The Channel

Mark your calendars! Our first all-staff meeting as Central Rivers Area Education Agency will be held on August 14 at our new headquarters at 1521 Technology Parkway in Cedar Falls! We will start the day with social time and registration from 8:30-9 a.m. and are are planning a fun day complete with recognitions, inspiration and “edutainment” by Monte Selby. A detailed agenda will be sent out closer to the actual date. Plan to end the day by 3:30 pm or before depending on work group.

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met Wednesday, May 3, 2017 in the Cedar Falls Conference Center. The board packet is available online and the minutes will be published online after approval at the next month’s board meeting.

Kirsten Moore walks off the pounds on the walking desk in the Cedar Falls office.

Congratulations to Kirsten Moore, who has achieved great success in her fitness efforts. After signing up for a fitness course in 2015, Kirsten began to modify her diet and then began using both a standing desk and the walking desk in the office. Over time she has lost a total of 15 pounds!

Are you curious about how the use of a standing or walking desk can improve your health? Contact Karl Kurt, Assistant Chief Administrator/ Director of Human Resources for more information.

The Polar Bears may not have won the challenge, but team members Andy Smith, Laurie Huftalin, Shira Gebel, Sally Wolfe and Edie Penno, went out of their way to make fitness fun! The team participated in the Polar Plunge in the Cedar River to raise money for Floyd County Search and Rescue. Congratulations to the team on winning best costume and to team member Edie Penno who was named “oldest shiver”!

After 10 weeks of dedication to a healthier lifestyle by 14 teams, the results are in. Team rankings are below, along with the average score of participants in each team out of a possible 50 points.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this fun challenge to promote wellness! The fist place team takes home $200.40; the second place team wins $100.20, and the third place team receives $33.40. 

Welcome Melissa Tandy, Regional Administrator for Region 8 beginning July 1, 2017

We would like to take this opportunity to announce a new leadership appointment to support the integrated services model in addition to some new Regional Administrator assignments. The AEA 267 Administrative Cabinet made a decision to identify a “Lead Regional Administrator” whose primary role will be to help ensure unified efforts across our regions, our disciplines, and to help support Amy Knupp in her new role as an Executive Director. The lead will also serve as a liaison to the Administrative Cabinet helping to ensure that goals and actions are implemented with fidelity in addition to monitoring results. Justin Stockdale has been tapped for this new role which will begin on July 1. Congratulations, Justin!

With Justin taking on additional responsibilities, the agency has asked Melissa Hesner to assume his role in Region 7 (Waterloo), reassigned Justin to Region 10, and hired a new Regional Administrator for Region 8.

The agency welcomes Melissa Tandy, currently a Facilitator of Special Education with Grant Wood AEA to the new Regional Administrator position for Region 8. Melissa holds Masters degrees in both Teaching (emphasis in Special Education/Multi-categorical Disabilities; Secondary Education) and Education (emphasis in Educational Leadership). In addition to her role as a Facilitator for Special Education, she has served as a Special Education Consultant, and secondary special education teacher. Welcome Melissa!

These reassignments will take place on July 1. Thank you in advance for your patience, open-mindedness and flexibility during the upcoming transition!

Staff will have a chance to sit down informally with Chief Administrator Sam Miller this month at each of the three sites for an update regarding the budget, leadership transitions, and facility renovations. The dates and locations are as follows and all meetings will begin at 3 pm. Attendance is voluntary. Please plan to attend if your schedule allows.

• Cedar Falls:  Monday, April 24th in the Conference Center, Rooms B & C
• Clear Lake:  Tuesday, April 25th in Room A
• Marshalltown:  Wednesday, April 26th in Rooms A, B, & C

For those who are unable to attend one of the meetings, a recorded version will be available. If you have questions or concerns, please leave those in the comment section of this post and Sam will address those at the meetings and in the recorded version.

A huge thank you to everyone who has worked together to bring the new Central Rivers AEA website to completion. The new website features more streamlined content, a news bureau of both agency and school district news, live chat, quick facts about the agency, and blogs. The site will be launched in May with the roll-out of Gmail (see related article below) and our new agency email addresses. A companion intranet (staff website) is also being completed to launch at the same time. We think you’ll love it!

We are looking for staff members who are willing to author blogs on the new site. Interested? Contact Beth Strike.

The Creative Services staff greatly appreciates the partnership that we have had with our local school partners and staff members over the years to provide printing services. In that spirit, we wanted to let you know about some slight changes going forward.

For those customers who have used our “Digital Storefront” ordering system, it will be discontinued at the close of the day on April 14 and orders will need to be submitted using a simple form found on the Creative Services section of the website. Additionally, the cfprintshop@aea267.k12.ia.us and clprintshop@aea267.k12.ia.us addresses will also be discontinued for receiving orders. Van mail and walk-in orders will still be happily accepted (although we love it when you use the new order form when possible!). This change will help us get to your orders more quickly and streamline work and billing for our staff.

Here are a few tips to make your experience with the new order form a success:

• Before you sit down to place an order using the form, please have all the information in front of you regarding how you would like the order completed including paper color, quantity, finishing details (like stapling, hole punch, etc.)
• If you have an attachment that goes with your order, please note that you will receive an email (after you submit your order) that provides you with a link to upload your attachment. Don’t be alarmed if this takes a minute or two.

Thank you for your business! If you have questions, please direct them to Dave Johnson or Beth Strike.

Ultimately our mission at AEA 267 is to support educators, parents, and the communities we serve as we work together toward one ultimate goal–to improve student learning. As we think about this mission, we want our staff members to work as efficiently and productively as possible and we feel that Gmail and Google Calendar provide opportunities for our staff that they may have not had before.  Therefore, the agency has decided to move forward and begin implementing these tools with all staff yet this spring.  This decision is aligned with all the other Area Education Agencies (AEAs) in the state of Iowa and a majority of the schools we serve.

In order to support staff, AEA 267’s transition team has identified early adopters.  These early adopters will be working with the tech integrationist  team to support the transition. These individuals were moved over on April 10th while all other users will transition to the new system on May 15th.

Communication will be key during this transition, including opportunities for staff to ask questions before the move and access an FAQ page. We will communicate when this process begins and when it is complete, you will also be informed of any implications you may encounter during this transition.  In addition, we will provide multiple opportunities to learn the new system through face to face, virtual, and online tutorials given by our experienced instructional technologists.  A number of those opportunities have already been scheduled and you can take advantage of as many of these opportunities as you would like! Check out the offerings!  Keep an eye out for additional information about this move in the coming weeks.

Our goal is to ensure a smooth transition, and provide the necessary support so that any issues or bugs are worked through by the end of the year.  This will enable us to return from summer ready to focus our time, attention, and energy on providing excellent services to our students, teachers, and families.