March Board of Directors Meeting Summary

The March 10 Board meeting opened by recognizing the great work that Angelisa Braaksma Fynaardt has done with Positive Behavior Supports at Centennial Elementary in the SE Polk district. Kara Buerger, the guidance counselor at Centennial, was also recognized.

Frank Harty, a local labor relations attorney, provided a presentation to help the Board understand the proposed changes to labor laws in Iowa and the implications for the work of the Board.

Dr. Kilcrease gave an update around what the Agency currently knows about the federal stimulus package. The monies have not been identified as yet. The Agency has not received any guidelines, timelines or rules for the monies. There are some overarching principles in the use of the funds, including being able to sustain any use of the monies after the “funding cliff.” There is also the issue of whether or not the federal government is going to give the Agency the money and then the Agency spends it or whether the Agency is supposed to spend money and then recover. If it is the later, our hands will be tied as we have no extra money in the budget.

Brenda Gustafson led a discussion on the use of the information in the Agency's annual progress report. Currently, this information is on the Department of Education’s Web site. A public citizen and probably some educational staff would not know anything about the Agency by reading this information. It was the consensus of the Board that we pull the information together to help the public understand what the Agency does. We also discussed how this information could be personalized by region. Dates were discussed to have this be a reality by the start of the 2009-10 school year.

Steve Prall gave an update on the purchase and installation of a chiller for the 6500 building. The current chiller is in need of repair. To repair the chiller would be cost prohibitive, so the Board approved a new system. The bids have been requested and substantial completion is scheduled for April 27, 2009, dependent upon weather.

The Board then went into closed session for negotiation in Accordance with Section 21.9, Code of Iowa.

After the draft of the full meeting minutes has been approved by the Chief Administrator, it can be accessed at the Heartland Web site. Go to www.aea11.k12.ia.us, go to the lefthand side of the page and click on Heartland Information, then click on Board Minutes.