The 2013-14 calendar of major agency meetings and events is now available via the Internal calendar on Keriomail. When you are signed in to Keriomail, find the folder on the left side navigation that says Public Folders. Expand the Public Folders, and you will find a calendar called Calendar_Internal.
That is the calendar that will show major meetings and events for 2013-14 such as APC, LLPC, SSPC and regional planning council meetings, the all staff meeting and agency holidays.
If you have any questions, contact the Communications Department at comms@aea11.k12.ia.us.
We are just weeks away from the launch of our new website! We are aiming for a rollout the first week of June. The Agency’s Communications Department has done its best to make the new site more user-friendly with improved navigation and updated information.
With this new website, we will also get a new URL, www.heartlandaea.org. Users who try to access our old site at www.aea11.k12.ia.us will be redirected to our new site. Communications is working hard to update as much content as possible for the launch. The initial focus is on getting text, attachments and content ready; photos and graphics will come later. We appreciate your patience as we continue to add content in the new site throughout the summer.
We realize that this website change will affect brochures and other materials that may have our web address printed on them. Since people who try to visit www.aea11.k12.ia.us will be redirected to www.heartlandaea.org, there is no need for mass disposal of agency materials. If you have materials that need updating, please work with the Communications Department.
Courtney Croatt and Claire Sowder, Communications Specialists, thank all of the staff who have met with them to update, revise and discuss content for the new site, they and look forward to meeting with more staff members to create a website that will help keep our customers informed of our services and activities.
Read the latest Impacting Lives update at http://aeas4iowa.wordpress.com/. In this issue, meet Anna Mikkelsen, an iPad “whiz kid” who’s taking her passion for technology to the next level. You’ll also read how the AEAs are empowering teachers and administrators to support student achievement and well-being.
This issue includes:
• District Featured in Professional Journal for Work with Collaborative Learning Teams
• Empowering Students Through Technology
• Thanks From Malichi
• Grant Wood AEA Emergent Literacy Initiative Supports Early Learning
• Data Team Success at Keota
• Heartland AEA Staff Make Caring Connection Beyond Education
Since the school year is winding down, so will our Administrator Connection (our weekly blog update for school leaders). There will be two more updates, May 24 and May 31, with May 31 as the last issue. If you have any information you’d like to communicate to school administrators before then, be sure to send it to Claire Sowder, Communications Specialist, at csowder@aea11.k12.ia.us by noon on May 30. The blog will start up again around the middle of August.
Official Agency Hours
The official agency hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Supervisors may schedule staff outside of these hours to meet the unique coverage needs of each work area.
Flexible Scheduling
Employees will be allowed to request reconsideration of their scheduled hours on the first day of March, June, September and December. Supervisors shall be responsible to ensure that modified schedules will not result in reduction in services to clients.
In regional offices, regional directors set the offices’ hours, based on the needs of the region. The regional directors will schedule staff accordingly and will communicate their office hours to their districts, their staff and the Agency receptionist. Staff members should discuss any questions about flex hours with their supervisor.
Summer Flex Hours
Summer flex hours are available this summer from Monday, June 10, 2013 to Friday, August 9, 2013, with regular scheduling resuming Monday, August 12, 2013. During this period, supervisors may approve summer flex hours between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. With supervisor approval, the 60-minute lunch break may be shortened to 30 minutes.
When considering approval of summer flex hours, priority will be placed on coverage of work functions over staff preference. Therefore, there may be some variation of individual schedules within or across workgroups. Staff members should discuss any questions about summer flex hours with their supervisor.
The 2013-14 employee work calendar
has been added to the Employee Dashboard for those staff members who
need to complete a working days calendar. The link to this function is
found in the Calendar Online Forms folder on the LeaveOnline tab.
The
calendar presented will be the default calendar based on the individual
staff member’s pay assignment. This will look very similar to the
online Calendar View function; however, functionality is built into the
interface to allow the personalization of the calendar to reflect the
staff member’s schedule. This is done by simply clicking on the day in
question. Each time a day is clicked, it will change to one of the
following:
Blue X – represents a non-working day
Green / - represents a half working day
White Space – represents a full working day
A yellow H represents an unpaid holiday, and a yellow H followed by an asterisk (*) represents a paid holiday. Sundays and holidays cannot be changed.
At
the top of the screen two numbers will be presented. The number on the
left is the number of working days based on the days selected as such;
in other words, the total of the white spaces (full days) and green
slashes (half days). The second number is the number of days expected to
work based on the pay assignment. These two numbers must match when the
calendar is submitted. A help document named ‘Calendar Online Entry
Documentation” is available on the Help tab. This doc describes in
detail all functions of the interface.
When
the calendar is submitted, it will be routed to the staff member’s
supervisor just as a leave request would be. And, just as a leave
request, the supervisor will review and can approve or reject your
calendar. Applicable e-mails are sent to the staff member and his or her
need-to-know person.
Once
approved, the staff member, the supervisor and the need-to-know person
can view the calendar. Also, all subsequent changes to the 2013-14
calendar must be submitted via the Calendar Exchange Online request
system after July 1, 2013.
Working days calendars are must be submitted before you leave for the summer or June 14, whichever comes first.
If you have any questions, contact Chrissy Bradley, Human Resources Specialist, at cbradley@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14432.
Kabel Business Services would like you to know that it has redesigned its website www.kabelbiz.com to make it more user friendly than ever and offer a greater amount of information and features. However, sometimes with progress come minor inconveniences. Some account holders have been unable to log in to their existing flex accounts. If that is the case, you need to log in as a “new user.” If you have both a Flex Spending Account (FSA) and a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA), you may have to log in separately for each account. If you have difficulty accessing your account, contact Kabel directly at (515) 224-9400 or (800) 300-9691.
Click here to read the latest update of the Iowa legislative session from the AEA system’s lobbyists, Matt Eide and John Pederson, of the Eide & Heisinger firm.
We want to again thank all of the staff members who participated in our tornado drill last week. We knew there were definite improvements to be made, and this drill helped us specifically identify things we can work on to improve the process and our overall communication about what staff should do when they encounter severe weather. Your feedback was appreciated!
The Crisis Action Planning team is planning to conduct a fire drill in our offices in June—stay tuned!
A new 20-person conference room has been created in the Johnston Regional Education Center. It is called Conference Room 25 and is located in the middle of the building where various special education staff members have officed throughout the years. There is currently a tabletop LCD projector in the room, and one will be ceiling-mounted in the near future. It is available to reserve on the Resource Scheduler. If you have any questions, contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager, at dgean@aea11.k12.ia.us.
The May AEA PD Online and AEA K-12 Online updates are now available. For real time updates, follow AEA PD Online on Twitter @aeapdonline or on your mobile device by going to our app at myapp.is/aeapdonline.
AEA PD Online
• Tool of the Month: Seeing Reason
• AEA PD Online Instructors: Moodle Transition
• AEA PD Online: Live!
• 2013 Summer OLLIE and MOLLIE Schedule
• Preparations for 2013 Back-to-School Online Training
• Upcoming Courses
• External Partner Webinars
AEA K-12 Online
• AEA PD Online Course Participants: Moodle Transition
• 2013 Summer Blended Learning Seminar Series
• Blended Learning: How do You Blend Your Instruction?
The new IDEA release that encompasses
the IEP, IFSP and IMS web program is scheduled to occur on July 1,
2013. On July 1st, the current web IEP and IFSP program will no longer be accessible. If you work with the current IEP program, you will need to pay attention to the following dates:
• June 24, 2013: All IEP plans must be submitted by this date.
• June 27, 2013: All IEP plans must be implemented
by this date. Any IEPs not implemented by this date will result in that
student’s complete record NOT rolling over to the new program. All
opened IEPs on this day will either be implemented or deleted to ensure
all students and their complete records roll over to the new program.
• June 28, 2013 at 4:00 p.m.: All systems will be shut down through June 30, 2013
• July 1, 2013 at 7:00 a.m.: New IDEA and web system (IEP, IFSP, and IMS) will be up and running
Q: What does this mean for any IEP meetings scheduled for the week of June 23, 2013?
A:
If you have an IEP meeting scheduled during the week of June 23, 2013,
it must be submitted, approved and implemented by June 27, 2013. If it
hasn’t been implemented by June 27, it will be saved as a pdf, emailed
to the Primary Contact and deleted. It will have to be re-written on the
new IDEA program after July 1, 2013, and go through the validation
process on the new program. Any opened IEPs on June 27th will result in
the student and any of his or her past IEPs not rolling over to the new
program.
Q: What does this mean for any IEP meetings scheduled for the week of July 1, 2013?
A:
The AEA practitioner/teacher will need to wait until the rollover is
complete on July 1, 2013, at 7:00 a.m. to start a new IEP on the new
IDEA program. It cannot be started in the old system and then rolled
over. Any opened IEPs in the current program on June 27, 2013, for
meetings occurring after July 1, 2013, will be deleted. Any opened IEPs
on June 27th will result in the student and any of his or her past IEPs not rolling over to the new program.
Q: What about IFSPs?
A: IFSPs do not
need to be implemented prior to the rollover. There can be opened IFSPs
during June and July; however, there will be no access to IFSPs between
June 28 and June 30, 2013.
**It is HIGHLY advised that no IEP meetings be scheduled between June 24 and July 3, 2013.
If you choose to hold an IEP meeting between these days, remember that
all IEPs started in the current program must be implemented before June
27th, and a new IEP cannot be started in the new program until July 1st.
If
you have any questions, contact Sue Dunsmoor, Special Education Data
Specialist, at sdunsmoor@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 11202 or Mary Keul,
Special Education Data Specialist, at mkeul@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext.
14326.
