The Channel

Will this be how educators respond to the AEA/DE Customer Feedback Survey? We think so!

The annual AEA/DE Customer Feedback Survey, which provides educators we serve with an opportunity to share feedback about our services, launches on Monday, March 7. Traditionally, our agency has enjoyed an enviable return rate on the survey (typically around 40%), which makes the data very useful.

Please encourage teachers and school administrators you work with to respond to the survey. They will be receiving a link to the survey via email.

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met March 2, 2011 at 6 p.m. in the Cedar Falls Conference Center for the regular board meeting.

During the meeting, the board:

• Heard a program review by Beth Strike, AEA 267 Communications Specialist, on the results of the AEA System Communications Audit.
• Accepted with regret the retirements of Joan Greenlee, Teacher of Behavioral Disorders (Carey Elementary – Waverly); and Connie Collins, Teacher of Multi Disabilities-Resource (Durant Elementary – Sumner), both retiring at end of 2010-11 school year.
• Motioned to hire Gregory J. Koppes, Special Education Principal (Castle Hill School) effective May 2, 2011.
• Authorized administration to seek bids on a 19-passenger bus for preschool programs.
• Approved renewal/amendment of ICN contract for internet services.
• Approved reciprocal transportation agreements between:

1. Mason City and Rockwell-Swaledale
2. Mason City and Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock
3. Mason City and North Central (Central Springs)
4. Mason City and Nora Springs-Rock Falls

• Heard a variety of reports from directors and fellow board members.

What’s happening with respect to cuts in education funding in Iowa? How will the agency be impacted if severe budget cuts are imposed by the legislature? How will programs and services be impacted? AEA 267 Chief Administrator Roark Horn answers these questions and others in this special update.

What cuts are being considered?

• The House has passed House File 45 which proposes to cut state government spending by $48 million in the year ending June 30, and $496 million more over the next two years. The bill includes a $10 million cut to the AEA system–beginning in this fiscal year–and in years to come.
• The Governor has proposed a $20 million cut to AEAs in his proposed budget.
• It projected that the education will be given between 0-2% allowable growth in spending.
• $1.6 million in ARRA (American Recovery Reinvestment Act) funds will no longer be provided beginning in 2011-12.

Resources and advice on contacting your legislator

• To find your legislator, go to the Iowa Legislature’s website at http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/find.aspx
• If you plan to share stories or your political opinions with any legislators, do NOT send it via agency email. Use your own personal email account. It is against the law for AEA employees to lobby the legislature using agency email or stationery. Also, do not send any such messages during agency work hours, as that would also be a violation of the law.
• Tell your own personal story about how the cuts could impact the services you provide or the children, families and educators you serve. Personal stories have a far greater impact than any “template” or form letters.

More tips for contacting legislators:

• Be sure to identify yourself each time you meet a legislator. Legislators and their staffs meet many people during the session. They cannot be expected to remember who everyone is and it’s embarrassing to put them in that position. Until you are on a first-name basis, be sure that you identify yourself, your AEA, and remind them of your special interest.
• Know your legislators, their party affiliation, area of expertise, geographical area served, and committee assignments. Take time to get to know each one from your area personally, and be aware of political ideologies. Keep a notebook on legislators’ past votes and the positions taken on issues. Keep a list handy of home and office phone numbers.
• Know who’s got the power. Since it is virtually impossible to become acquainted with all legislators you should concentrate on who is in leadership positions. Every legislature has a leadership structure, legislators who can dictate how others will vote and how legislation is worded. These are the people to know!
• Keep track of where your legislation stands. No legislator can keep track of the status of all proposed legislation. While you may be interested in one particular bill, the legislator cannot afford that luxury. It becomes your job to know the status and components of the bill that concerns you. You should know where that bill is at all times, sub-committee, full committee, on the calendar for debate, etc. By having this information, you are not only perceived as being knowledgeable, but also a help to the legislator and that’s the name of the game.
• Be brief with your appeal. Legislators are busy people, and your case is not well served by overstaying your time or by writing too long a letter. Follow up periodically; a reminder is helpful. When talking with a legislator, NEVER give misleading facts. Once you lose credibility, you will seldom win it back.
• Show your appreciation. Legislators are human and appreciate strokes like anyone else. Commend them for a favorable vote and urge others to do so, too. Be quick to commend and slow to criticize.
• Combat negativism. Inevitably you will find a legislator who does not support your position. Don’t give up. Keep the door open. Sometimes legislators change their minds when they learn more facts. Once you see their minds won’t be changed, remain just as cordial as before. There may be more votes in the future, and legislators have good memories.
• Contact legislators year-round. It’s very difficult to build relationships with legislators when you see them once or twice a year and only when you need their help. A quick visit or periodic phone call on their home turf can pay dividends in the end.
• Personal letters should be specific and in your own words. Letter-writing campaigns with identically worded contents are not very effective. Letters will most likely be read if the envelope is plain white and hand-written. Never use pre-printed labels.
• Legislators do scan newsletters, especially eye-catching ones. A good strategy is to group in one section articles you particularly want them to read. Do this every time, and they’ll get in the habit of looking there.
• That dirty word Money! When an issue comes up, and legislators are suddenly surrounded by people wanting their votes, most legislators wonder where all these suddenly concerned people were during the election. In other words, provide financial support to candidates who share your views. If you can’t contribute money, contribute time to aid them in their campaigns. This, too, will be remembered.

-Wayne Haddy, AEA Government Relations Specialist

(Revised January 17, 2011)

The agency Polycom units continue to be the most popular way for agency staff to conduct planning and other types of meetings. To maximize the effectiveness of this valuable technology, a new set of resources have been added to the staff website under “Tips for Polycom Use.” Kudos to Cheryl Carruthers and Deb Culp for the work that went in to developing these helpful documents!

Learn more about the tools available to you on the staff website (username: aeastaff/password: aea267ia) to help tell the AEA 267 story.

Recently, the AEA Communications Committee conducted a communications audit to gather perception data from a variety of audiences about AEA services. Legislators, higher education officials, educators and parents were all surveyed. Here’s a summary of what the data found:

• Contrary to the common belief that “people don’t know what the AEA does,” a theme across every audience was a high level of awareness about the AEA system and its purpose. This should be celebrated! Each audience indicated a high level of agreement with knowing the purpose of the AEA and an awareness of key services provided such as special education and teacher professional development. Over 800 parents from within the bounds of AEA 267 responded to the survey. Less than 20% of parent respondents identified themselves as parents of children receiving special education services.
• When the data from the AEA Customer Feedback Survey was reviewed, it was noted that an extremely low percentage of respondents indicated that they did not use AEA services because they were “unaware” that services existed. Of those that said they were “unaware”, many of these respondents represent areas where AEA services have been more lightly focused (fine arts, PE, etc.).
• Fewer respondents agreed that the AEAs were cost-efficient or could make the connection between AEA services and student achievement. This is a critical finding and key to focusing our communications efforts.

We need to continue to educate people about the role we play in boosting student achievement and the value of our services. We need “success stories” to share! Contact Beth Strike today with your ideas.

Finally, if you have an opportunity to speak to a group of laypeople about agency services, please be aware of the resources available to you in telling our story.

Visit the new Iowa Future website today.

A new website devoted to promoting the need for innovation in education has recently launched. Iowa Future was developed in collaboration with five state education groups (Iowa Association of School Boards, Iowa Department of Education, Iowa State Education Association and School Administrators of Iowa) along with Iowa’s AEAs. The work is supported by a grant from The Wallace Foundation and content writing and collection has been going on for several months.

In addition to promoting the need for innovation, the site is a forum for sharing ideas from across the state and nation, and highlights work underway to prepare students for the future. It will provide videos, discussion guides, presentation templates, testimonials, links to resources and more. In addition visitors can offer fresh ideas of their own.

Are you signed up to receive email alerts for agency weather announcements from Iowa School Alerts? If so, you may have experienced some delays last month in receiving your messages. Agency IT staff worked closely with technicians from Iowa School Alerts to unravel the problem, which turned out to be an error in the amount and timing of messages sent out by Iowa School Alerts. Adjustments have been made and you should see a vast improvement the next time announcements are sent. A huge thank you to Bryan Knecht, Information and Technology Manager, for working diligently to improve the situation! Please contact Bryan directly if you continue to have problems receiving the messages at work.

The Board met February 9 at 6 p.m. in the Cedar Falls Conference Center for a Public Hearing on the proposed 2011-12 AEA 267 budget. After adjourning the Public Hearing they returned to the regular board meeting agenda.

During the meeting, the board:

• Heard a presentation by Dr. Anne Sullivan (with assistance from Administrative Cabinet members) on a proposed remote and temporary worksite program pilot.
• Accepted with regret the retirements of Linda S. Williams, Special Education Principal (Castle Hill & Coordinator of Birth-3) effective May 31, 2011; Diane Eilers, Itinerant Teacher of Hearing Impaired (Marshalltown); Sandy Pippert, Teacher of Behavioral Disorders (Four Oaks, Mason City- Gerard); David Kobes, School Psychologist (Belmond-Klemme Jr/Sr High School); Terry Eygabroad, Consultant for Mathematics (Marshalltown), all effective end of 2010-11 school year.
• Accepted with regret the resignations of Moria Brown, Teacher of Art (Bremwood School); Dana Drum, Teacher of Behavioral Disorders, (Bremwood); and Sylvia Phommalinh, Teacher of Early Childhood Special Education (Castle Hill).
• Motioned to hire Susan Doehrmann, Teacher of Multi-Disabilities/SCI (Clarksville Jr/Sr).
• Approved the 2011-12 AEA 267 Budget.
• Approved the agreement for Administrative Services of AEA 267’s 403B Plan.
• Approved the 28E agreement for the Statewide Online Professional Development System.
• Heard a reading of Amended Board Policies:
• Minor changes were recommended in their policies: 1.) 101.2 – Comprehensive Equity Policy; 2.) 101.2R1 – Comprehensive Equity Complaint Procedure.
• Noted the receipt of letters from Clarksville, Tripoli, and Allison-Bristow/Greene  Community School Districts, indicating their desire to discontinue as a member of the Special Education Pool, effective June 30, 2011.
• Approved SBRC application for 2011-12 prepared by Dennis Scudder.
• Heard a variety of reports from directors and fellow board members.

With more and more agency staff members purchasing so called “smartphones” (Droids, iPhones, etc.) for their own personal use, an increased expectation has been placed on our Information Technology staff to configure the devices to receive agency email. In a perfect world, our agency would have the capacity to keep up with all the requests. Unfortunately, given the myriad of brands, models and carriers and the amount of time involved in troubleshooting each device, IT staff are simply not able to keep up with the demand. Given this, the IT staff will no longer be expected to configure personal phones or computers. If you would like to receive agency email on your personal smartphone, please contact your service provider or store where you purchased the device for support. As a reminder, remote access to agency email may or may not be supported on smartphones through the Outlook Web Access at https://email.aea267.k12.ia.us/. You should be able to check your email through any web browser.

Check out the new Iowa Educators Consortium products and services for 2011 . 

Dr. Mary Stevens, Iowa AEA Taskforce member

As you may be aware, a statewide taskforce has been meeting since August to review the present mission, structure, governance, and funding of the Area Education Agency system to ensure that our system’s current model is meeting the challenges and requirements of 21st century learning (House File 2295 & Senate File 2376). The taskforce was comprised of representatives from the Iowa Department of Education, Area Education Agencies, Iowa Association of School Boards, Iowa State Education Association, School Administrators of Iowa, local school districts, a parent or guardian of a child receiving special education services and the chairpersons and ranking members of the Senate and House standing committees on education. AEA 267’s Dr. Mary Stevens represented the Special Education Directors on the taskforce.

The final report, which will be reviewed by the legislature later this month, contains recommendations for enhancements to the AEA system in a variety of areas including:

• identifying core services for each AEA to deliver
• redesigning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the current system of delivery to eliminate the achievement gaps in Iowa
• providing specialized support teams
• implementing a statewide accountability system and steering committee.

A copy of the full report will be available on the agency’s website when it goes to the legislature later this month.

Did that headline grab your attention? Of course you make a difference! Every day, AEA 267 staff members are doing incredible things to improve the lives of children and families and/or positively impact teaching and learning where they work. Beth Strike, your AEA 267 Communications Specialist, needs to hear from you so that she can publicize your efforts and continue to build advocacy for the AEA system. As a new Governor and Education Director (see related article) take the helm in Iowa, now more than ever AEA success stories are needed.

What makes a great success story? Stories have a better chance of attracting news media interest when they meet one or more of the following criteria: (1.) the story is current; (2.) there is a local angle; (3.) well-known organizations or people are involved from the community–could be a partnership we have with another organization; (4.) there is something “unique” or different about the story (this really helps!); (5.) the story has a “human” element to it to grab the reader/viewer’s attention (perfect for the type of stories we have to share); (6.) there is some conflict involved (typically not stories we like to involve ourselves in); and/or (7.) the story topic presents something completely new.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

• What has happened in the past month, six months or year that is new, different or relevant in the way the service or program you are involved in is delivered, received or administered?
• Can we provide a case study (with names) of a student, family, teacher or AEA staff person that exemplifies an agency service/program? Keep in mind that we need people who are very willing to share their story.
• Have you won a significant award in your field?
• Can a development in one of our services tie into a well-known week, day or event?
• Do you have a well-known expert coming to speak to educators or others?
• What significant projects are we partnering with other organizations on?
• Is there a trend that we could provide comment on?

Remember to contact Beth Strike to make all contacts with the news media. Your story ideas are welcome!

Jason Glass, recently appointed director of the Iowa Department of Education

Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Reynolds have named Jason E. Glass as the new director of the Iowa Department of Education. Glass, 39, is currently the senior director for human capital strategy at Battelle for Kids, where he provides policy leadership and technical consulting to state departments of education and school districts in implementing comprehensive human capital strategies, including strategic compensation systems, evaluation systems and the use of multiple measures to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning.

Glass’s previous experience includes the director of human resources for Eagle County Schools, where he was director of all human resource functions for the more than 900 district employees. He also spent a number of years working within the Colorado Department of Education, and is a former high school social studies teacher.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science, and a Master’s in both Education and Political Science, all from the University of Kentucky. He is scheduled to receive his doctorate in education from Seton Hall University in March of next year.

“I feel very fortunate to accept this position in a state where education has been, and continues to be, a priority,” said Glass.  “To all the educators in Iowa, you have my admiration and I honor your noble service in this sacred and important work. Our efforts to meet the challenge of this global economy and post-industrial era must come on two fronts, innovation and improvement. I pledge to work closely with Iowa’s policy makers, community leaders, and most importantly its talented and dedicated educators in meeting the challenges before us.”

Approval for participation in an AEA 267 professional development offering or for request reimbursement for materials will be done electronically through the following process:

1. Open up an Internet browser on your computer (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.).
2. Go to:   www.aea267.k12.ia.us
3. Under Quick Links, click on Professional Development then Internal PD Request (AEA 267 Staff)
4. Enter the email login and password information you use for your AEA 267 email account. (Note that the login is everything before the @ symbol in your email address.)
5. Click on Create a New Request
6. Choose your Type of Request:

• I am requesting approval to take a course and need a purchase order number to register.  This is for non fee-based credits (AEA 267 PD and No Credit).  You will receive a purchase order number and will register for the AEA 267 PD offering using that purchase order number.

• I am requesting approval to take a course and plan to request reimbursement for material fees.  This is for fee-based credits (graduate, licensure renewal, substitute authorization and paraeducator).  You will receive approval to register and you will then register using your credit card.  Your credit card will be charged for the credit and the materials.  You may request reimbursement for materials through the same process by uploading your invoice onto the system after registration.

All steps in the request process will be done electronically. This system is set up to communicate the status of your request through emails sent to your AEA 267 email address.

Please, do not send any materials reimbursement requests directly to the Business office. Please call your Service Area contact for clarification or additional questions.

Service Area contacts:

• Cindi Helgeson, Information Technology
• Sue Hotzel, Administration
• Keri Hudson, Special Education
• Barb Schroeder, Educational Services