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
Happy April! I’d like to grab your attention for a moment in order to share with you the results of the Hanover Research Survey that was conducted with educators in our state last fall. As you will remember, in late Nov. 2018, Iowa’s AEAs invited educators across the state to provide feedback on the services provided by Iowa’s AEAs. Hanover Research, a global research firm, administered the survey and has now provided the results to our AEAs. According to Hanover, the survey has less than a 2% margin of error, indicating they expect the results to be within 1 to 2% of what they would be had we surveyed the entire target population. The Details Statewide, over 8,000 responses were received from general education teachers, special education teachers, superintendents, principals and other professional staff working in more than 300 public school districts and 100 accredited, non-public schools. Over 95% of the respondents work in public schools across the state. In the Heartland AEA service area, 1,116 stakeholders from our 53 public school districts and 30 accredited, non-public schools completed the survey. The Results Key findings from the data revealed that our customers are pleased with AEA services overall. Some services received well over 90% customer satisfaction rates, including audiology/hearing, due-process mediation, licensure, audio/video production and graphic design. Two areas of growth indicated by the survey both statewide and locally were behavioral services and mental health services, which we know are growing concerns in schools statewide. I encourage you to read the Iowa's AEAs Hanover Survey Executive Summary, as it is an easily digestible summary of the rationale for the survey, a breakdown of the respondents and the statewide findings. Our intent at the statewide AEA level was to see how familiar educators are with the services we provide and to see how well those services met the expectations of those who use them. We were able to look at how both familiarity and satisfaction data differed by district size and as well as by respondent demographics. You will have an opportunity to look at highlights from the statewide and Heartland AEA data sets at upcoming regional and Central Support meetings, but I want to summarize them quickly from my perspective. We Have a Lot to Celebrate First and foremost, Heartland AEA and Iowa’s AEA system as a whole have a lot to celebrate in these findings. The 1,116 Heartland AEA area respondents are largely familiar with and satisfied with the services we make available to districts. In general, respondents in smaller districts have greater familiarity with more services than do those of larger districts, though the margin is small. Heartland AEA’s survey data is very consistent with that of the statewide data when it comes to both familiarity and satisfaction. Those positive results are a credit to the many excellent, hardworking people we have here at Heartland AEA. The second quick takeaway I have is that our state AEA system is on track with the new priorities we’ve established. The two areas where respondents were more likely to rate services below meeting expectation are mental health supports and behavior supports. It’s important to note here, though, that even in these service areas, we see 75 to 80% of respondents stating that our services meet or exceed expectations. Given the overall condition of children’s mental health in Iowa, I would consider that data to be a very encouraging starting place, and that’s a credit to the AEA staff who have worked and will continue to work to help schools and families dealing with the growing issues related to mental health and challenging behavior. So stay tuned for an opportunity during our spring meetings to dive a little deeper into the survey results. Let’s hope the sun is shining a little brighter by then! Thanks for all you do, Jon
At Heartland AEA, we define culture as “the way we do things around here.” It’s about our collective behaviors that are driven by our individual assumptions and beliefs. This matters because our collective behaviors lead to our results. Culture is often confused with climate, which is “the way we feel about the way we do things around here.” Obviously, both culture and climate are important. Is it possible to shape our culture (the way we do things around here)? Absolutely! And we have been actively working to shape our culture over the past several years. In the spring of 2012, 2013 and 2014, our agency administered the Denison Organizational Culture Survey to a stratified sample of our staff, and in 2016 and 2017 and 2018, the survey was administered to all agency staff. The Denison Survey is designed to assess an organization’s strengths and weaknesses as they apply to organizational performance. In past years we’ve also included various modules in the survey including those that measure trust, commitment and consistency. Dan Denison, author of the Denison Survey, offers this brief video about the culture model. What do we know about our results? Over the years we’ve administered the Denison Survey, our agency saw what the Denison consultants call “textbook progress.” In other words, our efforts have impacted our assumptions, beliefs and behaviors (the way we do things around here), which in turn is reflected in more positive survey results. This was made possible by our collective input, suggestions and actions. What’s next for you? It’s time to update our culture survey results once again.
The full Denison survey will be administered in even-numbered years, and a portion of the survey that measures specific traits from the Denison circumplex will be administered in odd-numbered years. This schedule was put in place to continue to monitor our culture indicators over time.
Three years ago, after analyzing all survey data, APC selected the consistency trait as an area of focus, as scores in that area were lower than scores in the other three areas.
As we continue to work toward greater consistency across the Agency, the Consistency module of the Survey will be offered to all staff.
The survey is scheduled to launch on April 22 and will close on May 10, 2019.
From EMC Insurance We all know drowsy driving is dangerous, but just how dangerous is it? According to the National Safety Council:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), reports about 100,000 crashes each year involve drowsy driving, while the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that there are actually many more, with up to 328,000 drowsy driving crashes annually
NHTSA estimates that fatigue-related crashes cost $109 billion each year, not including property damage
Driving while drowsy is similar to driving after drinking; driving while not having slept for 20 or more hours has an impact similar to driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08%, which is the U.S. limit
These startling statistics reveal a severe problem facing drivers across the country. Factors that contribute to drowsy driving:
Untreated sleep disorders.
Too many hours on the road with not enough resting time along the way.
Working long hours on the job and then driving home (this is especially a problem with night-shift and swing-shift workers, whose bodies can’t fully adjust to time changes).
Driving while on medication that has drowsiness as a side effect.
A few steps you can take to minimize the chances of falling asleep while driving:
Get adequate sleep (a minimum of 7-8 hours every night).
Know the signs of driving drowsy—difficulty focusing, yawning or drifting toward the shoulder or center line. If you find yourself doing these things, pull off the road and rest.
Find handouts, webinars and more information from the National Safety Council.
EMC Senior Engineer Jim Stotser warns drivers not to rely on rumble strips on roadway shoulders and center lines to save you if you are driving drowsy. “Those strips are a slight deterrent to accidents, but oftentimes by the time the car runs over those strips, the driver is already asleep and it’s too late to change course,” Stotser says.
You can check your biometric screening off of your list! But, what's next? Hy-Vee Registered Dietitian Ashley Danielson will walk us through a breakdown of the numbers you received during your screening. She will cover how you can improve those numbers with food, exercise and stress reduction. April 24, 2019 11:30 a.m. Johnston REC, Conference Room 152 Available via Zoom and will be recorded
Our annual benefit enrollment is open to all full-time and 96-day employees from April 1 through April 30, 2019 at 4 p.m. for the 2019-20 benefit year, which begins July 1, 2019. Full-time employees may enroll in health and dental insurance and medical flex spending plans, while part-time staff (96-day) may enroll in the medical flex spending plan. (Note: This enrollment period is not for the dependent care plan, which is done in November.) You will need to make enrollment selections even if you choose not to make any changes to your benefits for next year. This is the time you can add and/or drop family members to your health and dental plans without a life event or change of status. Annual enrollment time is also the only time during the year you can change your deductible—you aren't able to do that during the year, even with a life event or change of status. How to Enroll Enrollment can be completed through the Employee Online tab of your Employee Dashboard. If you have any issues enrolling, first try logging out of the Employee Dashboard and then logging back in. You can also use these enrollment instructions, which include instructions on how to print your benefit statement. VOYA Life Insurance Enrollment 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 your coverage, but if you 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, 2019.
Each week during the Iowa legislative session, we will bring you an AEA Legislative Update from the Iowa’s AEAs legislative advocacy team. April 12, 2019 Legislative Update
The Agency is preparing to upgrade all of its Mac computers to Apple’s current operating system, macOS 10.14. Having all staff using the same operating system will enhance our security and simplify the process of providing support. Later this week, you will receive an email with detailed instructions about how you will perform this upgrade. This will be a fairly simple process, but it will take some time. For example, if a new computer is being upgraded in our Johnston offices, the process could take as little as 30 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 you’ll receive later this week 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 10.14 by May 10, before the rush of the end of the school year.
If you have any questions, contact the Internal Technology Team.
