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
As you may know from our announcement on Friday afternoon, the Board of Directors has selected Dr. Jon Sheldahl to serve as the next chief administrator of our agency. We are very excited to welcome Dr. Sheldahl to the Heartland AEA family and look forward to the great work that his passion for Heartland AEA, the AEA system and his strong leadership will inspire.
This has been a very long, but very productive and successful process. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank you for the important role you played in assisting the Board in this process. Your input on the desired characteristics we should seek in our new chief administrator provided guidance to the Board as we reviewed and considered the applicants. In addition, the feedback on potential issues and questions that was provided to the Board, through the discussions held in our Regional and Department Planning Councils, became the basis for the final set of questions the Board used in its final round of interviews. In summary, this was an agency-wide effort to recruit and select the very best candidate for this position. We are excited about our future, and the Board sincerely thanks you for your involvement in this process.
With much appreciation to all of you for the important work you do everyday to make a positive difference in the lives of children, families and educators within our agency's schools and communities --
John Kinley
Board President
Over the past several years our country has seen an increase in school and workplace violence. As our agency learns more from the experts who have studied these events, the Agency’s Emergency Response & Safety Team has made several recommendations that have been enacted across the Agency to help keep us safe in the case of an emergency.
As our agency continues to make improvements in our agency’s safety and security, we are taking the step to offer ALICE online training to all staff. By the end of the 2017 calendar year, all Heartland AEA staff members are asked to take the hour-long online training to become familiar with the ALICE program and the techniques it teaches in response to an armed intruder event. Even if you completed the in-person training, you are asked to complete the online training, as there are a few items of new learning not included in the live training.
ALICE Overview
ALICE stands for:
- Alert: Get the word out! “Armed Intruder in building” instead of “Code Red,” or “Bring the purple folder to the office.” Use clear, concise language to convey the type and location of the event.
- Lockdown: Good starting point. We will continue to lockdown in secure areas.
- Inform: Communication keeps the intruder off balance and allows for good decision-making.
- Counter: Apply skills to distract, confuse and gain control.
- Evacuate: Reduce the number of potential targets for the intruder and reduce chances of victims resulting from friendly fire when help arrives.
In short, using the ALICE method will give you more tools to use in the event of an armed intruder/active shooter. We want to provide you with the knowledge that if faced with a life or death situation there are methods that can be applied to enhance your chance of survival.
Again, you are asked to complete the ALICE online training by the end of the 2017 calendar year. To access the training:
- Visit the AEA PD Online Moodle site.
- Login with your Google username and password by clicking on the Google logo if you’ve never been to the site before.
- If you've taken an online course from AEA PD Online in the past two years, login with the username and password you created to take the course.
- Once in the site, find the banner named "Individual AEAs and Partners" and look for the Heartland AEA logo. Click on the logo, and you'll be taken to a page where the ALICE logo is shown.
- Click on the ALICE logo to be taken to a screen where you can then click the "Enroll me" button to be enrolled in the training.
- If you need any assistance with accessing the site, contact Shelley Christensen, Registrar/Licensure Assistant, at ext. 14668.
If you have any questions about the training or the ALICE program in general, contact Dustin Gean, Operations Manager, Emergency Response & Safety Team Lead and Certified ALICE Trainer.
Heartland AEA is partnering with an advisory company, IS Loan Solutions, to help district and AEA employees improve their student loan situations and overall financial well-being. If you have student loans, (regardless of position) you are encouraged to find out if this voluntary benefit can help you. You may qualify for loan forgiveness and refinancing to help lower or even eliminate loan payments. IS Loan Solutions has helped others reduce their monthly payments on average by 81%.
Go to the IS Loan Solutions registration website and enter registration code AEA11 for more information.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) may be able to:
- Immediately lower monthly student loan payment
s
- Reduce student loan obligation
- Significantly lower costs to earn additional degrees
PSLF also provides a personalized 10-year loan forgiveness plan outlining projected tax-free savings.
Contact IS Loan Solutions at (866) 831-5564 or visit their website for more information and success stories.
If you registered with IS Loan Solutions in the past and were told you would not benefit from PSLF, login to your MyISLS portal, and you will be directed to the refinancing option.
As an educational leader, are you faced with increasingly complex challenges to tackle? Do you try to tackle them alone? Would you be interested in being part of a group that identifies, examines and addresses real problems of practice leaders face? Explore and develop systems leadership? Have access to Drake University? Then...
Become a part of the Drake Continual Improvement Network. The vision is to transform education in Iowa in order to restore joy in learning, teaching and leading in Iowa’s schools. The network provides opportunities to learn and work together to solve real problems of practice through the process of systemic continual improvement.
Interested? Learn more here or contact Dr. Doug Stilwell, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Drake University at (515) 271-1993.
It is common for people to overdo things from time to time—eating too many sweets or going on a shopping spree. But if you find yourself repeatedly engaging in an activity that has a negative effect on your health or well-being or both, you may be struggling with some type of addictive behavior.
Being addicted to a self-destructive behavior can be similar to being addicted to drugs or alcohol—it can have severe consequences and cause your life to fall apart. That's why it’s important to seek help as soon as you suspect you might have a problem. Sometimes people can stop the unhealthy behavior on their own. In other cases, help from a mental health professional or support group may be needed.
Website: heartlandaea.lifeworks.com
Username: heartlandaea
Password: lifeworks
Please be sure to enroll for employee benefits by April 30. Even if you choose to keep the same plan you have right now, you still need to designate your enrollment options. Failure to enroll by April 30 may lead to you not being covered in the plan you need for health, dental or flex spending for next year!
Where to Go to Enroll
Go to your Employee Dashboard and 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 there, it will tell you the coverage 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, hit Save and it will say “Request Pending,” which means you have successfully enrolled.
Last Days to Add Supplemental Life Insurance!
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, 2017.
If you have any questions, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, at ext. 14315.
