Our Mission
To
improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth
by providing services and leadership in partnership with families,
schools and communities.
Our Goals
• Increase learning growth for students
• Decrease the gap in achievement
• Increase annual graduation rates
• Increase gateways to post-secondary success
The Prairie Lakes AEA and Heartland AEA Boards of Directors have approved an agreement to share Special Education Director services for the 2016-17 school year. Cindy Yelick, Heartland AEA Associate Administrator, will coordinate this agreement between the two AEAs. Several members of the Prairie Lakes AEA and Heartland AEA staffs will work cooperatively to assure required services are provided.
Our United Way campaign is still in full swing, and as we’ve said before, there’s still time to fill out a pledge form! To meet our goal of 60% staff participation, we need 83 more of you to turn in a form pledging your support toward United Way and the programs and services it provides to our communities! Please contact Courtney Croatt or Samantha Perry, United Way Campaign Co-Chairs, today to get your pledge form.
Online Auction
Our popular online auction is back again this year! Bid on items donated by area businesses, as well as some fun things offered by our agency such as a front row parking spot at the Johnston REC and preferred seating at the 2017 All-Staff meeting. The auction will run from today to Friday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. See what’s up for bid on the United Way Auction site!
To place your bid
Login to the site using your Employee Dashboard Username and your PEID number, which is your unique Heartland AEA employee number. (Reference your paystub to find your number if you don’t know it.) Make sure you type the “E” with the number, e.g. E012345. Click on the item name to view the description and a larger photo. To place your bid, simply fill in the “Your New Bid” field and click on “Place Bid.” You will receive an email notification if you are outbid, which will include a link back to the auction site if you wish to re-bid. The auction site is available anywhere, anytime until bidding closes at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28!
Winning bidders will be notified by e-mail the week of Oct. 31 to send in their payments (preferably checks made out to United Way) and to make arrangements for receiving their auction items.
If you have any difficulty logging in to the auction site, contact Maureen Whited.
Background Information
During
the past three years, Heartland AEA has filled up to 192 vacancies in
the Certified Union and Management staff categories. It has been to the
Agency’s advantage to enter the recruitment cycle as early as possible.
To
support a process for timely staff replacement of hard to fill
positions and to assist in budget planning, the Heartland AEA Board of
Directors has approved piloting a one-time strategy (Early Notification
Incentive) to determine if it may result in increased accuracy for the
purpose of recruitment and budget planning. The details are listed
below, and the results will be re-evaluated to inform future actions.
Early Notification Incentive Process & Requirements
- Certified
Union and Management staff that do not plan to return to Heartland AEA
for the 2017-2018 school year submit early notification letters of
resignation that are effective at the end of the 2016-17 work year.
- Early notification letters must be received in the Human Resources Department by 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2016.
- Heartland AEA’s board takes action on early notification letters no later than the regular meeting on Dec. 13, 2016.
- Departing staff must fulfill their individual employment contract obligations for the 2016-17 work year.
Early Notification Incentive
- A $1,500 early notification incentive will be paid on June 30, 2017 to employees fulfilling the requirements.
If you have any questions about the early notification incentive, contact Tony Chiaramonte, Human Resources Manager, at ext. 14534.
Below you will find an update from the Iowa Department of Education about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for the 2016-17 school year. The update is intended to provide annual information to public school districts regarding requirements included in the federal programs funded through the ESEA. It is important that each section is read carefully because the Iowa Department of Education continually updates the components. Information for which we have received questions from the field or clarifications from the United States Department of Education is added each year. All information included this year is updated or new guidance.
ESEA Update
Did you know the multitude of questions that Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, is able to answer? If not, keep reading!
- Having problems understanding the bill you just received? Don’t understand your deductible? Can’t figure out how to get reimbursed from your HRA, medical flex or dependent care flex account? Traveling out of the country? Experiencing a life event? Contact Juliette for health, dental, HRA, flex account, long-term disability and life insurance questions!
- Retiring? Exploring your options? Contact Juliette for retirement benefit considerations and planning!
- Depressed? Kids driving you a little crazy? Going through a divorce or a difficult life struggle? Contact Juliette for EAP information to get you back on track!
- Pregnant? Having surgery? Going to be off work for five consecutive work days or longer using sick leave? Contact Juliette for FMLA or Iowa Civil Rights Act leave information to protect your job and benefits!
- Need a Hepatitis B shot? Contact Juliette so she can get you set up with your vaccination series!
- Need assistance with an accommodation to assist you in your job? Contact Juliette for ADA questions or requests for accommodation!
- Injured on the job? Contact Juliette for workers’ compensation and work-related incidents!
- Want to know more about the wellness program and what all these challenges are about? Contact Juliette for the low-down.
- Need a place to just talk? Contact Juliette! She has an open door (and email and phone) policy, and you are ALWAYS welcome!
Many of you should now be able to create a new account, log in to the new website and submit items for reimbursement. A number of issues keep surfacing, though, so if you experience any sort of issues or discrepancies, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist. Thank you for your continued patience as Kabel works through these issues.
The Hit Your Stride Challenge is well underway! This is a friendly reminder for you to go out and track your steps. Your steps make a difference for your team's average and total steps taken. Don't delay - track today!
Required Wellness Challenge: Visit the new EAP website (Life Works) and answer this question to complete the activity.
heartlandaea.lifeworks.com
Username: heartlandaea
Password: lifeworks
Are you considering retirement in the next two to three years? If so, you may be interested in attending a “Planning for Retirement” session in November. Mark your calendar for:
Nov. 14
3:00-5:00 p.m.
Conference Room 152
Johnston Regional Education Center
Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System (
IPERS) and Social Security will be providing in-person guidance on what you need to know to make the best choices for your retirement years. No registration is necessary, but if you would like IPERS to prepare personalized benefit estimates for you, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, by Nov. 2 so your statement can be prepared. The session will be available via Zoom (link to be announced) and will be recorded for later access. Spouses are welcome to attend.
If you have any questions, contact Juliette.
The homepage of the LifeWorks website contains what are called “Featured Articles.” For today you’ll find:
• “October is National Work & Family Month”
• “Talking About Politics at Work”
• “Are You Ready for Flu Season?”
What great timely topics for the end of October! The “Featured Articles” change often, so be sure to check them out on a routine basis.
Login reminder:
heartlandaea.lifeworks.com
Username: heartlandaea
Password: lifeworks
We’ve all sent emails and immediately wished we hadn’t hit send! Luckily, Gmail offers an “undo send” that allows users to retract an email. This feature used to be found under the Labs portion of Gmail, but can now be found as a standard setting in your Gmail settings page.
Directions:
- Click the settings icon in the upper right-hand corner and click ‘Settings.’
- You’ll find the Undo Send settings under the General tab right under Send and Archive.
- Click the check box to enable Undo Send.
- Click the drop box to set the Send cancellation period. This means you can choose the number of seconds you have to prevent the email from being sent. The choices are 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
- At the bottom of the Settings page, make sure you save changes.
Now if you compose an email and press Send, you will see the yellow bar appear at the top of your Inbox that says: “Your message has been sent. Undo. View Message.” If you click on the ‘Undo’ link, it would bring back your email to trash, edit or place into a draft.
