Author: lthomas

Just a friendly reminder that calculating mileage remains the same as in previous years. As you might recall, a committee comprised of staff and administration developed a proposal last spring to address concerns with our current mileage policy. While the proposal had merit in addressing some of the issues, continued conversations led to a decision to discontinue plans for implementation. Thus, the current mileage policy has remained in effect with no change.

One of the new features of MackinVIA makes the creation of individual accounts or backpacks even easier using Google accounts. Most of our school districts, including Central Rivers AEA, use a Google domain for our e-mail and productivity tools. Media Services is working with our school districts to encourage the creation of backpacks for students and staff to increase the instructional power of the MackinVIA resource. So, since we are encouraging our schools to use the Google integration feature to create backpacks, Media Services decided to create backpacks for all of Central Rivers AEA staff using the new Google integration!

All staff now have an individual account created within the MackinVIA eBook portal. To access your account, you go to MackinVIA.com, enter Central Rivers AEA Staff VIA, Cedar Falls, IA (the location will pop up after typing in a few characters) in the top box labeled “site” and the screen will prompt you to login with your AEA Google login.  Having a backpack within MackinVIA will allow you to use the underlining, highlighting and note-taking features within the eBooks and also will allow for downloading to your Google Drive, making assignments within Google Classroom and downloading eBooks for reading/listening offline on any device you might use.

All of the schools that you support have access to MackinVIA, so please consider using these eBook resources in your work with students and LEA staff. MackinVIA contains a wealth of resources for teaching and learning! Please contact Cheryl Roberson or Cari Teske if you have any questions about using MackinVIA in your work with students and teachers.

A few reminders from the Human Resources (HR) office:

September 15 is the deadline for notifying HR of intentions to change lanes on the salary schedule (This applies to Certified staff only). Also, all professional licenses must be kept current. If you renew your license, just send an email to the HR office that it has been renewed. Our staff will look up your license on the BOEE website and update our records accordingly. 

The first month of the Own It! challenge has ended with over 300 submissions. Great work! The Human Resources office recently sent the new link to submit your September Bingo. Individually we have done a great job, now let’s make sure to help another staff member achieve a Bingo.  Replace “I” with “we” and you turn illness into wellness. Let’s goooooo!!

The Educational Directory for 2018-19 has been updated and can be found on the agency website under About.  In addition, a downloadable pdf of the directory can be found on the staff website under Resources. If you would like a printed copy, please contact your region’s administrative assistant.

To protect yourself and others, the CDC recommends that people get a flu vaccine by the end of October, if possible.  It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body that will protect against influenza.  However, getting vaccinated later can still be beneficial even into January or later.

The agency will not be offering an on-site flu shot clinic this year. However, you can receive a flu shot at your physician’s office as well as walk-in flu shot clinics at urgent cares and many local retailers.  

Act now to receive a great deal from Wellmark Blue365.  Sign up before September 30 at a participating location and have the $29 enrollment fee waived and pay just a $29 monthly fee (3-month commitment required) for access to a network of 10,000 gyms.

Whether your goals are physical, such as losing weight and maximizing energy, or emotional like dealing with stress and improving your mood, a gym membership can help you meet your goals, on your budget and do it all on your own time.

As a reminder, cell phone reimbursement applications for the 2018-19 school year need to be submitted by the end of day on Friday, September 7th. The request form can be found on the Staff Website > Communications > Cell Phone Reimbursement. Cell phone reimbursement requests are approved when the use of cell phones are appropriate and necessary in an employee’s role to provide effective and efficient operations for the agency. Payment will be made to employees on September 28.

As a service to staff, representatives from the Iowa Public Employee Retirement System (IPERS) will be stationed at the Cedar Falls office on Monday, Oct. 15 through Thursday, Oct. 18 for individual IPERS counseling sessions.

Monday, October 15 has been reserved for Central Rivers AEA employees only. If Monday does not work for you, you may schedule an appointment on another day but be aware, those appointments will fill up fast as they will be available to the public. Monday appointments start at 3 pm and run through 5:30 pm. Tuesday – Thursday appointments will be during the day.

If you are interested in making an appointment for Monday, Oct. 15, you may call the IPERS number anytime (1-800-622-3849) to schedule an appointment and be sure to identify yourself as an agency employee.

Please refer to the IPERS website for additional information. You can always schedule an appointment in Des Moines by calling 1-800-622-3849.

We have received official notification from Dr. Tom Lane, Executive Director for Iowa’s AEAs, that language calling for an AEA reorganization will not move forward in any bill during the 2018 legislative session. We understand that some legislators heard from their constituents about the impact an AEA reorganization could have on services to Iowa’s students, families, schools, and communities, and they have stricken any language mandating a change in our system design this legislative session. Therefore, the AEA system will remain at nine entities and not move to the proposed seven.

We remain focused on what is best for Iowa’s students, families, and schools. The AEA chief administrators continue and strengthen our commitment to begin work on improving our collective service quality, parity and efficiencies and will continue to contract with Dr. Susan Leddick to facilitate discussions around this work when we convene in June.  

This announcement provides Iowa’s AEAs with an opportunity to study, reflect and determine an action plan to meet the changing needs of our districts while continuing to seek efficiencies and sharing opportunities across the AEA system.

A first reading of a proposed revised mileage policy (including regulations) was presented to the Central Rivers AEA Board of Directors at their May meeting. The policy will be considered for action in June. The rationale for adjusting the policy was to ensure compliance with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations as well as improve and maximize our use of limited agency resources.

The current board policy was somewhat unstructured and resulted in annual costs that were significantly higher than comparable AEAs. The agency needed to make changes but also wanted to ensure that any changes were reasonable and fair to our staff. To that end, the Business and Human Resources departments worked with a mileage committee comprised of various staff members to help improve upon our thoughts/proposal.

The amended policy is a more fiscally responsible policy that better addresses some of the issues that we had previously. However, we do know that the revised policy will have a negative impact on some of our staff who were able to correctly apply the previous policy to their benefit.

Here’s how the new policy is different from our previous policy: For most staff, the old policy asked you to designate a permanent starting point for all of your professional mileage (e.g. the Cedar Falls Office). You started your professional mileage from that point even if you did not actually start from that location each day. For those that live close to their “starting point”, this allowed them to claim professional mileage with nearly no commute miles deducted. It wasn’t truly an accurate picture of the day’s professional travel.

The new policy dictates that the first point you travel to for work (from your home) is your commute. If that point is under 30 miles, those miles will not be considered reimbursable. Anything over 30 miles will be. The policy is based on an expectation that your drive from home to work is your commute and should not be a reimbursable expense for the majority of staff. Having a daily commute of 30 miles to and from work is in line with national averages, and is regarded as a reasonable expectation. If your first starting point is over 30 miles, those miles beyond the first 30 will be reimbursed at an “excess commute” rate of $.45 per mile.

From the organizational standpoint, paying for commute miles is not a standard practice that you would find in the large majority of public or private entities, and it needed to be adjusted. In many cases, the closer you lived to an office the greater your reimbursement. This was deemed to be unreasonable. Therefore, this practice has been discontinued. While the main intention of the corrected policy was not merely to save funds, it is realistic that it will provide cost savings to the agency.  It is our intent that any savings will be applied to increasing FTEs and improving salaries and benefits for our staff.

The agency will continue to reimburse all intraday business mileage.

The above text is a brief introduction to the policy, additional information can be found below. Time will be devoted to the discipline meetings in May for further review of the new policy and procedures including time for questions. For those staff members not involved in discipline meetings, please see your supervisor for clarification.  If you have any questions, please contact Sbrown@centralriversaea.org in the Business Office.  We will be using your questions to create an FAQ.

Additional Resource: Mileage Policy PowerPoint Slides

Congratulations to Sam Miller who recently released a book on leadership, co-authored with Todd Whitaker and Ryan Donlan. “The Secret Solution: How One Principal Discovered the Path to Success” follows the journey of Roger Rookie, a new principal, in his quest to become a fair and effective leader. Through the ups and downs of his first few years, Roger learns what works and what doesn’t when it comes to leading people well.

Congratulations, Sam!

The all-region meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 23 in Cedar Falls. Registration and social time begin at 8:30 with the meeting to begin at 9:00. An agency-wide retirement celebration honoring all of our retirees will be held in the morning. A Zoom link for the retirement ceremony is available for those who are not required to attend the meeting in person in Cedar Falls.

A preliminary room schedule for each regional and discipline team has been created. However, be sure to check back before the day of the meeting as there may be changes made. Dress for the day is professional casual and lunch will be provided for those required to attend the meeting. If you would like, bring a pair of walking shoes to enjoy the trail, weather permitting.