Our Mission
To provide services and leadership, in partnership with families, schools and communities, that improve
the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth. Our Goals • Increase learning growth for students • Decrease the gap in achievement • Increase annual graduation rates • Increase gateways to post-secondary success
Click
above for an e-card (with sound) from chief administrator Paula Vincent
wishing you all a happy holiday season! (Click the full screen button
in the right hand corner to expand.)
Warm wishes to you and your families and may you find much love,
happiness and laughter throughout the holidays and in the coming year.
Thank you for sharing your talents at Heartland AEA!
The Payroll Department will have your 2014 Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement ready by mid-January. Your W-2 will be available electronically through Employee Online and a paper copy will be mailed to your home address. Please help us ensure you receive your paper W-2 in a timely fashion by verifying we have your correct address on file in our Employee Online system. Please verify your information in the system by January 10, 2015.
You can verify your address through Employee Online. Login to your Employee Dashboard. Employee Online is one of the navigation tabs at the top of the page, just like the Intranet or Leave Online tabs. Once you’ve reached the Employee Online home page, click on “Home Address” in the left hand navigation section. If you need to update your address, click on the “Edit” button in the lower right hand corner of the page. It’s that easy!
If you have questions about your personal information, contact Katie Streff, Human Resources Assistant, at kstreff@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14614. If you have any questions about your Form W-2, contact Steve Jordan, Senior Payroll Specialist, at sjordan@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14908.
Due Dates Staff members frequently inquire when timesheets, addendum pay, direct deposit forms and other changes need to be submitted to the Payroll Department in order to be processed for a particular pay date. To assist in your planning, below is a list of 2015 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 being paid from a timesheet or receiving addendum pay, please keep in mind these items are to be completed, approved/signed by a supervisor and submitted to Payroll within four working days after the end of the pay period. Any items 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: 1/15 1/07 1/30 1/21 2/13 2/5 2/27 2/19 3/13 3/05 3/31 3/19 4/15 4/6 4/30 4/21 5/15 5/6 5/29 5/21 6/15 6/4 6/30 6/19 7/15 7/7 7/31 7/21 8/14 8/6 8/31 8/20 9/15 9/4 9/30 9/21 10/15 10/6 10/30 10/21 11/13 11/5 11/30 11/19 12/15 12/4 12/30 12/21
Questions If you have any questions, contact Steve Jordan, Senior Payroll Specialist, at sjordan@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14908.
It is important to have correct referral information available to internal and external customers who may call or e-mail staff members during absences. Considering our upcoming Winter Break, this is a good time to review the steps we all need to take prior to being out of the office.
Change Gmail Vacation Responder (Out-of-Office message) (sample below) Thank you for contacting Heartland AEA. I will be out of the office until Jan. 5, 2015, as our Heartland AEA offices are closed for Winter Break. I will return your message as soon as I can. Thank you.
To turn on a vacation responder message, go to the gear-shaped icon in the top right corner of Gmail. Scroll down to and then click on “Settings.” Click on the first link that says “General” and scroll down until you see the information for “Vacation responder.” Click the button next to Vacation responder “on” and then enter your message in the space provided. You have the option to set the time when your message will begin and end. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page when you are finished.
Tips: If you use your out-of-office email reply for every little thing, people might just stop reading it. Use your out-of-office email response only in the instances you’ll truly be unresponsive for an extended period of time—like vacation. The customer will actually read it because they haven’t gotten multiple iterations of your bounce-back email on a continuous basis. Be clear and concise about when you’ll be responding, and leave out the personal information about where you are going and why.
Change Voicemail Greeting to Unavailable (samples below) Thank you for calling Heartland AEA. You have reached Sally Smith. I am currently out of the office until Jan. 5, 2015, as Heartland AEA is currently on Winter Break. Please leave a message, and I will return your call when I am back in the office. Thank you.
Tip: If you want to change your voicemail greeting from your home phone or cell phone, you may do so by calling either (515) 270-0405 or (515) 473-7450 and pressing # when you begin to hear the greeting. This gets you into your voicemail, and you can then follow the prompts to access your messages, change your voicemail greeting or set it to out of office if you are ill and want callers to get immediate help. Please be mindful not to refer a customer to another staff member who is also scheduled to be out of the office. Check with that person to make sure he or she will be available and aware that you are forwarding customers and/or staff members to them during your absence.
Last Friday Iowa Department of Education Director Brad Buck announced the next group of school districts chosen to launch local teacher leadership plans through Iowa’s new Teacher Leadership and Compensation System.
This effort to tap into the expertise of top teachers to improve classroom instruction and raise student achievement is the centerpiece of the state’s landmark education reform package passed by the Legislature in 2013. The system paves the way for more support and greater collaboration for all teachers to learn from each other instead of operating largely in isolation within their classrooms.
Buck said 170 school districts from across the state applied to join the teacher leadership system in the second round.
Of those, 126 school districts were chosen to put in place local plans – 76 of them during the 2015-16 school year and another 50 during the 2016-17 school year. The school districts serve a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities. The 125 selected districts join 39 other districts that were chosen to implement the first teacher leadership systems this fall. The goal is to have all Iowa school districts participate in the optional system by 2016-17, Buck said.
School districts were chosen based on recommendations of the Commission on Educator Leadership and Compensation, which evaluates the applications.
Teacher leadership plans promise to help students learn more by better meeting their individual needs. They also will attract and retain more effective teachers by enhancing career opportunities and paying stipends for taking on extra responsibilities.
“The more I visit schools that are implementing teacher leadership plans, the more convinced I am that this system will improve learning and achievement for all students,” Buck said.
We have received various questions asking for clarification around the one-hour agency holiday leave that is granted to employees prior to official agency holidays.
This hour of agency-provided leave applies to employees who are at work the day prior to a holiday.
This leave does not apply to staff who are not scheduled to work or who have taken other forms of leave (sick leave, vacation, OPL, etc.).
We recognize the hour of holiday leave does not apply to all staff all the time, but we hope it is recognized as a goodwill gesture for those who have not used other forms of available leave. If you have any further questions, contact Tony Chiaramonte, Human Resources Manager, at tchiaramonte@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14534.
Thank you for the questions and best wishes for the holidays, Paula Vincent
Your Wellness Program leads – Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, and Katie Streff, Human Resources Assistant – wanted to provide you with a recap of the exciting things happening in the Wellness program!
“Healthy Express” Google Site Juliette and Katie have been developing a Wellness Google Site, and they are calling it the “Healthy Express!” Look for it on Jan. 5! The site will be full of information, such as:
A monthly calendar for 2015 that will have wellness activities you can participate in on a regular basis
Tips on how to setup and use your Fitbit
Information about the five elements of wellness
Recipes
General wellness information/tips
Information on how to use the Wellmark/WebMD sites
Fitbits Everyone can earn a Fitbit! All you have to do is complete your Health Assessment and Biometric Screening! Once this is completed, Wellmark will notify Human Resources, and they will make arrangements to get you your Fitbit. Because Wellmark has been updating their site, we ask that you wait until Jan. 5, 2015 or after to start completing these steps. Fitbits can track your activity, steps and sleep, and you can sync them to your computer or phone. Look for more information on the “Healthy Express” Google Site!
Biometric Screening This is the blood work that is drawn for lipids, glucose and triglycerides. You have to fast for 9 hours before this test. We will be having screenings available on certain dates at our offices, and these dates will also be on the “Healthy Express” Google Site. If you can’t participate on one of these dates, you can go to any Hy-Vee store that has a dietician. This list is also on the “Healthy Express” Google Site. If you don’t see the location you want, contact Katie or Juliette.
500 Point Wellness Challenge There are activities on the WebMD portal that you can participate in and earn a gift card when you reach 500 points. You can find more information on the “Healthy Express” Google Site. The goal for Heartland AEA’s Wellness Challenge is for you to start a healthy habit. We have five wellness elements – Career, Community, Financial, Social and Physical. You will choose at least one challenge from each element, and once you earn 500 points you will get a $50 VISA gift card!
This fall a variety of resources have been shared for implementation of Chapter 62 (early literacy). Many of these resources have been pulled into a Google Drive folder for easy access. It may be helpful to bookmark the link as additional resources will be added throughout the year. Some of the resources in the folder include:
DE Parent notification template and family partnership tools
DE guidance documents for Early Literacy Implementation
Q & A for Chapter 62, September 2014
Archived Zoom session facilitated by Heartland AEA on 11/3/2014
Two weeks ago we told you about changes that will be impacting the way we offer credits at Heartland AEA. They both go into effect July 1, 2015. As a reminder, those changes are:
1) All graduate credit courses must now include 30 hours of learning/application in addition to the 15 hours of collaborative team time.
2) All license renewal classes offered for graduate credit will need to include the 30 hours of learning/application in addition to the 15 hours of collaborative team time. (You may still offer a course for LR only, but if it is offered for graduate credit, the expectations for both LR and graduate credit will be the same.)
Because we anticipate many questions regarding the change and the process for rewriting courses, we are holding two instructor meetings in early February and have now added two more meetings in April. This is entirely voluntary, however, we encourage you to register for one of the sessions to collaborate with other instructors, Heartland AEA and Drake University as we move to this change in practice.
Starting Feb. 1, 2015, and lasting throughout February, AEA PD Online kicks off its brand new OLLIE online community for teachers. Part of their Online Learning for Iowa Educators (OLLIE) series, the community provides educators resources, live events, discussions, sharing and networking with other educators. It’s the perfect learning place for teachers looking to add blended or flipped learning to their classroom.
During 28 Days of OLLIE, we will have daily events, activities and even contests with prizes, where you can get acclimated to the community. Be sure to check out our AEA PD Online website in the upcoming weeks for more details.
In the off chance you are looking for some professional readings during winter break, here is a mini-catalog of 101 of the newest professional books in the Agency’s library. Reserve your materials through our library catalog. Happy reading!
