Of trying to sexually assault her. Police say the incident involved 24 year old stephon ross. And a girl under the age of 12. They say it happened some time in april or may. Second degree sexual abuse is punishable by up to 25 years in prison. The university of iowa has decided to increase its minimum wage to mach the countys hike. Johnson ccntys minimum wage will eventually be 10. 10 an hour, but that will come in increments. On november 1st, Johnson County implemented its first wage increase to 8. 20 an hour. The uniersity says the increase will help the schoolol remain competittve for recruiting and retaining student employees. The ui hasnt said if it will follow the next county increase meteorologist joe winters joins us from the cedar rapids mariott. Thats where the Salvation Army is kicking off its red kettle campaign. Joe, its a windy one out here strong winds diminish for the end of the week leading to a beautiful weekend. This is not to say we wont feel the wind on friday, but a 1530 mph breeze will certainlye an improvement. A fantastic weekend is in sto with mostly sunny skies and highs above normal in the middle to upper 50s. Enjoy it because early next week it turns a bit wet. Tonight mostly clear, windy low 2834 winds nw 1530tomorrow partly cloudy high 4248 winds nw 1530 back to you. Last nights strg winds ripped part of the roof off Eisenhower Elementary School in dubuque, using thousands of dollarr in damage. A 70 foot tree also toppled over onto a house on graham circle in dubuque, but it only damaged the a lot of parents have called tv nine recentll their childrens classes this year. We looked into the issue and found there is a key factor behind those complaints. Statewide, the number of elementary classes with more than 25 tudents is actually down. Five percent of grade classes had more than 25 students. As did nearly eight percent of second and 14 percent of third grade classrooms. Last school year, those percentages were down in all three grades dropping to 3pointsix percent of kindergarten classes and 11 percent of third grade clases with moree thann25 students. S. Bb there are districts and schools with bigger class sizes. Kcrgtv9s brea love dug into tte numbers in the Cedar Rapids School district. Brea, if overall class sizes are down statwide, why are ced rapids parents still complaining . State funding often lags behind in keeping up with resources. Iowa city schools have grown 11percent in the past five years and average class size is up slightly. But cedar rapids is where parents have complained the most this year. The certified enrollment in the district had dropped almost 5percent in th past decade so it had to cut resources. Nowow it is seeing a reversal, adding nearly 100 students this school year, leaving fewer resources with more students. Its those fluctuating enrollments that leave districts and parents in a constant balancing act. Fewer students last year meant less state funding for Cedar Rapids Schools. That was unfortunate, and means a little bit less money that was coming into the district. So that does affect things as far asashat we can do for our buildings and what kinds of things we need to support our students. Now, with enrollment numbers going up, so are the ize of classrooms. Some nearing thirty students to one teacher. Amy jackson elementary and says her daughter has always been in over populated classrooms. And shes fought against it for the last six years. Since my daughter has been in kindergarten, she has consistently had close to 28 to 30 students in her class her daughter is now in the fifth grade and still dealing with a large class number. If you take 28 fifth graders, and not a very big room, its just not ideal foo a learning environment. We have wonderful teachers, and i just think that we dont want to make their job any more stressful than it needs to be bowers concerned about the one on one time children need in their early childhood. John hattie Research Says reducing class size does have an incase on achievement, but teachers needs to djust their teaching style to accommodate the number of the students in any situation. I just feel like when theres that many kids in a classroom you cant get the attenion, not every student is going to get the attention one on one attention is probably hard for any teacher to give, but when you have 30 kids it makes it extra hard. Bower and a group paents attended school board meetings, reached out to administratoo, and had convvsations with the district. She says theyve added para professionals , and one teacher that was used as a full time substitute. The district also combined grades to make class sizes smaller. But the numbers e still high. The Iowa Department of education says the statewide average class size is 20 for kindergarten, and 21 for first through third grades. Cedar rapids says itts goal is 21 students in kindergarten, 23 for 1st 2nd, and 25 for 3rd through 5th grades. The district is hitting that goal in some buildings but not all. Doezal says the district willleview overallllclass sizes but it is up to each building to decide where to put teachers for the best class sizes. Sometimes these buildings say, you know what were going to keep this particular grade level a little bit larger so we can make a different grade level a little bit smaller to meet the needs of that particular group of kids. Although funding is a factor, dozeal says if it is a big probl, the district will addrrs it. We knew we needed to, it wasnt well theres no money, it was we have to because the numbers certainly justify that we need to. We kind of have to look at the whole big picture of the whole building and where are those needs and what we need to do o support that. The district has added 4 full time employees this year, and hopes this years increased enrollment could mean more teachers in the classrooms next year. We would alwayay love more teachers, and i know teacher would like to have more support, and thats why i think our buildings are doing a great job of trying to use their building leadership team, which includes our teachers to talk abouu how we bess can meet the needs of these kids thats a good model and its working for us. In the mean time bower plans to continue volunteering in her children classrooms, helping the teachers, and advocating for smaller classrooms. Parents ive talked with that cause larger classrooms, and believe the district is doing all it can. But they hope with the rising number of enrollment, the distrrct will continue to use all of their resources to make sure a child is getting a quality education. And the district says if its a need, it will e done. Bruce and beth . People for and against an oil pipeline that would go through iowa spoke to the iowa utilities board today. But a deciiion on whettr to allow the pipeline is still a month or so away. Stay with tv9. People across iowa traveled to to rally and voice their opinion of the bakken pipeline. The pipeline will carry oil underground from north dakota to illinois. It wold slice diagonally through 18 counties ofofiowa. Dozens of Union Workers spoke in favor of the project today, saying it would create thousands of construction jobs. But opponents say the pipeline will increase global warming. So many people wanted to speak abouou the plan that the iowa utilities board had to limit comments to two minutes. But more than 200 people signed up, which meant the hearing lasted all day. Some eastern iowa prottsters came, not because theyre close to the pipeline route, but because they oppose the whole idea. Supporters, though, say its all about the jobs. Weve been saying for the last year construction careers are permanent Construction Projects are temporary when one finishes up we need the next one to go to i think we just need to show numbers to show iowa people are againss this pipelinn this was the utilities boards only hearing for public comments. The board is expected to make a decision either next month or in january. A shell rock company that makes grain wagons and crop sprayers is set to layoff some employees later this month. A spokesperson with unverferth anufacturin g wouldnt say howwany people this affects. But he says if the ag economy picks up, the goal would be to bring some of these people back. The laffs begin november 30th. The State High School football semifinaa kicked off today at the unidome. Well have highlights from the first game between don bosco and newell fonda coming up. To a beautiful weekend. This is not to say we wont feel the wind on friday, but a 1530 mph breze will certainly be an improvement. A fantastic weekend is in store with mostly sunny skies and highs above normal in the middle to upper 50s. Enjoy it because early next week it turns a bit wet. Toniggt mostly cllr, windy low 834 winds nw 1530tomorrow partly cloudy high 4248 winds nw 1530tomorrow night clear cool winds w 50saturday mostly sunny hig 56 low 26 sunday mostly sunny high 58 low 36 monday showers likely high 53 low 42 tuesday showers likely high 54 low 44 wednesday chance of showers high 50 low 44 thursday mostly cloudy high 48. We started with 40 teams in the state volleyball tournament, now its down to 20 with the start of the semifinals. Lets start the action in class 5a with cedar falls taking on bettendorf. The tigers lost the first two sets, but they come back. Grace burken with the block, then the kill to win set 3, 2624. 4th set, cedar falls going for the match point, taylor lynchh drills this kill. The tigers tie it up 22. But it was all bettendorf in the 5th set, Margaret Micka wih the kill for the win. Also in 5a, dubuque hempsttad facing ankeny centennial. 2nd set, mustangs trying to stay alive as Makayla Doyle delivers a fastball. But ankeny centennial was too much, to lauren rieck. Jaguars sweep hempstead. In class 4a, west delaware taking on lewis central. 1st set, Bridget Hoffman comes around and bllts the kill to win set 1, 2517. The hawks cruised in the 2nd set. Lewis central with the dig, but haley lyness sends it back. West delaware wins 30 in class 3a, west liberty facingg mount vernon. 1st set, mustangs try to keep it close. Katie wycoff with the kill off the block. But west liberty is ranked number one fora reason, Audra Bridenstine brinins the heat. Comett advance with the 30 sweep in class 2a, west branch versus western christian. Tough match forhe bears, Bailey Lukavsky fires up the squad with this kill off the block, but western christian won in four sets on the other court, sumnerfrederiksburg defeats 4time defending champion dikenew hartford in five sets. The state semifinals are underway at the uni dome for high school football. Don bosco was the first game of the day. The dons taking on newell fonda. Remember all the games can be seen on kccg 9. 2. 2nd quarter, don bosco facing a 4th and 8. Brandon bagby throws over the middle dylan reiher. Hes got the first down, but he wants a touchdown. Stretches over2the goalline. Don bosco trails 76. 3rd quarter, joel sweeney gets to the outside. Breaks one tackle, then two. Cuts it back inside. Stays on his feet. Goes down the sideline and breaks six takcles on this 25yard score. Dons go up 127. Still in the 3rd quarter. Bagby throws a beauty to caleb rigdon who gets behind the defense. He is gone. 52yard touchdown. The dons advance to the 8man championshii with the 307 victory. The wrestling mats were rolled out eariler today at Kinnick Stadium as iowa gets set to host Oklahoma State in the grapple on the gridiron this saturday. The weather loos like itlll be perfect and so far 35 thousand tickets have been sold. The wrestlers say the elements will not be a distraction. When its time to go, you get tunnel vision no matter where. If youre wrestling in an alley, on a dirt road, or in front of 35 thousand people, it doesnt matter. You are wrestling. Fans could be blaring the loudest music, throwing stuff out on the mat, and ripping the mat from underneath us. Its not going to matter because i have a mission and im pretty good at accomulishing that mission. Trt 21 oc accomplishing that mission thanks, jjsh. Now heres a look at todays top web stories on kcrg dot com. Stay with your 24hour news source,kcrgtv9. Strong winds diminish for the to a beautiful weekend. This is not to s we wont feel the wind on friday, but a 1530 mph breeze will certainly be an improvement. A fantastic weekend is in store with mostly sunny skies and highs above normal in the middle to upper 50s. Enjoy it because early next week it turns a bit t. Tonight momotly clear, windy low 2834 winds nw 1530tomorrow partly cloudy high 4248 winds nw 1530 thanksjoe. Thanks for joining us for kcrgtv9 news at 6. We hope youll be with us again tonight at ten. Tonight on kcr this is an easy one. You love this guy. Me