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
Heartland AEA’s fiscal year will end June 30, 2015. As part of our year-end process, we need to have all online expense claims and overnight travel claims, for expenses occurring on or before June 30, 2015, turned in to the Business Office by July 8, 2015.
IMPORTANT: If extenuating circumstances cause a delay in submitting expenses related to fiscal year 2015, August 31 is the last date the Business Office will accept and process any claims for expenses occurring on or before June 30, 2015.
Please contact Brian Whalen, Business Manager, at bwhalen@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14005 if you have questions.
This article appeared in the Iowa Association of School Boards’ weekly memo newsletter. We thought you would like to know that your work and our services are valued among our education partners.
Did You Know? The Powerful Story of Iowa Area Education Agencies
From the desk of Lisa Bartusek, IASB Executive Director.
I am frequently reminded of my belief that Iowa’s area education agencies get too little credit for their important role in our state. This week I attended the AEA Boards of Directors’ Conference, an annual event the AEAs provide for the 78 members of AEA boards. I added a few more talking points to my spokesperson toolkit about the impact of Iowa AEAs. There’s much more to the AEA story, but consider these three simple takeaways.
Creating Change: Among many examples, Iowa AEAs are working together to support Iowa school districts to develop instructional leadership through the state’s Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) effort, leveraging limited resources, providing training for teachers and administrators as they take new roles, helping districts plan and then overcome challenges. If Iowa is to be successful in statewide efforts to move the needle in education, the AEAs are the mechanism to do so. The best news in my opinion, closing speaker Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds gave praise for this effort—a sign that state elected leaders (at least this one) do understand the value of AEAs.
An Impact for Students—and for Taxpayers: One session described how AEA media services support the common goal of AEAs to ensure reading and literacy. We saw an array of online literacy resources provided to Iowa schools through Iowa AEA Online. These interactive multi-media resources, such as ebooks, engage students in reading and comprehension in ways the traditional book can’t. Coupled with AEA supports for teacher instructional skills, the online resources are unlocking doors of learning for Iowa students across the state.
• The impact for student lives: priceless.
• The impact for taxpayers: The retail cost if schools bought these resources separately $28.30 per student. Purchased cooperatively by the AEA system: $2.77—a 90 percent savings.
A Wealth of Volunteer Leadership: Iowa’s 78 AEA governing board members have staying power. Generally, they are among the state’s most experienced board members:
• Total years of service among all AEA board members: 850 years
• Average length of service: 10.9 years
• Number with 15 or more years of service: 22
I know that many Iowa school board members and superintendents could add to these talking points about the value of our AEAs. As we celebrate their 40th year of service this year, take time to learn more about how our AEAs are Impacting Lives, and to say thank you to your AEA staff, chief administrators and governing boards.
Best wishes,
Lisa Bartusek, Executive Director
Please be sure to enroll for employee benefits by this Thursday, April 30. Even if you choose to keep the same plan you had for this year, you still need to designate your enrollment options. Failure to enroll by April 30 may lead to you not being covered for health, dental or flex spending for next year!
Where to go to enroll
Go to Business PLUS Dashboard and then click on to the Employee Online tab. On the left hand side of the page, in blue, you will see Benefit Enrollment, go to Step 3. Once you are in there, it will tell you the coverage that you have under each - Health, Dental and Flex. Even if you don't want Flex, you must enter 0 in order to waive. Once you have made all of your selections, save and it will say “Request Pending,” which means you have successfully enrolled.
Find enrollment instructions with an added bonus, how to print off your benefit statement!
If you have any questions, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, at jhouseman@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14315
Effective today, April 27, the new address for the Des Moines Public Community School District’s administrative office is the following:
2323 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50312
The following offices will be at the new location:
• Office of Superintendent
• Office of Academics
• Office of Schools
• Business and Finance
• Human Resources
• Payroll
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.
Hosting a summer professional development class? Want to tweet/email the link to educators? Below are some helpful instructions for making a direct link to your class on the Universal Registration system.
1) The first part of the URL needs to read like this:
https://prodev.aeapdonline.org/4DCGI/
2) You then add the course number (with no dashes):
https://prodev.aeapdonline.org/4DCGI/DL014492111506
3) Finally, you add INV&* at the end so the link would read as the following:
https://prodev.aeapdonline.org/4DCGI/DL014492111506INV&*
Now you can send the direct link out to potential attendees without needing to send directions on how to do a search in the catalog for your class.
