Below are lists of action steps that the Agency is taking and that staff members should take to protect themselves and others from both seasonal influenza and the H1N1 influenza virus.
Actions Heartland is Taking to Prevent Influenza Infection
- Ordered two gallons of alcohol-based hand sanitizer for each office location, which will be distributed this week. Employees may bring their own small bottles to carry the sanitizer off-site, and labels will be provided for these small bottles. More hand sanitizer will be distributed as necessary.
- Purchased 1,000 facemasks for distribution if needed.
- Subscribed to message services maintained by the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Polk County Health Department. Contact is being initiated with other county health departments in Heartland’s borders.
- Ordered and distributed additional custodial supplies for disinfecting our offices.
- Revised our agency Crisis Action Plan to include Pandemic Flu planning.
- Ordering posters to inform staff about how to prevent infection, which will be distributed to all Heartland offices.
- Will brief supervisors on H1N1 on September 23, 2009.
Actions You Can Take to Keep Yourself and Others Well - Consider getting a flu vaccination and an H1N1 vaccination. Information about getting your flu shots will be provided by the Benefits Office in a separate Connection article.
- Cover your coughs and sneezes to prevent spreading germs. Use your arm/sleeve rather than your hand to cover your mouth.
- Wash your hands for at least 15 seconds using soap and warm water every time before you prepare food and after contact with children, blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing or using the restroom.
- Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer if you cannot wash your hands with soap and water.
- Stay home if you are ill. If you have a fever, do not return to work until at least 24 hours after the fever has stopped. You may use sick leave for these absences. For extenuating circumstances, please contact your supervisor.
- Remind others to practice hand washing and the other precautions mentioned above.
Although the Agency continues to work with Wellmark to offer flu shots to our employees, at this time there are the only three options for coverage by your health insurance.1) Use your PCP (primary care physician). The shot is covered at 100%. Your physician has the right to charge you for an office visit, so check ahead.
2) You may use any other in-network (Blue Choice) physician.
3) A pharmacist may give the flu shots at a pharmacy approved by Wellmark to give vaccinations. Go to http://www.wellmark.com/HealthAndWellness/DrugInformation/SpecialPrograms/PharmacyVaccines.aspx to see the list of approved pharmacies for flu shots.
You will owe the 2 Tier drug co-pay of $20 for each vaccination.
For questions contact Kathy Martin, Benefits Specialist, at kmartin@aea11.k12.ia.us or at ext. 14385.
The travel memo found at the link below will outline updated travel procedures for all staff for the 2009-2010 school year. 2009-2010 Travel Memo
The conferences that the Agency will be directing staff members to attend have been identified for this year. Click here for the full list. If you would like to be considered for this agency-directed travel, please contact your supervisor. Be sure to indicate the title of the conference you would like to be considered to attend. All requests must be in by October 1, 2009*.
Remember that if you are selected for this agency-directed travel, you will not need to use your professional development allotment (days or funds). One or two people will be selected for each conference (based on level of interest etc.). Selections will be made using the following criteria:
1. Relationship of the content of the conference to the individual's role in the agency
2. Frequency of attendance at national conferences (has the individual traveled to a conference recently?)
3. Equity across workgroups (all attendees are not from one discipline or workgroup)
4. Ability of the individual to share or use knowledge gained from the conference
Staff members will be notified by October 7 if they have been selected. The amount of funding the Agency has for this professional development is much smaller than in years past, so the Agency is limited in the number of people who are able to attend.
Professional Development staff is encouraging staff members who wish to attend an in-state or local conference to use their PD allotment. To request leave, use the Leave Online system. To request funds, submit the Professional Development Request form to your supervisor. This form can be found on the Intranet under the Business Office tab or by clicking here.
* There are two conferences held in October. We need to know by Thursday, September 17 if you are interested. A decision on these two will be made by Friday, September 18, 2009.
Click here to find the 2009-2010 Heartland organizational chart. This chart should list all full- and permanent part-time Heartland employees according to who their supervisor is. The chart will also be posted on the Intranet under the Human Resources tab.
To clarify, the Johnston Central Office office meeting will be held on September 21 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in the Learning Center and the Operations office meeting will be held on September 22 from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 4300 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines.
The project to replace the roof on the 6500 building will begin on September 16. This project is expected to take five weeks, barring unforeseen weather issues. There will be times when the work on the roof may be a little disruptive, as the roofing crew scoops and dumps rock, uses power tools, walks around on the roof and does the general replacement work. The roof will never be left open or unsealed overnight, so there will be no time the interior of the building will be subject to weather conditions or exposed to debris from this work. The first section of the roof to be replaced will be on the side where the mechanical room, graphics and the videotaping room are and work will progress "south" in 30-foot stages. The roofing contractor will use the area of the parking lot near the dumpsters as a staging area so be aware that some parking spaces in that area will not be available. If you have any questions or concerns during the roofing project, please contact Dustin Gean at ext. 14460 or at dgean@aea11.k12.ia.us. Thank you for your patience during this important project.
Ms. Sara Becker, Information Systems Technical Support Specialist; Mr. Monte Heeren, Data Base Administrator/Systems Engineer; Mr. Rod Howell, Data Processing Operations Manager; Mr. Francis Musignac, Information Systems Technical Support Specialist; Mr. Russ Richards, Programmer; Mr. Doug Schuster, Systems Analyst/Programmer; Ms. Lori Thelen, Information Systems Manager; Ms. Mien Tran, Information Systems Technical Support Specialist and Ms. Maureen Whited, Programmer, were recognized for increasing efficiencies within the Agency through their work with technology solutions such as Integrated Financial and Administrative Solutions (IFAS) and 4D.
Their recent accomplishments include calendar online, the paperless purchase system, documents online, online budget transfers, reminder e-mails for certificate renewal, the conversion of leave balances from a 7.5-hour workday to an 8-hour workday and other server and database maintenance. Board president Ann Wilson thanked them for being unsung heroes who keep the Agency moving in the right direction.
Mr. Steve Prall updated the Board on the progress of the Regional Education Centers (RECs). Timelines for many of the centers have been extended.
• Newton REC – Completion no later than July 31, 2010
• Johnston REC – Completion no later than December 31, 2010
• Adel REC – Prioritization moved to FY 2010-11
Mr. Prall presented a revision of the REC commissioning document that provided clarification on the differences between RECs, regional offices and co-location workspaces.
The application deadline for the Agency's ARRA funds has been moved to October.
The Board approved both the Acceptable Use of Communications and Information Resources policies and the construction bid for the replacement of the roof at 6500 Corporate Drive.
We recently received information from Norma Lynch at the Department of Education that will be of interest to all schools, especially those anticipating site visits in the near future. Click here for a document that contains a description of inappropriate implementation of the collaborative and consultative teaching models for special education and general education teachers. These models will receive increased scrutiny during school improvement visits in 2009-10 in order to assess implementation of highly-qualified teacher legislation. The attached document provides a brief description of the models (with key characteristics), a list of inappropriate examples of implementation and some examples of answers to the focused school improvement questions that would be a signal to do more investigation. Please contact your Partnership Director if you have any further questions.
Please note that the Cultural Competence Lunch & Learn schedule at the Newton office in October (Our Kids Diversity in Iowa) will be held on October 15, not on October 16 as was posted last week.
The Agency’s Events Committee has many fun things planned for our annual United Way campaign, and we will have ways for your donations to stay in your community.
There are five United Way offices in our regions: United Way of Central Iowa, United Way of Story County, United Way of Carroll County, United Way of Jasper County and Marion County United Way. For each of the activities we’ll tell you how you can designate where you want your contributions to go.
Activities begin at this week’s regional meetings on September 17 where for a $5 contribution you can wear your favorite college or school shirt. Please make sure you know a fight song or school song that you can sing that day! Wonder which school will win the most shirts that day?? This activity will continue for the Central Office Professional Development meeting on September 21 and the Operations Meeting on September 22 with the same challenge. Please write a check for the $5 and put in the memo section of the check which United Way you want the money to go to. Regional secretaries will collect the money and send into the Johnston office c/o Brenda Gustafson, Events Committee.
Our pledge campaign will run for the month of October. Pledge forms will be sent out to the different offices to be distributed. Although our campaign runs in October, this year you have until December 31, 2010, to complete your pledge amount. Deductions will start in January to December. You can designate on your pledge form where you want the money to go whether it is to United Way, a specific area or a specific organization. Please send your pledge card back signed even if you do not choose to participate.
There will be two prizes that are directly related to the pledge forms:
1. The region with the largest percentage of participation will have senior management serve breakfast/lunch at their next regional meeting.
2. We will be giving casual day stickers for specific pledges. You will receive printed stickers with the Heartland Cares mark and individuals can choose the day they would like to wear casual clothes (make sure the day is ok with your supervisor). The more you give the more stickers you receive.$5 - one sticker
$10 - two stickers
$25 - three stickers
$50 - four stickers
$100 - five stickers
Finally, our big event, the Silent Auction
You’ve read in a past Connection and in the HeartBeat about the silent auction we will be holding. Everyone will be able to donate one item or go together with co-workers to submit a group item. Items can be anything you have around your home that you’re willing to part with (excluding clothing). You can get together with co-workers and put together a spa, movie night or football game gift basket or dream up something creative and offer to cook for a dinner party or clean someone’s home. Feel free to go together with your team, co-worker or just another friend.
Please send a write up to the Communications Department e-mail at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us that includes an approximate value and a photo of the item you’re donating. If you don’t know how to upload your photo, just indicate that on your write up and we’ll get a photo at the warehouse. Items then need to be clearly marked with your name, United Way Auction and sent to the warehouse via your van for inventory or taken to the dock at 6500 Corporate Drive to be delivered to the warehouse. You will receive a receipt that can be used for tax purposes.
We will have a "site" established on the Internet for rollout on October 5. This auction works a little different than some auctions. You will place a bid for an item but you will not know if you gave the highest bid until we unveil the “winner” of each item.
Everyone can bid for two weeks (14 days or until October 16). We will announce the winners of each item in the October 26 Staff Connection. Items will be sent to you through the van mail after you have sent your money to Claire Spellman, Communications Administrative Assistant, in Johnston. Items not claimed by the end of the first week will be offered to the second highest bidder. If no bids are made, then the item will be donated to Goodwill.All events are purely voluntary but will be fun!
