Location: Palace Theater at Adventureland
Time: 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. – Benefits/Wellness fair, continental breakfast
9:00 to 11:30 a.m. – All-Staff meeting
Afternoon meetings: Region 6 regional meeting, Johnston REC, Conference Rooms 13A & B
Central Support Staff meeting, Palace Theater at Adventureland
We hope you are looking forward to gathering for our All-Staff meeting on September 13. This is the only time during the year all 630 of us come together to learn and connect with one other. Please plan to join us for a great morning! A few details:
• A benefits & wellness fair will be held again this year from 7:30-9:00 a.m. before the start of the meeting.
• We will have an area set up again for badge photos to be taken before the meeting begins. If you haven’t had your photo updated in the past five years, we encourage you to do so.
• We will be recognizing our years of service award recipients for 2013. So pay attention, you just might be asked to walk across the stage!
• We will again be doing a photo slide show to showcase the people and places that are important to you outside of work. We want to see photos of babies, pets, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, winning teams and over achievers! Send your photos with a short caption to comms@aea11.k12.ia.us by August 30. No more than three photos per person…thanks!
Very soon agency employees will have a faster, more convenient way to be reimbursed for their expenses—direct deposit! Beginning September 6, 2013, the Agency will begin to use direct deposit for paying employee expense reimbursements—no more trips to the bank or the possibility of lost checks! This change will make handling employee expense reimbursements more convenient for both you and the Business Office, as time will be saved handling and stuffing checks and money will be saved on postage costs.
All employees who currently receive their payroll deposits via direct deposit will automatically receive expense reimbursements via direct deposit as well. Your checking or savings account designated to receive your net pay for payroll direct deposit will be used for the direct deposit of expense reimbursements. You must have direct deposit set up for payroll in order to have expense reimbursements direct deposited. Expense reimbursements cannot be deposited to more than one bank account, and we cannot use a bank account that is not designated as your net payroll account.
Expense reimbursements will continue to be processed on Fridays. Barring a federal holiday, the payments will appear in employee bank accounts the following Monday.
You may opt out of receiving your expense payments through direct deposit. Click here for a form to fill out if you do not want to receive your expense reimbursement via direct deposit. Please email completed forms to Accounts Payable at acctspay@heartlandaea.org or through interoffice mail.
Click here for a question and answer page relating to direct deposit of expenses. If you have any additional questions, contact Brian Whalen, Business Manager, at bwhalen@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14005, Sheree Bergstrom, Accounting Technician, at sbergstrom@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14316 or Mary Heaberlin, Accounting Technician, at mheaberlin@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14818.
Last week Gov. Terry Branstad named Dr. Brad Buck the next director of the Iowa Department of Education, calling him a visionary leader with the right skills to implement the landmark education reform package passed by the 2013 Iowa legislature. Buck has served as superintendent of the 1,300-student Saydel school district since July 2011. He previously worked as a school administrator in the Waukee, Hudson and North Mahaska school districts from 1997 to 2011. Buck began his education career in 1992 as a science teacher at Parkview Middle School in Ankeny. He is also a past president of School Administrators of Iowa.
On August 5, the TeachIowa.gov website, a new statewide education job posting system, was introduced.
TeachIowa.gov simplifies the search for education jobs and employees, expands the pool of job candidates statewide and reduces costs for school districts, AEAs and taxpayers.
TeachIowa.gov is part of the Teach Iowa Initiative, a component of the new education reform law that aims to attract top talent into the teaching pipeline. The system is managed by the Iowa Department of Education and the Board of Educational Examiners.
Hundreds of job openings at school districts and AEAs have been posted to TeachIowa.gov so far. The new education reform law requires public schools and AEAs to post all job vacancies to the system, and it is optional for nonpublic schools.
The world of special education is complex, challenging and, when done well, enormously satisfying for the educator, parent and, especially, the student. The Iowa Department of Education’s Each and Every Child newsletter is aimed at this particular audience, designed to inform, educate and challenge those who live and work within this field. The Department’s overriding goal is to end the achievement gap in the state of Iowa. After all, each and every child deserves the very best education. Click here to read the August 2013 issue.
Just a reminder, summer flex hours ended August 9; normal agency hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) resume today. For more information, see the excerpt below from the Staff Handbook about flexible scheduling.
Summer Flex Hours & Flexible Scheduling
Summer flex hours are in effect from approximately June 15 to August 15 of each year, with specific details set and communicated to staff in the spring. Supervisors may approve summer flex hours between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. When considering approval of summer flex hours, priority will be placed on coverage of work functions over staff preference. In branch offices, office hours are set by regional directors based on the needs of the region.
Employees are also 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 a reduction in services to clients.
On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and this has created some changes in the administration of our Section 125 Cafeteria Flex Plan (medical flex spending) and Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) plan.
Although the IRS has not yet issued guidelines on how to administer these changes, Kabel Business Services, the administrator of our medical flex spending and HRA plans, has made a decision to follow the guidelines of a memo issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
All legal same-sex marriages that predate the Supreme Court decision (June 26, 2013) will now be treated as new marriages. Flex plan participants will have 60 days from the date of the decision (until August 26, 2013) to make changes in their enrollment. This means that participants in same sex marriages may change their current medical flex plan election or may now enroll in a flex plan for the first time, if they wish to do so. This change will not affect domestic partnerships.
If you are in a same-sex marriage and have money in an HRA, you may now submit your spouse’s out-of-pocket medical, dental and vision expenses for reimbursement under your HRA as well. Eligible employees who would like to make a change to their medical flex spending plan should contact Kathy Martin, Benefits Specialist, to complete a Change of Election form before August 26, 2013.
If you have any questions contact Kathy Martin at kmartin@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14385 or Kabel Business Services at (515) 224-9400.
Click here to download the schedule of regional meetings for the 2013-14 school year.
Click here to download the agenda for the August 13, 2013 Board of Directors meeting.
The Johnston Culture Committee has planned an international potluck on August 13 to welcome the new school year and celebrate our diversity. If you are at the Johnston campus that day, please join us!
The potluck will be held in Conference Rooms 3 & 4 in the Johnston Regional Education Center from 11:30 a.m.– 1:00 p.m. You are invited to bring your favorite international dish to share with your colleagues. Utensils, water and lemonade will be provided. Please feel free to bring a chair or blanket to sit outdoors and enjoy the summer weather. Hope to see you there!
Identified staff members who serve schools and students are reminded to register for internal capacity building sessions. Click here for the internal capacity building Google Site, which lists dates and registration information for the 2013-14 sessions. The registration process varies a little from strand to strand, so please read to see if there are any special directions for your strand. The page for each strand on the Google Site lists the contact person for strand-specific questions. Please note that learning opportunities in the behavior strand begin this week.
Staff members who joined the Agency in 2012-13 will need to work with their regional director to select a strand. New staff members who joined the Agency this year will participate in new staff training and will not participate in a strand until 2014-15.
If you have any general questions about capacity building, contact Kevin Fangman, Director of District Services, at kfangman@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14374.
The mission of Cognitive Coaching is to produce self-directed persons with the cognitive capacity for excellence both independently and as members of a community. Research indicates that teaching is a complex intellectual activity and that teachers who think at higher levels produce students who are higher achieving, more cooperative and better problem solvers. It is the invisible skills of teaching, the thinking processes that underlie instructional decisions, which produce superior instruction. Cognitive Coaching is a research-based model that capitalizes upon and enhances teachers’ cognitive processes.
The Agency offers training for educators using this model. The first four days of this eight-day training will be offered at Heartland AEA for administrators, instructional coaches and teachers beginning September 24. Click here to register. If you have any questions, contact Sue Schirmer, Professional Learning & Leadership Consultant, at sschirmer@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14379.
The new 2013 Medicaid Consent and Medicaid Refusal or Withdrawal of Consent forms are now available on the IowaIDEA Web IEP system. You will find them under the Print Tab menu. After selecting the Additional IEP Forms “Available” box, the Medicaid Consent forms will automatically be selected when appropriate.
As a reminder, the 2013 changes to federal regulations require a one-time consent from the parent(s) in order for the AEA and LEAs to claim Medicaid reimbursement. Parents must be notified as part of the consent that their refusal to allow access to their public benefits or other insurance does not relieve the AEA or LEA of responsibility to ensure that all required services are provided at no cost to the parents. Additionally, parents must be provided annual written notification explaining their protections regarding the new consent forms. This information will be provided in the new Parental Rights Safeguards Manual when it becomes available.
Please use the new Medicaid forms for obtaining consent from parents. Previous consent forms are not sufficient for meeting the one-time requirement. Please watch The Connection for additional information on training to support Medicaid billing. If you have any questions, contact Misty Christensen, Regional Director/Assistant Director of Special Education at mchristensen@heartlandaea.org ext. 11203 or Sara Mercer, School Psychologist, at smercer@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14312.
Click here to download a support document to assist in the transition to Google Mail (Gmail) and Calendar. It can be found on the Email Migration tab on the Employee Dashboard, and it is also archived on the Intranet > Technology Resources > Google Mail & Calendar Support Information.
Please bookmark this link if you are still using Keriomail. The “Staff Email” link on the homepage of the agency website has been changed to the Google login, so please keep a personal bookmark for Keriomail so you are able to login quickly.
