In brief: Schools official takes Vegas job

Staci Vesneske, Spokane Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of human resources, is leaving to take a job in a Las Vegas school district.

Vesneske, 45, has worked in Spokane’s largest district since she started her career 22 years ago. She was earning $149,520 per year. Her last day is Aug. 12.

“It was a difficult decision to leave such a great district – really, a district which has raised me, so to speak, since my first year as a teacher at Shadle Park High School in 1989,” Vesneske said.

However, Vesneske said she couldn’t resist working in a state where legislators were “courageous enough to mandate student academic growth as a required part of teacher evaluations” and teachers with “two years of poor performance will be assigned probationary status in terms of statutory nonrenewal.”

Vesneske’s new job is the same position she serves in Spokane Public Schools, but it’s in the fifth-largest district in the nation, with 309,000 students and 37,000 employees.

The position she’s vacating will not be filled permanently until next year.

Redistricting plans can be seen online

BOISE – Idaho’s redistricting commissioners are down to four possible plans to reconfigure the state’s two congressional districts; they’re gearing up for a vote on Monday and asking people to weigh in on the options.

One plan, from the Republican commissioners, would essentially divide the state the same way it is now, but move the dividing line in Ada County two miles to the west to shift some of the growing population there from District 1 to District 2. One from the Democratic commissioners would divide both Ada and Canyon counties, and use Interstate 84 as the dividing line, moving Owyhee County into District 2. In both those plans, North Idaho stays in District 1, along with part of Ada County, the state’s population center.

Another plan, submitted by a resident, would divide the state vertically; North Idaho would be paired with eastern Idaho in District 2, while Ada and Canyon counties would have their own District 1.

A fourth plan, submitted by Republican commissioners, is similar to the other Republican plan but doesn’t divide precincts. All can be viewed online at the commission’s website, www.legislature.idaho. gov/redistricting/ redistricting.htm.

Sex offender has new address

A man who sexually assaulted a woman in front of her 4-year-old daughter in 1994 has moved to a new address in Spokane Valley.

David Robert Rickard, 50, was released from prison in 2004 after serving nine years for first-degree burglary with sexual motivation.

Rickard recently moved to the 7300 block of East Seventh Avenue, the Sheriff’s Office announced Friday.

Rickard had a history of stalking women when he broke into a Colville woman’s home in July 1994 and tried to rape her. Police say Rickard had stalked the woman.

Rickard is a level 3 sex offender, the classification considered most likely to reoffend. He’s been convicted of domestic violence assault, violation of a protection order, money laundering, drug possession and domestic violence malicious mischief since his release.

He is not under Department of Corrections supervision and is not wanted by authorities.

Montana man dies in crash into river

A Hamilton, Mont., man died Thursday when his car went over an embankment into the Clearwater River in Idaho.

Jerry L. Whinery, 58, was westbound on Highway 12 when he drove off the road on the right, according to a news release from the Idaho State Police. Whinery overcorrected to the left and went down an embankment and into the river shortly after 6 a.m., the release said.

State police said the car will be left in the river until the water level goes down and it can be removed safely.

Medical residency coming to N. Idaho

Kootenai Health is developing a family medicine residency program that will be headed by Dr. Richard McLandress.

A shortage of family doctors in North Idaho spurred the effort. The state ranks 49th in the nation for physicians per 1,000 people, according to a news release issued Thursday by Kootenai Health, which operates Kootenai Medical Center.

Studies show that most physicians practice within 50 miles of where they complete residencies.

McLandress said an initial group of six residents will arrive in three years.