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 Agency’s auditors have a new recommendation for us—and the Business Office needs your help to comply with it! The auditors have recommended that the Business Office require staff to turn in receipts for expenses that staff members are submitting for reimbursement. This change is happening to ensure that reimbursements are a proper use of public funds.
This means that travel-related reimbursements and other purchases (supplies, incentives) occurring after Jan. 1, 2019, will require an itemized receipt in order to be paid.
How to Submit Receipts
- Receipts related to travel (hotel, food, transportation, baggage, etc.) can be uploaded through the Travel/Professional Development Request System.
- Receipts related to supplies and incentives should be emailed to Mary Heaberlin, Accounts Payable Specialist.
- At this time, receipts are not required for cell phone reimbursement.
Failure to submit itemized receipts will either delay the reimbursement or reduce the amount reimbursed.
As a reminder, Heartland AEA’s per diem meal limits are:
- $15 out-of-area travel (no overnight stay required)
- $30 out-of-area travel in state (overnight stay required)
- $45 out-of-state travel (overnight stay required)
Tax and tips are included in all per diem amounts. The per diems are daily limits and do not carry over to the next day if the full amount is not spent.
If you have any questions about this new requirement, contact Brian Whalen, Business Manager, at ext. 14005.
Semi-annually, Heartland AEA must comply with the Federal Grant rules identified in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-87, pertaining to documentation needed for federal expenditures. For employees who are funded 100% with federal funding, there are Circular A-87 audit requirements we need to meet in order to document appropriate expenditures.
If you are in the fully funded group, on Dec. 5, 2018 you will receive an email from heartlandworkflow with the subject A87 Certification Notice - Action Required with a link to the certification page. The process is very simple and the same as previous years.
If you are new to this process or need a refresher, you can view this presentation, which explains the background for Circular A-87 and the steps Heartland AEA is taking to meet the A-87 requirements. Keep in mind the video was created in March 2011. Although some of the dates and timelines in the video are old, the process and the purpose of the A-87 certification are still the same. The video will explain that employees who are fully funded from one grant will need to certify every six months that they are performing duties allowed under the federal grant.
If you have any questions, contact Brian Whalen, Business Manager, at ext. 14005. The Business Office appreciates your prompt completion of the certifications and your assistance in helping us comply with this reporting requirement.
The Dec. 2018 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is available.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed in 2015, replaced the No Child Left Behind Act. It maintains a focus on equity for all students, while giving states and local school districts much more ownership over systems of school accountability and support.
In Iowa, ESSA has been a great opportunity to build on bold education improvements underway that align with ESSA requirements, including clear and rigorous standards for what students should know and be able to do, a school accountability system that targets support where and when schools need it most and a structure for professional learning that emphasizes teacher leadership and evidence-based practices.
The ESSA Support website provides a repository of tools and resources to support the work aligned to Iowa's ESSA Plan.
ESSA Support Site
If you have any questions, contact Karla Day, Professional Learning & Leadership Consultant, at ext. 14321 or Amy Wichman, Regional Director, at ext. 18143.
Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise announced last week he is seeking the public’s input on proposed physical education and health standards.
The standards, selected by the Physical Education and Health Standards Review Team, would be recommended to schools, but not required.
Feedback on the standards will come through a survey and public forums. The public forums will be Dec. 4 and Dec. 6 (details are below). The survey will be open until Dec. 20.
Input from the survey and public forums will be incorporated into the team’s final recommendations for standards.
“Our goal is to put in place standards that provide teachers with a framework to strengthen instruction from kindergarten through 12th grade and to help students build the knowledge and skills to be healthy and active for life,” said Brian Rhoads, co-chair of the statewide team and a teacher leader and physical education teacher in the West Des Moines Community School District.
Rhoads said that physical education and health also address social-emotional learning in the schools.
“We are seeing a lot of emotional issues in our schools,” he said. “There’s a lot of research that shows physical activity and good nutrition lessen the problems with mental health.”
The Physical Education and Health Standards Review Team was created in response to public support for offering standards that go beyond the mandatory subject areas of English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and 21st century skills.
The team hopes to get the proposed physical education and health standards to the State Board of Education for consideration sometime next spring.
Feedback from the public forums can be provided either in person or remotely through satellite centers (through video conferencing). Both forums run from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Details can be found on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.
As an initial wave of Benefits Surveys is completed, questions and comments are being made in the survey as well. Juliette Houseman, Benefits Specialist, continues to address some of the questions being submitted in the survey.
Q: Offer health insurance to retirees younger than age 65.
Q: I guess I need to understand HRA vs. HSA. I had no idea HRA could be used towards health premiums in retirement.
Q: Health insurance premiums paid during retirement prior to age 65/Medicare.
Q: Paying health premiums from retirement to age 65/Medicare. Since Heartland AEA recently ended this benefit when I am close to retirement, I have not had the opportunity to build up an HRA account to cover premiums during retirement years or have another investment strategy to cover healthcare premiums in retirement. I would have invested differently over the past 20 years had I known the payment of health premiums during retirement would be ended and no longer available.
A: 509A is a state law that states state employees who take a bona fide retirement (draw IPERS) are eligible to continue under their employer’s health insurance coverage only at 100% their cost until the month prior to the month in which they turn 65. (They go on Medicare at the beginning of the month in which they turn 65.) Although Heartland AEA employees are not state employees, our agency is state-funded so this benefit is passed along to you, too.
Last year Heartland AEA filled 45 vacancies in the Certified Union and Management staff employee groups. It has been to the Agency’s advantage to enter the recruitment cycle as early as possible.
For 2018-19, the Heartland AEA Board of Directors has again approved an Early Notification Incentive for staff who have a signed contract and who notify Heartland AEA of their intent to not renew their contract for the 2019-20 school year by Dec. 7, 2018. Details are listed below.
Early Notification Incentive Process & Requirements
- Certified Union and Management staff who do not plan to return to Heartland AEA for the 2019-20 school year submit early notification letters of resignation that are effective at the end of the 2018-19 work year.
- Early notification letters must be received in the Human Resources Department by 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2018.
- Heartland AEA’s Board of Directors acts on early notification letters no later than the regular meeting on Dec. 11, 2018.
- Departing staff must fulfill their individual employment contract obligations for the 2018-19 work year.
Early Notification Incentive
- A $1,500 early notification incentive will be paid on June 30, 2019, to employees fulfilling these requirements.
If you have any questions about the early notification incentive, contact Tony Chiaramonte, Director of Human Resources, at ext. 14534.
Last week, Iowa’s AEAs emailed a survey to local educators with the goal of better understanding stakeholder awareness of and satisfaction with AEA services. Please encourage educators to participate in this survey, as feedback is critical to ensuring Iowa’s AEAs continue to provide quality services to local schools.
Iowa’s AEAs has partnered with Hanover Research to administer and analyze this survey. Hanover Research is an independent market research firm based in Washington, D.C., and is in no way affiliated with any other entity or organization. Responses are completely anonymous and will be kept strictly confidential. The survey will close on Dec. 14, and Hanover will provide an analysis following the closing date.
