School district’s numbers keep sliding

Mountain Home, Idaho Schools in this U.S. Air Force town have fewer students for the fifth straight year, a product of volatile military population numbers that make predicting – and budgeting for – classes a difficult proposition.

The greatest loss is at public schools on Mountain Home Air Force Base, the city’s biggest employer, where there are 18 fewer students at Base Primary School and 61 fewer students at Liberty Elementary School. In the city, public schools have 54 fewer students compared with last year.

With a planned turnover of military personnel on the base in October, it remains unclear how many children will arrive when the replacement military families are transferred here.

That makes budgeting difficult, school administrators say. About 90 percent of the schools’ revenue, based on average daily attendance, comes from the federal and state governments. The lower overall numbers represent an estimated loss of $418,000 to the Mountain Home School District, officials said.

Inmate slashes self with razor from jail

Medford, Ore. A safety razor designed to be difficult to disassemble was used by a Jackson County jail inmate in an apparent suicide attempt, officials said.

Matthew Hamilton Conway, 33, cut his left arm after removing a blade from a safety razor issued at the jail for personal hygiene. He was taken by ambulance to Rogue Valley Medical Center, where he was treated and released, officials said.

Sgt. Sue Lehman, jail spokeswoman, said inmates are issued safety razors every morning and left unsupervised with the razors for about an hour before deputies collect them.

The specific razor used by Conway was designed to deter misuse. “We were told this razor would make it harder for them to do that,” Lehman said. “It has a little guard on the end that makes it hard to remove a blade without tools.”