
the smell of smoke, and
outlines of items sitting
on counter tops after the
smoke penetrated them.
Then you notice the caution tape covering doorways in the basement.
On Tuesday afternoon, the re started in Pictured is inside the Robertson
the basement of the home house, where the re started.

- Partly sunny, with a high near 14. Wind chill values as low as
-10. Saturday Night - Snow likely. Patchy blowing snow after midnight. Cloudy, with a low around -6. Wind chill values as low as -20.
Chance of precipitation is 70 percent. New snow accumulation of 1
to 3 inches possible.

Sunday

- Mostly sunny and cold,

with a high near -1. Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around
-11.

Driver Cited for

Wednesday Accident
More information was released by the Atlantic Police Department
on an accident that occurred Wednesday at the intersection of Third
and Walnut Streets. The accident occurred at 1:35 p.m.
Edward Stevens, of Walnut, was southbound on Walnut Street,
stopped at the stop sign and proceeded into the intersection. Donald
Sonntag of Atlantic was eastbound, failed to see Stevens vehicle and
entered the intersection striking the vehicle. A passenger in Stevens
vehicle was transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital by Medivac with minor injuries. Estimated damage to Sonntags vehicle was
$3,000, and estimated damage to Stevens vehicle was $4,000. Sonntag was cited for failure to obey stop sign or yield right of way.

Martin Luther King Day

- Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 1. Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around -10.

Saturday, Jan. 16

Bluffs Jazz Festival at CB/AL

Trojan Youth Basketball Tourney, AMS Gym,
Schuler Gym Fifth and Sixth Grade Girls
8 a.m. - Wrestling: JV Tournament, Council
Bluffs Thomas Jefferson at Thomas Jefferson HS
9:30 a.m. - Wrestling: Varsity Tournament, Adel
DeSoto Minburn CSD at Adel-Desoto-Minburn High
School
12:30 p.m. - Swimming: Boys Varsity Invitational Fort Dodge at Fort Dodge HS
8:30 p.m. - Winter Formal, AHS Commons

Sunday, Jan. 17

Photo by Jennifer Nichols

Fire ................. see page 2

School Calender

Saturday

SATURDAY JAN 16 copy.indd 1

Area News

3:30 p.m. - NHS Induction, AHS Auditorium

SPEAK

Call us at:
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ext. 204

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Let Your Voice Be Heard!

Tell us what you think!

The News Telegraph has started a new

Speak Up line where you can phone in and
leave your opinon.
No names, no problem. The anonymous
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To participate just call the News Telegraph
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without the stress!
The paper does reserve the right not to run any comment we deem
to be offensive or slanderous. Comments must be left on our phone
line. Unsigned written comments will not be accepted

1/15/16 6:28 PM

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Motley
Fool Investor
by Morgan Housel

Change Your Mind

When the Facts Change
Flexibility of mind will be one of the decisive factors.
-- Winston Churchill, the day before D-Day
One of the hardest parts of investing is nding the balance
between:
-- Riding out periods temporarily unfavorable to your
views.
-- Realizing your views are wrong and moving on.
Its the difference between patience and stubbornness, and
it can separate the ruined from the rich.
Bill Ackman shorted (bet against) Herbalife stock more
than three years ago. It hasnt worked out. Shares rose 50 percent last year and are 35 percent higher than they were when he
revealed the short in 2012.
But Ackman is resolute. The market doesnt understand
Herbalifes business model, he says. He does, because he and
his analysts spent years scouring the company. The Wall Street
Journal reported:
After publicly coming out against Herbalife in 2012, Mr.
Ackman says he has spent more than $50 million to research
and publicize his funds negative view of Herbalife. He has
hired a team of lobbyists and consultants to contact a host of
politicians and regulators and encourage investigations into the
company.
Fifty-million dollars in research costs and three years of
due diligence for one company. Thats real money, even in
hedge fund terms.
I have no idea if Ackman is right. But I know it would be
hard to admit being wrong after sinking that much time and
money into one idea. The pressure to ignore anything that goes
against what youre trying to prove would be tremendous. Its
fuel for stubbornness, because admitting being wrong is an admission of years of wasted effort. And that hurts.
This is a big problem in investing. Analysts want to be
thorough, digging deep into their investments to understand
businesses and theories. But effort can repel open-mindedness,
which may be more dangerous than putting in no effort at all.
Its easy to convince yourself of something you desperately want to believe. You can cling to data that shows youre
right and ignore information that shows youre wrong, especially if youve already sunk effort into one conclusion. This
can not only make you wrong, but wrong and condent, which
is disastrous. Humans are the only creatures that can do this. In
their excellent book Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me),
Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson write:
A dog may appear contrite for having been caught peeing
on the carpet, but she will not try to think up justications for
her misbehavior. Humans think; and because we think, (we tell
ourselves stories and) our behavior transcends the effects of
rewards and punishment and often contradicts them.
Charlie Munger once described what happens when you
cant let go of your cherished beliefs:
Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way
for people to go broke. Youve made an enormous commitment to something. Youve poured effort and money in. And
the more you put in, the more that the whole consistency principle makes you think, Now it has to work. If I put in just a
little more, then itll work. People go broke that way, because
they cant stop, rethink and say, I can afford to write this one
off and live to ght again. I dont have to pursue this thing as
an obsession in a way that will break me.
How do you avoid this trap?
Its so difcult. But heres an idea to help reduce errors:
Avoid investments of such vague appeal that a team of Harvard
MBAs needs three years and $50 million of research to get to
the bottom.
I see people whose investment beliefs rival religious passion. They believe so strongly in their views that they literally
cant understand why youd disagree with them. The basis of
their passion is usually years of deep study, which creates the
impression of expertise but may actually just be a supernova
of conrmation bias and self-delusion. Expertise is great, investor Dean Williams once said, but it has a bad side effect: It
tends to create an inability to accept new ideas.
The key is realizing theres a difference between favorable odds and effort. In 1996, Munger was asked what kind
of discounted-cash-ow models Warren Buffett creates before
investing in a company. Ive never seen him do one, Munger
said. Buffett chimed in: Its true. If a companys value doesnt
just scream at you, its too close. Once deep calculations are
needed, youre running down the path of conrming whatever
you want to believe, often because you want your effort to be
justied.
Many of Buffetts best investments happened quickly, a
matter of days between discovery and writing a check. Thats
partly because hes been investing for 70 years, so lots of information is accessible off the top of his head. But its also
because he makes an investment only when the idea is so clear
and obvious that complication isnt necessary.
You and I arent Warren Buffett. But the logic of only
moving when things are blindingly clear is something we can
all learn from. The clear ideas are the ones you dont become
emotionally attached to because you havent devoted your life
to them, but still have a decent shot at good performance over
time. Stocks will do better than most other assets over time.
Costco provides a service people love. Capitalist economies
trend toward progress. These ideas are obvious and have a high
chance of being right, but no one needs to spend years of research to conrm that theyre right, so youre not wedded to
them for life and can change your mind when the facts change.
Psychologist Phil Tetlock spent his career studying people
who are legitimately good at forecasting. One trait that consistently pops up: The ability and willingness to change your
mind when the facts change. And a trait common in people
who make awful forecasts? Extreme devotion to one big idea.

(Try any of The Motley Fool newsletter services free

for 30 days: www.fool.com and click on Fool Store.)

Local

Atlantic News Telegraph

Walnut man gets

$90,000 from
malpractice lawsuit

A Walnut man received $90,000

in a malpractice suit on Thursday,
according to multiple media reports.
According to the reports, a
jury awarded Tony Bailey $22,500
for past loss of full mind and body,
$22,500 for future loss of full mind
and body, $22,500 for past pain
and suffering, and $22,500 for future pain and suffering. Bailey was
asking for damages from Jennie
Edmundson Hospital, Emergency
Physicians of Western Iowa and Dr.
Steven Feldhaus of Heart, Lung and
Vascular Surgery.
Reports say Bailey had severe
pain in his lower leg in January of
2012, and went to Jennie Edmundson, where he was treated at the

emergency room, and Feldhaus performed surgery. In March that year,

though, his leg was amputated below the knee after there were complications.
The jury found Feldaus and
Vascular Surgery negligent in Baileys care. They did not nd Jennie
Edmundson or Emergency Physicians of Western Iowa at fault.
Baileys attorney said during
the trail that Feldhaus didnt ask
about the arterial pulse and didnt
get all necessary information in the
case.
The attorney said Feldhaus
should have had Bailey transferred
to another hospital or called in another surgeon for the procedure.

Fire ..............................................................................................................................................................From page one

destroying two rooms there, that daughter, Bailey used, and
there was smoke damage throughout the top oor. In the
basement, Holly said, it melted wiring. It broke our water
lines. She said there was still discussion on whether walls
needed to be torn out, as well as installation in the attic. She
estimated it could be three or four months before they could
get back into the house.
Holly said Terry was at home when the re started, and
our Lab woke him up because the smoke detectors were
going off. With the dogs sensitive ears and that screeching
sound, the lab was just going crazy, running back and forth,
trying to get my husbands attention. He woke up to that.
Holly said, besides the dog, they also have two cats.
He got the dog and one cat out, Holly said. He actually went back inside to try and nd the other cat, and the
smoke was so bad, that he had to crawl out. He couldnt
see.
Later, she said, when the smoke got cleared out of the
top oor, the second cat was found, hiding, but okay.
Holly said the family was staying with other family
who live in Elk Horn, and a friend had a house in Kimballton that they were going to move into until they could get
back into their house. She said she didnt think there was a
fund set up to help the family, but said the community was
already being very generous.
The communitys been doing a great job, Holly said.
We had donations of clothes and everything for her be-

cause she lost everything in her room. Weve had great

support throughout the community here-people wanting to
give her plenty of stuff-weve had boxes and boxes. Thats
a small town for you.
She also said her co-workers had given her totes to
carry things that can be salvaged, lots of cleaning supplies,
and even cash. She also said Terrys employer was going to
donate to the family as well.
Holly said the family was coping with the whole situation really well, especially since they had already faced
another battle last year. She is a breast cancer survivor, declared cancer free last November. Her attitude: if she and
her family can beat cancer, they can beat this.
In the end, Everybody got out safe, which is what
really matters.

Correction

The caucus site for Benton and Franklin Townships

and Wiota is the Wiota Community Building, not City
Hall.
The address given in the previous press release is
correct316 Center.

District Begins Work on School Budget

School .........................................................................................................................................................From page one

their own funding stream.
So while State Legislators hash out the details
of school funding, local ofcials must begin the task
of putting together a budget
- without several key pieces
of the budget puzzle.
Were going in to
trying to prepare a budget
where we dont know what
our state supplemental aid is
going to be; we dont know
if there is going to be any
increase to our insurance
costs; and we also dont
know what our contract negotiation dollar amount will
be, Amstein said. So those
are three big items that impact what our budgets going to look like.
Prior to Wednesday
nights School Board meeting, the district and representatives from the Teachers
Association meet in the rst
round of contract negotiations. During that meeting,

the Association presented

the district a proposal calling for a 5.8 percent increase
in wages and total package
increase of about 7 percent.
Contract negotiation play a
key role since 80 percent of
the districts General Fund
goes to paying salaries and
benets. The cost of the proposal has not yet been calculated but the district currently has a general fund of
approximately $17 million.
But since much of the
budget is set by State Aid
and formulas, District Business Manager Mary Beth
Fast told the board that they
really had just four areas of
the budget where they can
make an impact. Those areas include two cash reserve
funds in the General Fund, a
Management Fund that pays
for early retirement and
some insurance costs and
a board approved Physical
Plant and Equipment levy

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SATURDAY JAN 16 copy.indd 2

SAC COUNTY (AP) A crash

involving a school bus sent two students
and several other people to the hospital.
KCCI-TV (http://bit.ly/1Rqrj2U )
reports Debra Dettman was driving an
East Sac County school bus with four
children on board Thursday afternoon
when they were struck by a truck.
The crash, which happened at the
intersection of Highway 20 and Rolf Avenue at 4:17 p.m., sent both vehicles into
a ditch.
Dettman was taken to a Sac City
hospital. The driver of the truck, 40-yearold August Bach, and his passenger,
38-year-old Jennifer Elliott, also were
taken to the Sac City hospital. Their conditions werent available.
The parents of two of the children
took them to a hospital, where they were
treated for minor injuries.

Elk Horn Fire

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School bus crash

injures several,
including 2 students

(PPEL) current set at 33

cents per thousand.
Fast said she hopes to
get a preliminary budget put
together by early February
after which the district will
have to wait for state aid to
be nalized.
There are probably
four of ve really big factors that we dont know
about that we are going to
go into creating a budget on.
Well be bringing it to you
and reviewing what we do
know, but know that it will
change, she said. I really
hope that they dont wait
until the summer to set the
supplemental aid rate because its just too much uncertainty.
By law, the state is supposed to give schools a twoyear budget projection but
that law has largely been
ignored.
In any event, the district
will not be facing the deep
cuts it made last year due to
a concern over the district
exceeding its unspent budget authority.
If there were one scal measure that I think you
should use without a doubt
it is the amount of the unspent budget authority,
said Iowa School Finance
Information Services representative Larry Sigel, who

met with the board Wednesday. The good news is that

due to a lot of the things
youve done in the district
over the last couple of years
its starting to level out and
youre getting down into
that $1,500 per student surplus budget authority which
is kind of where we want
you to be. That $1,500 to
$2,000 is right where we
want to see districts of your
size.
But while the district
was on the track, Sigel acknowledged that the district
could face unforeseen circumstances.
If the Legislature
coughs up two percent in
state supplement assistance
... youve got to think about
your salary and benet costs
are going to increase and
those are going to start eat
into it. I always chuckle a
little bit when I get a call
from somebody. We cut
our budget $300,000 last
year. I said, Well what
did your salary and benets go up by? They said
$150,000. I say Well you
didnt cut $300,000. You cut
$150,000. Because cost increases occur.
School budgets need to
be led with county auditor
by April 15.

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1/15/16 6:08 PM