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
Location
Palace Theater at Adventureland
Time
7:30 to 8:45 a.m. – Benefits/Wellness Fair & Continental Breakfast
9:00 to noon – All-Staff Meeting
Theme
Enriching Lives Since ’75 -- Celebrating 40 Years!
Details
United Way: We will kick off our annual United Way campaign again this year at the All-Staff meeting. We are counting on you to once again pledge record support to United Way, so they can in turn support communities through education, income and health initiatives!
Watch your tables for pledge forms to begin pledging your support on Sept. 11. Everyone (whether you donate to United Way or not), will have the chance to fill out a form to get your name in a drawing for over a dozen wellness-related prizes!
Benefits/Wellness Fair: The Benefits/Wellness Fair will be held from 7:30-8:45 a.m. before the start of the meeting. This flyer gives you information on who is participating and what they will have to offer. Come check it out! Flu shots will be offered again this year, with more nurses on hand to administer them! We hope to have the fair outside this year, so cross your fingers for some sunshine!
Wear Agency Colors: Wear your agency colors – purple or green – for our group photo at the end of the meeting outside near the Adventureland train station!
Photo Booth: We’ll have a photo backdrop available to take photos with your co-workers to show your “Enriching Lives Since ‘75” spirit! Anyone going to bring their selfie stick?
Fill in the Tables: Please make every attempt to fill the chairs at every table. Please do not move chairs around from table to table, either. We would like to avoid having to scramble to find a place for everyone to sit.
Directions:
Coming from I-80:
- Turn left on to Adventureland Drive.
- Turn right into the Adventureland Park entrance.
- Continue through the unattended parking gate. (Parking will be free.)
- Park in the first or second parking lot to your left.
- Enter through the furthest gate to the right (if you are looking at the park).
- If you continue to walk straight after entering the park, the Palace Theater will be right in front of you.
Can’t wait to see you there!
Beginning last Monday the Agency implemented a new online system to allow staff to request overnight travel and professional development.
You can access the new travel/PD request system though a link on the Expense Online tab of the Employee Dashboard.
A Help document (Log
into the Employee Dashboard before you click this link.) provides
complete instructions on how to access and use the various functions of
the system. This link is also available on the Help tab on the Employee
Dashboard and in the upper right corner of the home page in the new
travel/PD request system. A highlight of the new system is a status bar
function that allows you to find out the status of your request and
claim.
This
online system replaces the Overnight Travel/Professional Development PDF
form that has been used for the past several years. If you have already
submitted an overnight travel or professional development request using
the PDF form, you do not need to resubmit the request using the new system. The PDF form will follow the old process until payment is made.
We
hope you find this new system to be user-friendly and helpful in
reducing the paper and email trails associated with agency travel!
If you have any questions about this new system, contact Rod Howell, Information Systems Manager, at rhowell@heartlandaea.org at ext. 14599.
The Agency’s Planning Council Structure and Membership chart and the annual superintendent directory have been updated for 2015-16. Hard copies of the superintendent directory will be sent to each regional office. They are archived on the Intranet > Communications > Annual Publications, Presentations & Resources.
Below you will find facts and figures about the educators and districts/schools Heartland AEA serves. The data is from the 2014-2015 school year and comes from the Iowa Department of Education. Use this data as you see fit when telling others who we serve.
Number of students in public school districts, PK-12
138,887
Number of students in non-public schools, PK-12
8,550
Total number of students, PK-12
147,437
Number of public school districts
53
Number of public school buildings, PK-12
351
Number of non-public schools
29
Number of full-time principals and superintendents in public schools
322
Number of full- and part-time teachers in public schools
9,603
Number of full-time administrators in non-public schools
29
Total number of public administrators and teachers
9,954
Part of the Agency’s efforts around wellness include supporting the physical well-being of our staff members. Since a significant number of agency staff who office in Johnston also spend much of their work time there, and we had viable space available in a facility we own, the Agency decided to pursue converting the former boiler room in the Johnston Regional Education Center into a wellness room.
Once we began the conversation, staff quickly stepped in and donated three pieces of equipment, and agency wellness funds were used to purchase two previously-owned pieces of equipment. The room is set up with two treadmills, an elliptical machine, an exercise bike and a ping pong table. With the help of Operations and Internal Technology staff, the room has been cleaned, painted and equipped with a TV. It’s now open for business!
The Wellness Room is available to all agency staff members from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Staff members have the option of using the equipment before and after work and during break times (hourly staff) and lunch hours. To assure a safe environment, these hours were set because Operations staff are present in the building.
Remember to visit the Healthy Express site for all things wellness-related! If you have any questions or ideas about the new wellness room or other wellness activities, contact Tony Chiaramonte, Human Resources Manager.
New Updated FAST benchmarks were released through the TIER notification system on Aug. 24, 2015. These benchmarks have changed since the DRAFT release earlier in the month on Aug. 11, 2015. The revised Early Literacy Universal Screening Benchmarks are dated Aug. 24, 2015. To address some of the recent questions regarding the changes, we are providing the quotes from TIER as to why the benchmarks have changed.
“Early literacy benchmarks (a.k.a. cutpoints) for the FASTBridge screening tools have been updated for the 2015-2016 year. This update is a result of the research and development team having an additional year of screening data on hand, therefore, a larger sample with which to identify target performance levels. These updates should lead to greater consistency between grade levels (e.g., 3rd to 4th, 4th to 5th, etc.) and between measures (i.e., CBMR and aReading). In general, aReading benchmarks are somewhat higher.”
The TIER knowledge base provides access to the most up-to-date information, benchmark scores, etc.
If you have any questions, contact Wendy Robinson, Director of Instructional Services, at wrobinson@heartlandaea.org.
Registration for Teacher Quality courses and study groups begins today and ends Sept. 14. TQ courses and study groups meet for 15 hours off contract time and participants are eligible for a stipend upon completion.
The
amount of the stipend is established after registration closes. Last
year eligible staff members were paid $600 to participate in a course or
study group and were paid $500 in 2013-14. The amount for 2015-16 will
be determined when registration closes on Sept. 14. Classes and study
groups will be offered from Oct. 2015 through June 2016. Here is a frequently asked questions document that will help answer questions.
Changes in Alternate Assessment for 2015-16
Teachers new to alternate assessment will be trained on one of three dates: Sept. 8 (Newton DMACC), Sept. 10 (Panorama CSD Board Room) and Sept. 17 (Johnston Regional Education Center, Rooms 107 A/B). Primary contacts should touch base with regional directors on attendance and would attend only from 2-4:30 p.m. if attendance is suggested.
Returning teachers will complete an online certification. The AEA will not be offering support other than providing the login link as the Dynamic Learning Maps Consortium (DLM) has developed a stand-alone training and certification module.
Phase I for the K-2 ELI Reading Alternate Assessment begins this fall, with 30% of eligible students selected. Phase II for the remaining 70% will be 2016-2017. The data reporting will begin in January 2016, although teachers of students selected should teach reading and maintain evidence starting in September. Participants will be selected randomly. The Department of Education and AEA will develop trainings and support teachers. Primary contacts will receive more information as Phase I evolves in the fall.
Additional Updates for Supporting Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities
Districts have been informed of the licensure requirements for teachers of students with significant cognitive disabilities. Teachers apply for a Part B license for 2015-2017. The Department of Education and institutes of higher education will have regional training starting in January 2016 to meet course and practicum requirements.
Throughout the fall, the Significant Disabilities Leadership Team will review and recommend DLM professional development modules to teachers and AEA staff for enhancing instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
Wireless Bandwidth at Agency Offices
Our agency offices, especially the Johnston Regional Education Center and Administration Center buildings, continue to host an increasing number of classes and meetings, and those events continue to grow larger in size. Those attending our events are often bringing multiple devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones with them. While we have very strong wireless networks in our buildings, they cannot handle an unlimited number of connections.
In order to accommodate our guests and to help ensure that our staff has the access to what is needed to do their work, there are a couple strategies we’d like to encourage:
1) Limit the number of tabs you have open on your browsers. Because most websites update regularly, if someone has, for example, seven tabs open, in some respects it’s like having seven devices using bandwidth. If our guests are experiencing some slowdown, this is something you can ask them to do that might be helpful.
2) If it’s possible for you to plug in to the network at your desk, please do so regularly and turn off your wireless access. This will free up wireless bandwidth for our guests and for those who are meeting in our conference rooms. If you need assistance getting your computer plugged in to the network, contact Tuan Dao, Senior Network Administrator, or Tim Weets, Network Specialist.
