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 

Process for Communicating Inclement Weather Office Closings & Class Cancellations

Winter weather is here, so we are quickly reminded of inclement weather conditions that can cause closures and cancellations. Our agency offices will typically remain open unless all schools in a region are closed and travel is not recommended. In case of inclement weather office closings and professional development class cancellations, read below for the process the Agency uses to communicate about closings, cancellations and delays.

First, go to section 11:14 of the Staff Handbook to read the Agency’s Inclement Weather policy.

Remember that the Temporary Remote Workplace Program can be used in extraordinary circumstances with supervisor approval. More information about the program can be found in the Staff Handbook. In an inclement weather circumstance, staff members who complete timesheets have the option of taking unpaid leave, even if they have other leaves available.

If you have any questions about the Inclement Weather policy, contact Laura Gillon, Executive Director of Human Resources, at ext. 14416.

Communicating Office Closures
The Agency uses a variety of methods to notify staff members of office closures due to inclement weather.


SchoolReach
SchoolReach is an online system that sends voice messages to staff. When used, the service will call selected phone numbers in our employee contact list and will deliver a recorded message. The service will deliver the message to both live answer and answering machines. No answers (phones ringing over 40 seconds) and busies will be automatically retried twice in 15-minute intervals after the initial call.

We will contact only those staff members who are assigned to offices that close. For example, if the Newton and Indianola offices are closed, we will only call the staff members who are assigned to those offices. Staff in other offices won’t receive a call. The calls that SchoolReach makes will be generated by the Agency’s Communications Department—they will not come directly from SchoolReach.

To ensure that you receive a phone call about office closings, review your phone number information in the Agency’s Employee Online system and make sure it is up-to-date. To access Employee Online, sign in to Employee Dashboard and navigate to the Employee Online tab at the top of the page. If you have provided both a home number and a cell phone number in Employee Online, we will call you at both numbers in the event of an office closing.

Please Note the Following About SchoolReach
When SchoolReach places a call, if your phone has caller ID, the ID will display the Agency’s main number, (515) 270-9030. When you get a call from the system, there will be a short pause at the beginning of the message. This usually is only a few seconds pause. Answer your phone as you normally would with “hello” and hold for the message to begin. Multiple “hellos” will delay the message. Please inform all family members who may answer your phone of this process. If you rely on your answering machine to screen calls, the system will detect that your machine has answered and will play the recorded message to your machine. The phone will ring for up to 40 seconds. Make sure that your machine answers after four rings or you may miss the message. At the end of the message you will be prompted to “press any key” to hear the message again. This can be helpful if a child answers the phone and hands it to a parent, who can then have the message repeated in its entirety.

Website
We will post closing information on the front page of the Agency’s website.

Cancellation Hotline
We will record closing information on a “cancellation hotline” that staff members can call into at (515) 270-0405 ext. 14041. When you call in you will hear a recorded message that says the date and which offices are closed if there are closings. If there are no closings, the message will reflect that.

Social Media
We will post closing information on the Agency’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Communicating Professional Development Class Cancellations
If a professional development class is canceled, the cancellation will be communicated via the agency website, cancellation hotline and social media.

If you have any questions about inclement weather communications, contact Courtney Croatt, Communications Specialist, at ext. 14474.

Message from the Chief Administrator: Update on the Status of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Re-authorization

Many of you are aware that that Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA—sometimes referred to as No Child Left Behind) is finally moving through Congress and appears to be on a path for re-authorization by the end of the year.

I encourage you to read this update from Noelle Ellerson of the American Association of School Administrators and to contact members of the Iowa Congressional delegation to urge passage of the bill yet this year. While the final bill language is still unknown and there will likely be elements that are less favorable than we would like, it is a significant improvement over the current federal law.

Thank you,

 






Paula

State Board of Education Votes to Adopt New State Assessment

Last week members of the State Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a new state assessment to replace the current state tests in math and reading beginning in the 2016-17 school year. The board adopted state administrative rules to put in place the Smarter Balanced Assessments as recommended by an Iowa task force last year. The rules are subject to legislative review before they take effect.

“We need to know that Iowa students are graduating from high school prepared for success, and this is an important step in the process,” said Charles Edwards of Des Moines, president of the State Board of Education. “Years ago, Iowa took the necessary steps to put in place consistent statewide academic standards that outline expectations for what students should know and be able to do. Having a state assessment that is aligned to those standards is critical to understanding whether students are meeting expectations.”

The vote follows many months of board discussion, which culminated in official “notice of intended action” to adopt the administrative rules during the board’s September meeting. This official notice launched a mandatory state administrative rules process that has included publishing the rules in a legislative bulletin, a period of public input, and initial review by the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee earlier this month. The committee must review the rules once more before they can take effect. A meeting date has not been set.

Iowa law says a new state assessment must be in place by the 2016-17 school year. Students currently take the Iowa Assessments in grades 3-8 and 10-11 in math and reading to meet state and federal accountability laws.

The Smarter Balanced Assessments were developed by a consortium of states, including Iowa, guided by the belief that a high-quality assessment system aligned to rigorous academic standards can improve teaching and can help prepare students for success in college and in the workplace. Adopting the Smarter Balanced Assessments was the centerpiece of a Dec. 2014 report from the Iowa Assessment Task Force, created by lawmakers in 2013 to study the state’s assessment needs and to make a recommendation. The task force represented Iowa teachers, parents, school administrators, state and regional agencies and associations, parents, business leaders and higher education leaders.
  
For more information about the Smarter Balanced Assessments, visit http://www.smarterbalanced.org/.

One Week to Go! Eligible Staff Must Enroll In or Waive Dependent Care Flex Plan

Reminder: Our online enrollment for the 2016 dependent care flex benefit plan is open until Nov. 30! All eligible employees will need to either enroll during this period or waive participation through the enrollment process.

Remember:

• 
Those eligible are full-time staff and 96-day or over part-time staff. 

• Even if you choose not to participate in the plan, you must waive it! 

• Even if you are opting for the same deduction as last year, you must type over the amount in the box and then save it in order to complete your enrollment correctly. 

• Dependent care enrollment for 2016 must be completed online via the Employee Dashboard by Nov. 30, 2015. 



Instructions for enrolling or waiving: 


• Go to the Employee Dashboard. 

• Click on the Employee Online tab. 

• Click on the Enrollment link on the left hand side of the page. 

• Enter the amount to enroll or enter “0” to waive. 

• Save. 



If you have any questions, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, at ext. 14315.

After Biometric Screening, Remember to Complete Your Health Assessment

Reminder: If you choose to have a biometric screening done, you need to follow up the screening by inputting your numbers in the health assessment on wellmark.com. Once you’ve completed the assessment and Wellmark has notified the Agency, Katie Streff will follow up with you about receiving your wellness items. Remember: biometrics + assessment = wellness items!

Thanksgiving Holiday Office Hours & Van Delivery Schedule

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, all Heartland AEA offices will be closed Nov. 26 and 27. Our van delivery schedule will be as follows:

Regular delivery: Nov. 23-24
No delivery: Nov. 25-27
 
Regular delivery resumes Nov. 30. Additionally, there will be no Administrator Connection on Nov. 27.

Did You Know? Heartland AEA Parent & Educator Connection

Heartland AEA’s Parent & Educator Connection (PEC) offers district and regional support and workshops and training sessions.

Call the PEC if you would like to refer a parent for individual support and assistance from a PEC Parent Coordinator. The PEC can support home/school communication and encourage parent involvement.

The PEC also provides information about:
•    Conferences
•    Workshops
•    In-services
•    Support groups

A number of online training videos have been created for parents to easily access and view. Topics include:
•    Orientation to Special Education
•    Eligibility for Special Education
•    Managing Your Child’s Behaviors
•    Bullying Prevention: Parent Overview

You can also sign up to receive notifications of PEC events and newsletters by email!

If you have any questions about PEC services, contact Terry Mendell, Lead Parent Coordinator at ext. 17135.

Technology Tip of the Week

Learn from the Google Gooru
There are amazing resources available online and many of them are free! One example of a great, free online resource is Google Gooru, which provides a daily email newsletter with tips on how to use Google more effectively. Many of these tips are in the form of a video series, like this one that covers 6 Google Calendar Tips.

Not all of the tips may be applicable to you, but subscribing to this newsletter and other free educational resources will add to your personal learning network. All you have to do is type in your email address above the "Sign up" box in the upper right hand corner of the newsletter. Give it a try!

Update on Digital Citizenship Technology Training

Most of you have completed the Google Apps training, and many of you are ready to move on to the next training module on Digital Citizenship. We anticipate this module will be available shortly after Thanksgiving break, and it will engage some higher order thinking skills. Several parts of the training will use scenarios such as the one below:



You are a speech-language pathologist. The Agency provided you with an iPad that you sometimes let your son, Trenton, use. One afternoon you learn that Trenton sent an inappropriate photo of a friend to approximately 15 other students in his school, from your agency iPad. Many of those students have forwarded on this selfie. All of the emails were sent and received on your agency device. 


How would you handle this? How would you expect your supervisor to handle this situation? We face many digital citizenship issues each week, and we hope this upcoming training will help you handle (or prevent) situations such as the one described above.

Reminder: How to Access the Apps Training Modules

If you haven’t yet taken the Google Apps pre-assessment and training modules, and you can’t remember where to go to do so, read below!

 
To get started, click HERE. The link will take you to an assessment that will gauge your overall knowledge of Google Apps. If you get 80% or more of the questions correct, you will have “tested out” of the requirement to complete further training. If you get less than 80%, we want you to grow in your knowledge of Google Apps and ask that you complete the Google training module.

Q: How do I log in to the AEA PD Online Learning System?
A: First, you will need to have an AEA PD Online account. (If you have an account, but don’t remember your login information, contact Shelley Christensen for assistance. This is the same system that you’ve used to take Bloodborne Pathogens, Mandatory Reporter, etc.)

If you haven’t created an account, follow the steps below:
1.    Begin on the AEA PD Online Learning System.
2.    First time user??? Click on Register here.
3.    Enter your first and last name.
4.    Enter your email address.
5.    Enter your BoEE folder number
If you don't know this number, you can look it up at the BoEE Website.
 If you don't have one, indicate N/A.
6.    Click Yes to indicate that you are an AEA or District Employee.
7.    Locate Heartland AEA from the district list.
8.    Enter the District Password - aea11
9.    You may complete the other fields, but they are not required.
10.  Click on Submit Registration Info.
11.  The screen will not appear to change, but you will see a Continue button under the Submit button.
12.  Click on Continue.

Q: Once I login, how will I know where to start?
A: Once logged in to the AEA PD Online Learning System, you will choose the catalog link in the upper left hand sidebar. Then, click on district modules, and all of Heartland AEA’s content for our capacity building training will be listed. Begin by clicking on the course you want to take. If you did not test out, you will need to take the Google Docs, Calendar, Sheets, Slides, Sites and Gmail modules.

Q: What supports are in place for me while I’m accessing these training modules?
A: We have a number of supports to offer.
•    Some of your professional learning time this year will be about expanding your technology skills through an online learning experience. Work with your supervisor if you have questions about when you should be accessing the technology training during your work schedule.
•    You can participate in face-to-face regional seminars to work on the online content in a setting where you can learn with others and be supported by a coach who knows that particular area of content.

•    You can collaborate with others who are working on the same content.
•    Significant resources are included within every learning module that you can access.
•    Tech Support Leads and agency Internal Technology staff continue in their roles to provide technical support for routine questions and issues.

Q: Whom do I contact if I have questions about the learning system?
A: You can contact Lynn McCartney, Instructional Technology Consultant, or Mande Gamble, Technology Training Specialist, for help with Heartland AEA-specific technology trainings. Continue to contact Shelley Christensen for help with the Bloodborne Pathogens, Mandatory Reporting and other statewide trainings.