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
This Friday, Feb. 13, the Agency will debut a new online staff directory featuring our agency staff members. While the look and feel of the staff directory has been improved, its basic functions have not changed. The new directory will be accessible from the homepage of our website, as the current directory is, and it will also be available via a link on everyone’s Employee Dashboard.
When the new directory goes live, the information about our agency staff members that is currently held in PeopleBox will be removed. District/school information, however, will remain available via PeopleBox. As you hopefully know, PeopleBox supports a mass email function. This function is still available but will only apply to district/school staff once the new staff directory is in place. If you would like to send an email to Heartland AEA staff members at the same time you are sending one to a district/school group, you will need to do so using Gmail.
If you have any questions, contact Sean Boyle, Computer Software Engineer, at sboyle@heartlandaea.org.
Heartland AEA offers employees the opportunity to voluntarily save for retirement by participating in the Iowa Department of Administrative Services’ Retirement Investors’ Club (RIC) 403(b) plan. You can participate in this plan by making pre-tax contributions (before state and federal income taxes are computed) and Roth 403(b) after-tax contributions. You are eligible to participate in this plan whether or not you are actively contributing to it.
The RIC plan provides you the option to select between five investment providers: Horace Mann, Mass Mutual, TIAA-CREF, VALIC and Voya.
- The minimum contribution per pay period, as dictated by our providers, is $10 per pay period.
- You have the option of traditional pre-tax contributions and/or post-tax Roth contributions. You should work with your financial advisor to determine what is best for your retirement planning. If you want to model the effect of the tax savings from a pre-tax investment, go to the Employee Online tab on your Employee Dashboard and click on the “What If” calculator and enter the amount of your pre-tax contribution. This will show you how making the contribution on a pre-tax basis will affect your paycheck. The post-tax Roth investment is designed to offer tax savings at the time of withdrawal and not at the time of investment.
- You can change the amount of your contribution 12 times per year (at the beginning of each month). All changes received by the end of a month will be effective at the beginning of the following month. For example, a change submitted between January 1–31 will be effective on your February 15 paycheck.
- The Agency does not offer matching funds, but it is still very beneficial for you to start saving for retirement, even if you are only able to start with a small amount.
- For 2015, the maximum amount you may contribute per year is 100% of your compensation up to $18,000. Also, if you have at least 15 years of service with Heartland AEA or you are at least 50 years old, you may also be able to make additional catch-up contributions.
To start your contributions, contact one of the RIC’s investment providers. Contact information is on RIC’s website.
On the left side of the page, click on “Providers and Investments.” Clicking on the “Advisor” button to the right of each provider will give you a list of agents who are authorized to sell their products. The agent can send you enrollment information, and at your request, will schedule an appointment to discuss your individual financial goals. Heartland AEA’s 403(b) Election Form can be found on the Intranet > Benefits > 403(b) Election Form.
This Notice is not intended as tax or legal advice. Employees are encouraged to contact their financial advisor or tax professional with any tax or legal questions.
If you have ay questions about participating in the 403(b) plan, contact Steve Jordan, Senior Payroll Specialist, at sjordan@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14908.
If Katie Streff has not notified you via email that you have earned your Fitbit, however you believe you have earned it, follow the steps below.
- Go to Wellmark.com
- Click on the “Visit Wellness Center”
- Click on “Rewards” on the top of page
- Click on the blue box that has Fitbit by it. On the right hand side it will say “In progress”
- On the bottom of the page click “Self Enter Your Biometric Lab Values”
Once you are here the site will tell you what you need to enter. You might have entered your information before, but the system didn’t save it. We need you to go in and add this so you show up on our report.
Once you have completed these steps, you will show up on our report from Wellmark and Katie Streff will contact you.
Contact Katie if you continue to have any questions.
The agenda for the February 10, 2015 Board of Directors meeting is available.
Each week during the Iowa legislative session, we will bring you an AEA Legislative Update from the AEA system’s lobbyists, Tom Lane, Matt Eide and John Pederson.
During the legislative session, the Joint Education Allowable Growth Group (IASB, UEN, AEAs, SAI, ISEA) will once again be creating weekly factoids about the need for consistent growth in the state’s annual education spending rate. These “Facts About Education Funding” will be sent to all legislators, Gov. Branstad and Dept. of Education Director Buck highlighting a pertinent fact about education spending in Iowa. Each week this link will also be shared in The Connection.
Economics 101
The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) provides a high quality online resource to assist parents and professionals in examining the evidence-base of a variety of psychological, educational and biomedical treatments for individuals with autism. If you have any questions, contact Stacy Volmer, Regional Director, at svolmer@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14494.
The Agency has a standard set of web browsers (Safari, Firefox and SeaMonkey) on its computers. The Internal Technology Department will be adding Chrome to the standard set that it installs and supports, and it will remove SeaMonkey from that list.
We are adding Chrome because it is becoming one of the most common browsers used in education and because Google tends to work better in Chrome. If you use SeaMonkey, you are welcome to continue doing so but be aware that the Agency will no longer be installing it on new computers or providing support for it moving forward.
It is best practice to have multiple browsers on computers, as some programs work better in specific browsers. The Internal Technology Department encourages you to use one browser as your primary browser where you maintain your bookmarks. However, there may be times when another browser may be needed to use a given site or may provide a more dependable experience in using a given site.
Many agency employees are experiencing difficulty in updating certain applications or their iOS (operating system) on their iPads. The Internal Technology Department is aware of these problems and is working on a plan that will greatly reduce this problem over the coming months.
In the meantime, these updates are generally not necessary and do not need to be applied until the new plan is in place. If you feel an update is critical to you being able to do your job, contact Julie Sypersma, Senior Technology Training Specialist, at jsypersma@heartlandaea.org or Judy Cleveland, Technology Support & Inventory Control Specialist, at jcleveland@heartlandaea.org, and they will work with you to identify what options are available.
