Monday, August 8, 2011

Reminder: All Staff Meeting this Thursday, August 11

As has been previously communicated, our All Staff meeting will be held this Thursday, August 11 in the Urbandale High School Performing Arts Center. Click here to download a map of the high school grounds. The parking lot you are to park in is on the left side of the page and is highlighted in orange. While there is a large parking lot, we encourage you to carpool if possible. Please enter the high school through the doors marked Urbandale High School. Coffee and morning snacks will be provided in the commons area, and the meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the auditorium. Please be aware that food and beverages will not be allowed in the auditorium.

August 2011 Board of Directors Meeting Agenda

Click here to download the agenda for the August 9 Heartland Board of Directors meeting.

Van Route Listing for 2011-12 Now Available

Regular van delivery resumed today. Click here to download the 2011-2012 van route listing. As always it is subject to change.

Supports for Job Alike Work Groups

A Job Alike Group is a group of staff who all have a similar role or function within the agency. All certified staff members will be part of a Job Alike Group. Over the summer several new individuals were selected to help support our Job Alike groups.

School Psychology Facilitators

Dorothy Landon
and Trent Holmberg

School Social Work Facilitators

Jean Boger (School Age)
and Jennifer Downs (Early Childhood)

These facilitators will work with leads in their work groups to help design systems to support professional practice. They will not have a change in assignment, but will receive a small stipend and an opportunity to add some addendum days to their work year. Discipline Program Assistants will act as facilitators for our other Job Alike Work Groups for certified staff.

Discipline Program Assistants/Facilitators

Speech Language Pathologists: Patty Schliesman and Rhonda Balch

Professional Learning Generalists: Cheryl Risen

Early Childhood: Sheri Haupert

Special Education Consultants: Sue Severson

Content Consultants: Julie Hukee

Technology Consultants: Lynn McCartney

Hearing: Tori Carsrud

Occupational Therapy: Donna Bachman

Physical Therapy: Emily Brekke


Alecia Rahn Blakeslee, Sara Mercer, and Stacy Volmer will also be available to assist these groups. Vicki Stumme will act as supervisor for the school psychology interns.


If you are unsure which work group you are in, please check with your supervisor.

Communications Department Provided News Clips

Each morning, the Heartland Communications Department provides links to local and national education news headlines. We call this service "news clips." Our headlines are posted every morning in the Newsroom located on our website at http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/newsroom. If you would like to receive the news clips via email, please contact the Heartland Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Area Schools Composite Calendar Now Available

Click here to download the 2011-2012 Heartland area schools composite calendar. We have included all of our public districts, non-public schools and year-round schools in this year’s edition. The calendar lists our districts’ start dates, teacher workdays/in-services, parent/teacher conferences, early dismissals, holidays/no school days, breaks, semester ending dates and year-end dates. School schedules are subject to change throughout the year. It is in Excel format for easy viewing and printing. If you have any questions, please contact Claire Sowder at csowder@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14014.

Teacher Listserv for Alternate Assessment for 2011-2012

The alternate assessment process will continue with few, if any changes this year. To ensure that teachers completing the alternate assessment for the 2011-2012 school year have up-to-date information regarding timelines and activities, please make sure that any teachers who did not complete an alternate assessment last year are subscribed to the Heartland IAA listserv. Teachers who DID complete one last year are on the state database and will receive messages from the state automatically. Teachers who did not complete an assessment last year will NOT receive state messages right away. To subscribe to the listserv, teachers can send a blank email to this address: alternateassessment-subscribe@aea11.k12.ia.us. Please direct any questions to Pam Childers at pchilders@aea11.k12.ia.us or (515) 270-0405 ext. 14457.