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 

Spring Has Sprung and So Has Severe Weather – Are You Ready?

Spring is here (we think!), and that means severe weather is right around the corner. In keeping with our agency’s commitment to staff and visitor safety, last week we held severe weather drills in our agency-owned offices. The drills went well, as staff is becoming increasingly aware of where the offices’ severe weather shelters are located. If you have any feedback to provide about the drills, feel free to contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager.

Please take some time to review the Agency’s Crisis Plan, paying special attention to the section about severe weather and the listing of each office’s storm shelter. The plan is archived on the Intranet > Crisis Action Plan.

Learn more about flash flooding, the storm warning system, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and family preparedness from the the Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management.

Looking Toward 2016-17: New Leaders to Join Heartland AEA

Wichman Hired as Part-time Regional Director; Update on Director of Special Education Position
In the recent past, Heartland AEA posted position openings for a director of special education and a part-time regional director. After considering more options, the Agency decided to free up time for some of our leaders to help support special education and reorganize some responsibilities in instructional services. In order to accomplish this, the Agency decided to hire a part-time regional director and not hire a director of special education.

To that end, Heartland AEA is pleased to announce that Amy Wichman has been hired as a part-time regional director beginning July 1. Her district and agency assignment will be determined in the next few weeks.

Amy is currently the Director of Innovation and Instruction for the Central DeWitt Community School District. Prior to this position, she was a technology consultant and Iowa Core lead at Mississippi Bend AEA. Amy has served as director of student services at Bettendorf Schools and has taught language arts, social studies and English at Ventura Middle and High Schools and Urbandale Middle School.

Amy earned her bachelor's degree from Buena Vista University and her master's degree from Drake University.

Jumper to Join Agency as Region 7 Regional Director
Heartland AEA is pleased to announce that Thomas (T.J.) Jumper will become the new regional director in Region 7 beginning July 1. He will replace Charlie Johnson, who is retiring at the end of June T.J. will serve the Boone, Colo-Nesco, Madrid, Nevada, Ogden and United school districts and will collaborate with Kristi Upah to serve all school districts across the region.

T.J. began his career in 2000 as a social studies teacher in Ill. He took his first administrative position in 2004 as an assistant middle school principal in the Ball-Chatham School District #5 in Chatham, Ill. T.J. moved to Mason City in 2006 where he began working for the school district as the middle school principal. In 2009, he began serving as both the middle school and high school principal. In 2013, he was promoted to Executive Director of Educator Quality and Leadership Supports, including responsibilities for curriculum, instruction and assessment for grades 5-12, new teacher mentoring and induction, mentoring building administrators, leading the work of data and instructional coaches and leadership of the district's competency-based education team.

T.J. is currently working on his doctorate degree at Creighton University. He received his specialist degree and master's degree from Drake University and his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana.

If you have any questions, contact Kevin Fangman, Executive Director of District Services, or Cindy Yelick, Associate Administrator.

Differentiated Accountability Update for the 2016-2017 School Year

The Statewide School Improvement Team has successfully completed a majority of the pilot intensive onsite school visits. The team has received a significant amount of feedback, which has led to several process adjustments and a pool of positive support responses. 

Based on the status of the pilot and feedback from participants, a statewide rollout has been scheduled, along with a series of Zoom meetings this spring. These sessions will be recorded and posted with all of the complete Differentiated Accountability activities on the DE website. More information about each Zoom session, including date, topic and Zoom meeting link, are on the above website. 

April 2016 School Leader Update Now Available

The April 2016 issue of the School Leader Update is available from the Iowa Department of Education. Read Director Ryan Wise’s column in which he highlights some great things going on in Iowa’s schools. Legislative Liaison Shan Seivert gives you a wrap up of the legislature in its (alleged) last weeks, and Attorney Nicole Proesch gives important legal reminders to districts.

April 2016 Each and Every Child Newsletter Now Available

The April 2016 Each and Every Child newsletter is available from the Iowa Department of Education. In this month’s issue, read how two school districts, including Waukee, incorporate their teacher-leadership programs in different manners, but both of which focus on special education. Waukee's Director of Student Services gives a very nice compliment to the collaboration between the district and Heartland AEA. Way to go, Waukee consultants!

You can also read educator Jane Schmidt’s latest blog entry about the Iowa Core. 

2016-17 Agreements & Package Increases Announced for Agency Employment Groups

Certified Union & Classified Union

As you may recall, in 2015, the Heartland AEA Board of Directors approved 2-year agreements with both the Heartland Education Association (HEA) as well as the Teamsters Union group. The transparent and interest-based approach has allowed union representatives and management to continue to collaborate monthly, even though there is no need to negotiate for the 2016-17 year. Through these collaborations, additional changes have been made to the HEA salary structure. Settlements and highlights for the 2016-17 year are as follows:

Certified Union (HEA)

• Total package increase of 3.9%, including Teacher Salary Supplement (TSS), for 2016-17
• 2 additional steps will be added to the BA and BA+15 lanes in 2016-17
• Added an MA+15 lane
• All members of the Certified Union will be placed on the salary schedule according to training, experience and degree conferred, regardless of title.
• New salary schedule with MA+15 lane is now available and is archived in the Intranet > Human Resources > HEA Agreement & Information > Salary Schedule (2016-17)

Classified Union (Teamsters)

• Total package increase of 3.0% for 2016-17
• Employment notifications will be delivered electronically (more information to come)

Separate emails will be sent to both employment groups outlining changes, including information for staff in the Certified Union group who wish to reclassify to the new MA+15 lane. The 2016-17 Negotiated Agreements will be posted under the Human Resources link on the Intranet by May 1. 

Certified Non-Union & Classified Non-Union

Certified Non-Union (Management)

The Heartland AEA Board of Directors approved a total package increase of 3.0% for Management staff. This group includes regional directors and other certified leadership positions within the Agency. 

Classified Non-Union 

The Heartland AEA Board of Directors approved a total package increase of 3.0% for Classified Non-Union staff. Employment notices will be delivered electronically this year, with more information to come. 

If you have any questions, contact Tony Chiaramonte, Human Resources Manager, at ext. 14534.

Is Debt Bringing You Down? Learn Strategies to Tackle It During “Tackling Debt” Workshop

Did you know that 80% of workers polled nationally indicate they want their employer to provide financial wellness education? Consider where we are as a society today:

• 77% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck –Bankrate.com
• 30% of Americans have outstanding loans on their 401k’s– Business Record
• #1 cause of stress is money problems and money fights –multiple studies 

Heartland AEA is excited to announce our next financial wellness offering, Tackling Debt! Whether you are looking to pick-up a few nuggets of information, or you need a financial over haul, this 90-minute lunch and learn workshop is just for you. You’ll learn more about credit scores and what they mean to you, and you’ll learn strategies for becoming debt-free! Please RSVP by April 13.

April 15, 2016

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Johnston REC

Zoom option available 

Click here to register!

Reminder: What Are You Waiting For? Enrollment for Agency Benefits is Now!

Our annual benefit enrollment is open to all full-time and 96-day employees from April 1 through April 30, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. for the 2016-17 year benefit year, which begins July 1, 2016. Full-time employees may enroll in health and dental insurance and medical flex spending plans, while part-time staff (96-day) may enroll in the medical flex spending plan. (Note: This enrollment period is not for enrollment in the dependent care plan, which is done in November.) We will need your enrollment selections even if you choose not to make any changes to your benefits for next year. This is the time that you can add and/or drop family members to your health and dental plans without a life event or change of status. 

Enrollment can be completed through the Employee Online tab on the Employee Dashboard. If you are having trouble enrolling, log out of Employee Online and then log in before you start the enrollment process. This helpful tip and more can be found in the enrollment instructions document, which now includes how to print off your benefit statement!

VOYA Life Insurance Enrollment 

During our annual benefit enrollment, employees who didn’t opt for additional life insurance coverage through VOYA can also enroll. Complete the enrollment form and submit it to Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist. Existing employees who are enrolling for the first time will be required to fill out an Evidence of Insurability form. Existing employees who are already enrolled but who want to increase their coverage may also do so at this time. Existing employees may increase their coverage, but if they choose to increase it over $10,000, they will be required to fill out an Evidence of Insurability form. Enrollment will be during April but will be effective on July 1, 2016.

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

AEA Legislative Update Now 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, John Pederson and Kate Walton. 

Get Excited! Digital Instructional Resources Tech Training Coming Soon!

The third and final technology training for 2015-16 -- Digital Instructional Resources -- will be available soon! More details will be coming in the April 11 edition of The Connection. Please remember that all three tech trainings (Google Apps, Digital Citizenship and Digital Instructional Resources) need to be completed by your last contract day of 2015-16.

Tech Tip of the Week: Get the Google Hangout App for Your Computer

Did you know there’s a desktop app for Google Hangouts? There is! This means you can have a similar chat experience to the one you loved so dearly when using iChat. To get this app, you must use Chrome not Firefox.

To install the app, follow the instructions below:
1.    Click here. This will take you to the Chrome App Store.



2.    In the pop-up box that should appear, click the blue Add to Chrome button and then click Add app in dialogue box that will appear.


 

3.    The Hangout app should launch a new window on your desktop screen. Sign in using your Heartland AEA credentials (username@heartlandaea.org).


Once you get logged into the Hangouts app, you can continue to chat in a similar fashion you might be used to from iChat. Notifications for new messages will sound, the app will pop-up on the dock and there will possibly be a notification that appears in the upper right hand corner of your desktop screen. Happy chatting!

If you have any questions, contact Mande Gamble, Technology Training Specialist, at ext. 14676.