Author: Beth Strike

Thanks to those who responded to the evaluation of our all-staff meeting day held last month. Here are the results and some common themes:

• 80% of respondents viewed the meeting and activities as a good use of their time. We do understand that we have a wide variety of staff with different roles that we ask to attend. We don’t do it often, but getting everyone together, and celebrating the return of all the staff and the beginning of the school year is important. We will keep working to continue to improve the experience for all staff.
• Over 80% of our staff found Tamara Konrade’s keynote message relevant to either their personal or professional lives (and in many cases) both.
• Over 95% of staff indicate that they plan to participate in the new Navigate wellness program.

Over 200 team members shared a commitment for the 2019-20 year. It was exciting and inspiring to read them. Check them out for yourself!

Ideas shared for future consideration or common themes:

*Include a coffee truck

*Consider raising the temperature in the room

*Earmark more time to be in our disciplines

*Add more food trucks during lunch

*Project the speaker on all screens

*Consider a later start date 

Again, thanks for your feedback!  Although we can’t make it a perfect experience for everyone, we will use the feedback to make continual improvements.

If Tamara and Halee’s keynote inspired you last month, stay INspired by signing up to “Get INspired Weekly,” a short provocative email to keep the ABC’s of a healthy life and culture in front of you. Yes, I want to Get INspired Weekly!

A new expense reimbursement form is available on the portal under My Toolbox > Expense Reimbursement > Reimbursement Req Spreadsheet. You may have to click on “Enable Editing” at the top of the spreadsheet when opening. You will submit both Educator Quality (EQ) and regular travel expenses on this form and enter them as one expense reimbursement request. Expense reimbursement requests should be submitted monthly. View the new “how-to” video for more detailed instructions. For more information, contact the Business Office.

Internal job openings will be posted on the main announcement page of the iVisions Portal as jobs become available for transfer within the agency. External job postings will be available on both the website under Careers and through the TeachIowa system. The Human Resources department will no longer be sending emails regarding open positions to help cut down on the amount of email staff receive.  

We are excited to announce that we have contracted with a company called Navigate for our agency health and wellness program for this year. A committee of staff vetted various vendors and selected Navigate as the best third-party provider to help us achieve our health/wellness goals. Representative staff then worked with Navigate to develop the web and mobile-based platform of activities.

Navigate plays off the popularity of challenges (we had a great response to “wellness bingo” last year) but through a more tailored and efficient format. It also gives staff greater control over customizing the types of challenges that help them meet their own personal goals. 

More information about Navigate and related initiatives will be shared during our All-Staff meeting next week. Get ready to “navigate” your way to greater wellness!

Mark your calendars now for the all-staff meeting being held on Tuesday, August 13 at the Cedar Falls Conference Center. Registration and social time will begin at 8:30 am with the meeting to begin at 9:00 am. The keynote presenter in the morning will be Tamara Konrade from INspired Leadership.

Regional and departmental meetings will take place in the afternoon and lunch will be on your own. A food truck from Chick-fil-A will be on site for your convenience or you can enjoy one of the many nearby restaurants.

More information and a detailed agenda will be sent closer to the date. Be sure to check your email.

There are new legislative changes coming to the Mandatory Reporter training. We will be adopting curriculum from the Department of Human Services for training starting this summer.

• The Child Abuse and Dependent Adult Abuse trainings will be separated and updated information from the BoEE clarified that educators will need to take BOTH the Child Abuse and Dependent Adult Abuse trainings.

• Each of those trainings will move to a three-year expiration. Currently, it is five years; however, current valid certificates are not affected. If a person took a training yesterday, his/her certificate is still valid for five years from completion. At that point when he/she renews, this next certificate would be valid for three years.

The changes went into effect on July 1. Please reach out to Shirley Horak in Human Resources if you have questions.

As we look to the future for the 2019-20 school year, our EQ process will change. A couple of years ago, we had a large surplus in EQ, and we worked with the EQ committee to create a plan that would enable us to support professional development and “spend down” the balance. This was the time when we added the ability to submit individual hours. Since we have achieved our goal of spending down the balance, this will no longer be an option.

Hopefully, you understand that although the 16 hours is no longer available, that nothing is being taken away. When we crafted this plan, we knew it would have a limited life and eventually come to an end.  Hopefully, the hours these past couple of years provided a little boost in some pay, and an opportunity to grow professionally.

Executive Directors Dr. Julie Davies and Amy Knupp worked with Regional Administrators and Discipline Leads to identify needs and to allocate EQ dollars that support our agency directives and initiatives. They presented their plan to the EQ Committee, and it was approved. Please review the identified budget allocations to learn more. Feel free to contact your supervisor if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Summer hours will begin on Monday, June 10 and run through Friday, August 9. Official office hours will be 7:30 am – 4 pm during that period. If you are going off contract for the summer, please ensure that your voicemail greeting and “out of office” email message indicate who is handling inquiries in your absence along with when you plan to return. Enjoy your summer!

We were recently informed that the Board of Educational Examiners (BOEE) is no longer providing districts with access to a reporting system that allows Human Resources (HR) to search for expiring licenses. Therefore, we will have to rely on staff to provide HR with a copy of/or notification of an updated BOEE license. In turn, we will be still be able to send out notifications that your license is coming up for renewal.

In order to see what is on file in the HR office, please check your status in the Portal under My Personal Information>Personal Information. Since many staff have not provided HR with a copy of their license, we are in the process of updating these licenses from the BoEE website. However, if the dates are not up-to-date, it could mean your license is current but HR was not given a copy of your renewed license. We will continue to update the portal with the BoEE website as time permits but it is an employee responsibility to keep his/her license up-to-date. Reminders are sent out as a courtesy. If you have any questions, please contact the HR office.

 

The Central Rivers AEA Board of Directors met on Wednesday, June 5. Board agendas and minutes can be found online. The next scheduled meeting will take place on Wednesday, July 24 in the Cedar Falls Conference Center.

Hanover Research, a global market research and analytics firm, recently released results of an independent survey of Iowa’s educators regarding the services of Iowa’s Area Education Agency (AEA) system.

Over 8,000 responses were generated from an invitation to general education teachers, special education teachers, superintendents, principals, and other professional staff working in more than 300 public schools and over 100 non-public schools. The data was collected over a period in the late fall of 2018.

Central Rivers AEA had 1,229 respondents fill out the survey. Key findings for our agency revealed that educators are extremely pleased with AEA services overall in the areas of special education; educational services; and instructional media, Creative Services, and technology. Many services received over 95% customer satisfaction rates (defined as meeting or exceeding expectations), including audiology/hearing services; vision services; due process-mediation support; science support; support for teacher-librarians; teacher leadership support; math support; literacy support; licensure support; early childhood support; media services; and Creative Services.

Two areas of growth indicated by the survey were behavioral help services and mental health services, which are growing concerns in schools statewide. As you know, these are two areas where we are continuing to bolster our support and advocate for additional funding.

Thank you for your commitment to Central Rivers AEA and providing excellent customer experiences! We should all be extremely proud of how highly our agency is regarded by those we serve. We already knew you were doing a great job…and the data agrees!

Please feel free to review the Hanover Research executive summary regarding the survey.

The agency will be holding the spring update meeting during the all-region meeting on May 22 in Cedar Falls. For those not required to attend the all-region meeting, a Zoom link will be made available. Please check May’s issue of The Channel for the time of the update, Zoom link, and details for the rest of the day.

The open enrollment period for insurance will be April 22 through May 12. Even if you do not take insurance, you must go through the open enrollment process. Tools to help you make an informed decision, including the interactive scenario tool, Alex, will be available on the staff portal in the near future. Look under My Benefits>2019-20 Insurance Information.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to Michael Kalvig or Karl Kurt.

Help celebrate Administrative Professionals Day on April 24 by taking the time to recognize our outstanding office support staff. We couldn’t do what we do without them!