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
Be on the lookout for an email that arrived today with an invitation for you to participate in the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. The survey was sent to all staff, so everyone will have a chance to provide their feedback about our agency’s culture (the way we do things around here).
Please remember to be as honest as possible when completing the survey and know that your responses are completely confidential and cannot be tracked. The survey will close on May 11, 2018.
Thank you in advance for your time and feedback!
Please be sure to enroll for employee benefits by April 30, 2018. 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 and dental insurance or flex spending for next year!
Where to Go to Enroll
Go to your Employee Dashboard and click on 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 spending benefits, you must enter “0” in order to waive them. Once you’ve made all of your selections, hit Save and you will see the text “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, 2018.
If you have any questions, contact Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, at ext. 14315.
As you might recall, Iowa’s AEAs announced that they will subsidize costs for districts to upgrade their Iowa Department of Education provided FastBridge (FAST) subscriptions to include additional functionality in the areas of mathematics and behavior.
The deadline for districts/schools to sign up to participate (beginning fall 2018) is June 15, 2018. Here is the current list of Heartland AEA area districts/schools that have signed up.
Also, many districts have started preparing for the spring and fall implementation for these assessments by participating in these webinars. Heartland AEA staff can register for these webinars or watch the recordings. We will be doing more with consultants in the coming months, so you are informed and can support schools in making instructional decisions based on the additional data they will have at their disposal.
Paula Allen, Shelley Mason & Donna Simpson
April 27, 2018
2 - 4:30 p.m.
Adel Regional Office
Julie Hukee
NEW DATE!
May 11, 2018
2 – 3:30 p.m.
Location TBA
Margee Shaffer
May 10, 2018
3 – 4 p.m.
Carroll Regional Office
This message was emailed to all Heartland AEA Certified staff on April 20 and is being repeated here for your information.
Note that the Internship Supervisor for First Year School Psychology Intern Staff positions are available only to those who are licensed to provide school psychology services in the state of Iowa.
As you may know, each year a number of school psychologists who are completing the internship requirement of their school psychology graduate program are hired as first year Heartland AEA employees. Keeping this in mind, the Agency is looking for multiple staff members who would like the opportunity to support the growth and career development of school psychology interns through internship supervision. While a number of other staff will also be involved in supporting first year school psychologist who are interns (regional directors, job-alike facilitators, colleagues, etc.), the internship supervisor is responsible for intern-specific support and ensuring all university program requirements are met.
Over the past few years, the responsibility of school psychology internship supervision has primarily been supported by the school psychology job-alike facilitators. Our job-alike facilitators will be supporting new and veteran staff members through our internal learning structure in a different way than in the past. The time requirements for supporting individual interns is significant, and given the roles of our job-alike facilitators in our internal learning structure, it is no longer feasible for our job-alike facilitators to provide this supervision alone.
Given these factors, the Agency is extending this opportunity for leadership to multiple individuals. While the specific internship requirements vary between universities, first year school psychology staff who are interns typically require two hours per week of contact with their intern supervisor. Because interns and intern supervisors are staff who have full-time caseloads with service commitments to children and educators, intern supervision contact hours may need to be scheduled outside of typical work hours (e.g., at the beginning of the day, over lunch and/or at the end of the work day). Given these additional time requirements, those individuals serving as intern supervisors for first year school psychology interns will be provided a stipend of $3,000/year. Below are the qualifications and anticipated duties of the position.
Qualifications
- Standard and current Iowa license in school psychology
- Three years successful experience as a school psychologist in Iowa (preferably at Heartland AEA)
- Demonstrates deep understanding and successful application of Heartland AEA’s framework for problem solving in systems level and individual student level work
- Knowledge of NASP standards of practice (preferred)
- Successful experience mentoring (preferred)
Anticipated Duties
- Ensure that each intern receives the support required by his/her program. The intern supervisor doesn't have to provide all the support, but communicate and support the intern in accessing supports from others such as the regional director, job-alike facilitator, colleagues, etc.
- Provide documentation, summaries, reviews and evaluative feedback as requested by the intern’s university program. This documentation may be done in collaboration with the job-alike facilitator.
- Meet one-on-one with the intern a minimum of two hours/week.
- Provide other support as needed.
- Communicate and support fellow intern supervisor colleagues as needed.
- Engage in professional learning to support his/her own growth and skill development.
- Participate in regular meetings with job-alike facilitators and others to understand and apply the scope and sequence of new staff learning and support the typical phases of first year staff learning to ensure consistency of supervision supports for all Heartland AEA first year school psychology interns.
- Complete all mentor requirements as detailed in Heartland AEA’s Mentoring Guide.
The Agency is looking for approximately 10 individuals to serve in this role. Interested individuals are asked to complete this brief survey to express interest by April 27, 2018. Interviews for these positions will be held in early May.
If you have any questions, contact Martha Condon, Director of Professional Learning.
Save the date and tell the families you serve to do the same!
Family & Educator Partnership Resource Fair
Oct. 20, 2018
9 a.m. - noon
Science Center of Iowa
Event Flyer
The Agency is preparing to upgrade all of its Mac computers to Apple’s current operating system, macOS 10.13. Having all staff using the same operating system will enhance our security and simplify the process of providing support.
Last week, you received an email with detailed instructions about how to perform this upgrade. This is a fairly simple process, but it will take some time. For example, if a new computer is being upgraded in our Johnston office, the process could take as little as 35 minutes. If an older model is being updated using home Wi-Fi, it might take 2-3 hours. So, you’ll want to plan your time according to what computer you have and what network you’ll be using.
Included in the email is a short video we encourage you to watch prior to doing the upgrade so you know what to expect. You will also want to do a Time Machine backup on your external hard drive just prior to performing the upgrade. You will need 15 GB of free space in order to perform the upgrade.
For those of you who upgraded your operating system as part of the pilot group, thank you for your willingness to help us test the process. If you were part of the pilot, there’s no need for you to do any additional upgrades at this time.
The Internal Technology Department asks that you complete the upgrade to OS 10.13 by May 11, before the rush of the end of the school year.
If you have any questions, contact the Internal Technology Team.
