Author: lthomas

The Central Rivers AEA literacy conference is scheduled for June 13 & 14 to be held in Cedar Falls. A powerful roster of speakers is scheduled including Timothy Rasinski, Antonio Fierro, Deborah Reed, Barbara Golub, David Kilpatrick and Jim Burke. Important topics such as foundational skills, fluency, word study, vocabulary, the reading-writing relationship, and reaching English learners will be addressed. Staff is encouraged to attend. Fill out a travel request in Ivisons and register now!   

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Richard Dickerson. Richard passed away on Friday, February 23. He was a valued member of the Central Rivers AEA team and will be greatly missed.

Richard first came to us as a special education teacher and then worked as a transition specialist. Following retirement, Richard worked part-time as a van driver for the Media department.

Please keep Richard’s family and friends in your thoughts as they go through this difficult time.

Welcome back to another exciting year for our agency as we are now “officially” Central Rivers AEA!  

The purpose of this communication is to provide you with some important details as you prepare for Monday’s all-staff meeting at our new location at 1521 Technology Parkway in Cedar Falls. (Please be sure to read the following carefully as hard copies of this information will not be provided.)

Please review the agenda for the day, including details for the afternoon’s meetings. Note that while sign-in begins at 8:30 am, we are asking that all staff have their photo taken before our 9 am start time or during the morning break. Thus, staff members within the Cedar Falls region are encouraged to come as early as 7:30 am to have their photo taken early and help alleviate congestion.

Carpooling with other employees to defray mileage expense and help to ease parking concerns will be critical. If you are in the Clear Lake or Marshalltown Office, carpooling arrangements have been organized by either Chad Pinkston (Marshalltown) or Dr. Carol Sensor (Clear Lake). Please reach out to one of these individuals if you have any further questions. Parking at 1521 Technology Parkway is available in all of the main building lots (upper and lower) along with both sides of the street on Technology Parkway.

Plenty of staff members will be available to help guide you at our new site. In addition, floor maps will be available on several monitors for you to refer to throughout the day. Lactation rooms are available for those who may need them on the lower level. Maps of both the upper and lower levels are available to download for your convenience. 

Dress for the day is professional casual (shorts, flip flops, polos, etc. are all acceptable). If you would like, bring a pair of walking shoes to enjoy the trail. We hope you will look forward to learning, great food, team building, and door prizes. It’s going to be a great day!

Cell phone reimbursement applications for the 2017-18 school year will be accepted now through September 15, 2017. The request form can be found on the Staff Website. Payment will be made to employees on September 29, 2017. 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 of Central Rivers AEA.

Please remember to submit applications 6-8 weeks prior to an expiration date (or prior to when a new license is needed). Background checks can take 4-6 weeks, in addition to the time the Board of Educational Examiners office needs to process the request. Educators cannot remain on the job, even if their materials have been submitted if their license expires.

Due to our name change, there is a change in staff username/password to access our digital resources, such as any of the Iowa AEA Online resources, MackinVIA or Literary Reference Center.  Central Rivers staff username is now: crmedia. The password is: craea.

For our school district partners, their username will remain the same for digital resources, but the password does change to: craea.

Please contact Cheryl Carruthers, Deb Culp or Cari Teske if you have any questions about media resources available to you and the schools that you serve.

The Department of Education is transitioning to a new statewide data system for K-6 literacy through FASTBridge Learning. To help school districts with this transition, comprehensive training via webinars and regional face-to-face meetings are being offered now through the end of October. These training slots are limited and information needed to register for the training is being distributed to district participants by their principals or superintendents.

Here are a few key answers to recent questions the DE has received about the training and the transition:

• The DE has the capacity to train a few people from each school or district, and the expectation is that the people who receive training will use the available resources to help train others in their building.
• The DE is still considering how to collect screening data from schools not using the FAST system.  
• The screening windows for 17-18 for all schools (other than the three Iowa year-round schools) are defined by the IDOE and shall not be changed by the district:

Fall: September 11 to October 6

Winter: January 15 to February 9

Spring: April 23 to May 18

The Department will provide ongoing communication and support throughout this important transition. AEA Staff who are interested in more frequent updates can sign up to receive regular Early Warning System email updates.