Monday, December 19, 2011

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Click here for an e-card (with sound) from chief administrator Paula Vincent wishing all staff members a happy holiday season.




This will be the last Connection of 2011. The next issue will go out on January 9, 2012. Happy New Year!

Payroll Dates for 2012

Due Dates
Staff members frequently inquire when timesheets, addendum pay forms, direct deposit forms and other changes need to be turned in to the Payroll Department in order to be processed for a particular pay date. To assist in your planning, below is a list of 2012 pay dates and corresponding due dates. Payroll needs to receive all information by the end of the day on the due date to ensure payments and/or changes are made on the corresponding pay date. Any information received in Payroll after the due date may be processed during the next payroll cycle.


For those staff members paid from a timesheet or addendum pay form, please keep in mind these items are to be completed, signed by a supervisor and submitted to Payroll within four working days after the end of the pay period. Any forms received after the due date may be processed on the next payroll.


Pay Dates & Due Dates

The first column lists pay dates and the second column lists due dates:

1/13 1/5

1/31 1/19
2/15 2/6

2/29 2/21

3/15 3/6

3/30 3/21

4/13 4/5

4/30 4/19

5/15 5/4

5/31 5/21

6/15 6/6

6/29 6/21

7/13 7/6

7/31 7/19
8/15 8/06

8/31 8/21

9/14 9/7

9/28 9/20

10/15 10/4

10/31 10/19

11/15 11/6

11/30 11/21

12/14 12/6

12/31 12/20


Addendum Pay Forms

As noted above, these forms are to be completed, signed by a supervisor and submitted to Payroll within four working days after the end of the pay period. Once a supervisor has signed these forms, the supervisor will return the pink copy of the form to the employee for his/her records. The white and yellow copies are both to be submitted to Payroll.


Questions

Please contact Steve Jordan, Payroll Specialist, at ext. 14908 or Michelle Westcott, Payroll Specialist, at ext. 14422.

Instructions for Using EER Templates in Google

Two additional EER templates have been added to Heartland’s Google domain that may increase the efficiency of working collaboratively on student reports. The two additional templates are entitled EER Report No Domains and Educational Progress and Discrepancy Sections.

Teams may choose to use these templates when multiple practitioners are documenting the evaluation results of more than one domain area for a student. For example, if a school psychologist is documenting behavior evaluation results, a special education consultant is documenting academic evaluation results and a speech-language pathologist is documenting language evaluation results, you may find these templates useful.


Teams using these templates will need to determine which team member will initiate the EER Report No Domains as the starting point for the student’s EER. This template contains all components of the EER, with the exception of the Educational Progress and Discrepancy sections. Each individual team member will then use the Educational Progress and Discrepancy Sections template to document progress and discrepancy information for the domain(s) he or she has evaluated. You will see the EER Report No Domains template has a “holding spot” for practitioners to then copy and paste their Educational Progress and Discrepancy Sections for each separate domain area. After each practitioner has inserted the appropriate Educational Progress and Discrepancy Sections information, the team can collaboratively complete the Educational Needs section of the EER.


For questions regarding the EER templates, please contact Martha Condon at mcondon@aea11.k12.ia.us. For technical questions regarding the use of the templates through Google, please contact Julie Sypersma at jsypersma@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Teacher Quality Offerings Announced, Registration to Begin in January

Professional learning opportunities funded by Teacher Quality will be available to Heartland certified staff again this year. Each Job-Alike lead group included Teacher Quality offerings in their planning for professional learning. In addition there will again be some offerings that are open to all/multiple groups.

Click here to see the draft of the offerings that are being planned. Viewing this draft may help you to decide which offering fit best within your professional learning needs and allow you to begin conversations with colleagues about studying together. Registration will not begin until January 16. Make sure you check The Connection in January for registration information. Registration will close on January 31. Study groups will not begin until after March 1 to allow time to order books and materials.

There will be technology courses available again. These were offered for the first time last year. They will be held on Saturday mornings. Each is a three-hour session with payment of $100 for attendance. All certified staff members are allowed to take both a 15-hour course or study group and attend a technology session.

Stay tuned to future Connections for more information and updates about Teacher Quality.

Job-Alike Professional Development Plans

Professional development plans of all Job-Alike Groups have been approved. A great deal of thanks is owed to the facilitators and lead groups who worked to use input from their members to develop a plan for professional learning that is specifically tailored to their needs. The plans are all posted on the Intranet > Professional Development Resources > Professional Development Plans or at http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/intranet/pdr/PD_Plans.html. If you have questions about the learning opportunities for your group, please talk to the lead of the Job-Alike Group for your region.

December 2011 Edition of “Impacting Lives” Newsletter

Go to http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/ to read the latest edition of “Impacting Lives.” The blog newsletter is a statewide effort to communicate AEA success stories and services across the state. The newsletter is sent to all school administrators, legislators (in-session) and AEA staff.
This issue includes:

• Discover the Savings through the Iowa Educators Consortium
• Twin Rivers Makes SMART Use of Technology

• Student Improvement Through Relationship Building

• New Teacher Center: Developing Teacher Leaders and Instructional Coaches

Holiday Office & Van Route Schedule

Heartland offices will be closed December 26, 27, 29 and 30 during the holiday season. Please take note of the following schedule as you plan to send and receive items through our van mail.
December 19-22, 2011 -- Regular Van Delivery

December 26-30, 2011 -- No Van Delivery

January 2, 2012 -- Regular Van Delivery Resumes

Electronic Copies of Johnston REC Faxes to be Saved for 30 Days

An electronic copy of every incoming fax that is received through the fax machine at the Johnston REC reception desk is saved. Due to storage concerns, electronic copies will only be saved for 30 days after the received date. Please keep this in mind in case you wish to verify that faxes were delivered through the Johnston REC reception desk machine.