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
Iowans are ever mindful that severe weather may strike at any time. Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, along with the National Weather Service (Des Moines office) designate the last full week of March as Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa. The goal is to provide Iowans a better understanding of the state’s spring weather hazards. Specific topics addressed include:
In conjunction with Severe Weather Awareness week, the Agency will be holding tornado drills this week. Please find the tornado shelters near you and be ready for a drill this week.
What is the flex medical plan? The flex medical account is a pre-tax deduction that you have taken out of your paycheck, so it’s 100% your money. You can use this money to be reimbursed for your and/or your spouse and/or dependents’ out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision and/or prescription expenses during the benefit plan year (July 1 to June 30). You can be reimbursed from this account even if all the funds aren’t in your account because the deduction is being taken from your paycheck. If you also have an HRA account, you will have to get reimbursed from this account first before your HRA account. Expenses must be incurred during the benefit plan year, and you can only roll over up to $500 annually. This year the IRS has increased the annual maximum deduction to $2,700. Although when filing taxes, the amount is deducted pre-tax, which makes your paycheck appear less to the IRS, the amount is included in your income reported to IPERS. Also, new this year (beginning July 1), Heartland AEA will pay the monthly flex medical account fee ($43.20) for employees. Who participates in flex medical? Employees who have the $750 deductible health plan because they don't have an HRA to use for their out-of-pocket expenses. Employees who want the pre-tax deduction. Employees who have the $1,500 deductible health plan, but who don’t want to use their HRA because they are trying to build it up for retirement use. Employees who are going to have a large medical or dental expense and want to pay the bill immediately but want to spread the total cost across their paychecks. How do I determine how much to deduct? If you are new to flex medical, you can try an annual deduction of $500 to see how much or if you would actually use it without fear of losing any of that $500 if you don't have any costs during your first benefit plan year (since $500 will roll over into the next year). You can also use the 121 Benefits calculator and/or the “What If” calculator on the Employee Dashboard > Employee Online to see how the deduction would affect your paycheck.
Registration is now open for the Hit Your Stride Challenge. This 45-day team wellness challenge is focused on increasing the number of steps you take. No matter your current fitness level, Hit Your Stride is a fun way to connect with your co-workers while increasing your activity level. Whether you create your own team or join an existing team, you can expect 45 days of motivational tips, new friendships, increased activity and lots of fun! Register for the challenge today! Last Challenge of the Year! Note that Hit Your Stride is the FINAL challenge offered for the 2018-19 Wellness Program, so if you have two challenges completed, you will need to complete this challenge or the Money Makeover challenge (if you haven't completed the MM already) in order to complete the three-challenges requirement. If you have only completed one challenge to date (and as long as it is NOT the Money Makeover challenge) then you can still complete this challenge AND the Money Makeover challenge in order to complete the three-challenges requirement.
If you weren’t able to attend these Wellness Lunch & Learn sessions, check out the video versions of them over lunch, on the treadmill or wherever works for you! Four Oaks Foster & Adoptive Family Connections Presented by: Kai McGee & Kaci O'Day-Goldstein, Four Oaks
March 2019
Staying Healthy, the First 100 Years
Presented by: Dr. Andrew Clement, Chiropractor, Clement Chiropractic
Feb. 2019
Heartland AEA offers employees the opportunity to voluntarily save for retirement by participating in the Iowa Department of Administrative Services’ Retirement Investors’ Club (RIC) 403(b) and/or 457 plans. You are eligible to participate in these plans whether or not you are actively contributing to them. Some highlights of the RIC plans are:
The minimum contribution is $12.50 per pay period.
You have the option of pre-tax contributions (before state and federal income taxes are computed) and/or post-tax Roth contributions. You should work with your financial advisor to determine what is best for your retirement planning. If you want to model the effect of the tax savings from a pre-tax investment, go to the Employee Online tab on your Employee Dashboard and click on the “What If” calculator and enter the amount of your pre-tax contribution. This will show you how making the contribution on a pre-tax basis will affect your paycheck. The post-tax Roth investment is designed to offer tax savings at the time of withdrawal and not at the time of investment.
The Agency does not offer matching funds, but it is still very beneficial for you to start saving for retirement, even if you are only able to start with a small amount.
For 2019, the maximum amount you may contribute per year is 100% of your compensation up to $19,000. Also, if you are 50 or older, you may contribute an additional $6,000. In some cases, you may also be able to make additional catch-up contributions. A calculation is required to determine if you’re eligible for this special provision.
There are three basic steps to start participating in the RIC plans:
Create an account with one of the plan investment providers.
Make your investment election (how you want your money invested).
Complete Heartland AEA’s Election Form to start your payroll deduction (forms can be found under the 403(b)/457 section of the Employee Online tab of your Dashboard).
To learn more about the 403(b) plan, visit this Retirement Investors’ Club webpage, and to learn more about the 457 plan, visit this Retirement Investors’ Club webpage. Use the left-hand navigation to find more information about these plans. This Notice is not intended as tax or legal advice. Employees are encouraged to contact their financial advisor or tax professional with any tax or legal questions. If you have any questions about participating in these retirement plans, contact Steve Jordan, Senior Payroll Specialist, at ext. 14908.
Watch this recorded webinar from our friends at LifeWorks as a Lunch and Learn and earn credit towards any Lunch and Learn in the Wellness Program AND learn more about what’s available through LifeWorks, our EAP provider! Get some tips on their new Perks platform and see that they offer more than you thought!
Starting the week of April 1st, Google will be launching a new “Priority” page in Google Drive as a new way to help you stay focused and get work done. This page will help you access the files you need through a combination of suggestions and workspaces. With the new Priority page, not only are the most relevant files served up to you, but you can take action on them, as well as sort them into workspaces. This new feature should make accessing your most important files easier and help you work more efficiently. You can access the Priority page from the left-hand navigation panel in Drive. Some features you’ll see on the Priority page include:
Priority
Here you’ll see the documents Google thinks are most relevant to you right now. These machine-learning-powered suggestions are based on various signals from your activity. On each suggested document, you can also take actions in line, without navigating to the doc in question, like replying to a comment or reviewing recent edits.
Workspaces
In Workspaces, you’ll be able to see intelligent suggestions of related content to group together for easier access—like multiple files related to the same project.
You can also create your own personalized Workspaces collecting any files you have access to, including content stored in your My Drive and various Team Drives.
Right-click on any file and select Add to Workspace to dynamically group files as you work.
If you’re working at a location other than a Heartland AEA office and need to access the Employee Dashboard, there’s now a way to do so via the Internet.
In April, we will again be asking you to upgrade the operating system on your computer to macOS Mojave. In preparation for that upgrade, the Internal Technology Department would like to remind you to perform regular Time Machine backups of your computer. Here are the steps for performing a backup in case you need a refresher:
Connect your power cord to your computer if you have a laptop.
Plug in your external hard drive to your computer and wait for the icon to appear on the desktop.
Click the Time Machine menu item on the menu bar at the top and choose Back Up Now to start your backup.
If you want to monitor the progress of the backup, you can choose Open Time Machine Preferences from the Time Machine menu item to see more details. You can also click the Time Machine menu item and it will detail what’s happening at the top of the menu.
Once the backup process has completed, you can drag the hard drive icon on your desktop to the Trash to safely eject the disk.
If you have any questions or need assistance, contact Mike Permann at ext. 14767 or Marquis Jones at ext. 14618.
