The Channel

American Education Week will be observed November 14-20 and is a great time to recognize all of you for the incredible work you do to serve children, families and educators. Please watch your van mail for a small token of appreciation in recognition of your efforts.

Every year, AEA 267 staff members have the option of contributing to the United Way. The United Way is working to advance the common good by focusing on education, income and health which are building blocks for a good life—a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health. If you choose to contribute, please download and print the United Way pledge card and return it Betty Beauregard in the AEA 267 Business Office by December 13, 2010. As a reminder, staff may designate where their contribution is directed; and for those interested, this year the River Hills Foundation has been added as a choice! Payroll deduction is also an option. As always, donations to the United Way are completely voluntary.

Although we’ve had drier-than-average weather and great conditions for travel, winter weather is undoubtedly in our future. Are you ready? Below are some helpful links to review:

Iowa School Alerts sign-up for AEA 267 office closing and PD cancellation notification.

Iowa Department of Transportation Road Conditions

Safe Motorist tips for winter driving

AEA 267 staff webpage on Inclement Weather (login: aeastaff/password: aea267ia)

Julie Trembath-Neuberger, Special Education Administrative Intern, was awarded the “Friend of the Year” award on October 29 from Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services. She was recognized for her enthusiastic efforts in partnering with the organization to assist transition students who have disabilities to prepare for and achieve excellent employment outcomes, which ultimately benefits the labor market needs of our state.

Felicia Hagerstrom, a contracted staff member who assists Waterloo Community School District with Positive Behavior Supports work, recently presented at the 2010 National PBIS Leadership Forum: Expanding the Effectiveness of School-wide PBIS Implementation at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois.  Hagerstrom presented with Dr. Lori Newcomer of the University of Missouri, in a presentation titled, Targeted Support through Social Skills Instructional Groups, Part 2.

Are you on Facebook? Over 500 million people in the world are and AEA 267 is too. Find us on our official AEA 267 Facebook page and follow AEA 267 stories and updates as they occur!

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met in Conference Room G in Marshalltown from 4 – 5:30 p.m. for a board retreat work session with G. Tryon and Associates. The purpose of the work session was to share thoughts and ideas regarding the transition process to new leadership at AEA 267. The board then reconvened at 5:30 p.m. for their regular meeting which began with a transportation appeal between a group of parents open-enrolling out of the Marshalltown Community School District and Marshalltown Community School District administration. The board heard remarks from both parties in the dispute and will take action at a later date upon further consideration of the evidence and pertinent case law.

Also at the meeting, the board:

• Heard a recommendation from Roark Horn, Chief Administrator, regarding the non-union support position of Interim Site Superintendent in the Clear Lake office. Horn recommended Tom Fey, currently superintendent at Rockwell-Swaledale Community School District.

• Heard the First Reading of Board Policies:

401.7 – Evaluation Procedures and Due Process for Non-Certified Personnel

401.7R1 – Classified Employee Evaluation

401.8 – Child Abuse Reporting

401.11 – Transporting of Students by Employees

401.25 Employee Conduct and Appearance

401.26 – Notification of Arrest, Criminal Charges or Child Abuse Complaints

• Heard Dr. Anne Sullivan’s presentation of Amended Board Policies:

041.16 – Substance-Free Workplace

401.16R1 – Substance-Free Workplace Regulation

401.16R2 – Notice to Employees Regarding Substance-Free Workplace

401.24 – Health Insurance, Portability, Accountability Act

402.4 – Employee Purchased Tax-Sheltered Annuities

• Approved reciprocal transportation agreement between:

o   Charles City and Allison-Bristow/Greene

o   North Central (Central Springs) and Osage

o   North Central and St. Ansgar

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

In order to help districts make informed decisions about AEA 267 Iowa Core professional development offerings in the area of literacy, math, and science, three podcasts available for administrators and teachers were posted to the AEA 267 website recently. The purpose of the podcasts is to help district personnel determine, based on their data, whether or not they should have participants attend Iowa Core Professional Development offerings sponsored by the agency. They also help guide educators on who should attend. The podcasts give a more detailed description of what will be learned and expectations for each offering.

In his visits with area school districts, AEA 267 Chief Administrator Roark Horn learned that this type of information was of high value to educators and he began inquiring with AEA 267 staff about how the task could be accomplished. Within days, our folks had risen to the occasion and produced the podcasts. Podcasts can be viewed at http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/icc/index.php?page=Resourcespodcasts
AEA 267 Educational Services consultants Laurie Hayzlett, Chris Quisley, Drinda Williams and AEA 267 Digital Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Deb Versteeg, produced the podcasts on behalf of their respective teams. Astonishing!

The 2009-10 board met in the Cedar Falls Conference Center at 6 p.m. and moved to adjourn the final meeting of the 2009-10 Board of Directors, thanking members for their dedication in directing the agency through another successful year of operation.

The 2010-11 Board of Directors met at 6:05 p.m. for their regular meeting.

During the meeting, the board:

• Elected Charlotte Upah as the President and Roberta Kraft-Abrahamson as Vice President of the 2010-11 Board of Directors. Kerri Wilson administered the Oath of Office to each newly elected officer.
• Appointed Kerri Wilson as Board Secretary and Dennis Scudder as Board Treasurer. Board president Upah then administered the Oath of Office.
• Heard a review from Annalisa Miner and Lisa Wymore on our programs for English Language Learners (ELL). (See related story.)
• Set dates and times for 2010-11 board meetings as the first Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m., with the exceptions of December 8, 2010 and February 9, 2011, on the second Wednesday of those months.
• Approved the Wells Fargo Bank and F & M Bank as depositories of AEA funds with a $10,000,000 and $3,000,000 limit respectively.
• Appointed Steve Weidner as the board’s legal counsel.
• Accepted with regret the retirement of Dr. Bruce Jensen, Area Director of Special Education (Clear Lake) and the resignation of Amy Lungrin, Speech-Language Pathologist (Sector 2), effective as soon as a suitable replacement is found.
• Heard a financial report from Dennis Scudder regarding the 2009-10 fiscal year and a preview of 2010-11.
• Authorized reserving funds in the amount of $150,000 for the Retro Program for workers’ compensation.
• Approved reciprocal transportation agreements between neighboring districts:

• • Forest City and Garner-Hayfield
  • Forest City and Lake Mills
  • Forest City and North Central (Central Springs)
  • Forest City and North Iowa
  • Forest City and Ventura
  • Forest City and Woden-Crystal Lake
  • Garner-Hayfield and Ventura
  • Garner-Hayfield and West Hancock
  • Lake Mills and North Central (Central Springs)
  • Lake Mills and North Iowa
  • Nora-Springs Rock Falls and North Central
  • North Iowa and Woden-Crystal Lake
  • West Hancock and Woden-Crystal Lake

• Accepted the NEA Foundation Learning Grant that was awarded to Karen Mixdorf.
• Heard a variety of reports from directors and fellow board members.

Annalisa Miner and Lisa Wymore, AEA 267 Consultants for English Language Learners (ELL), provided the AEA 267 Board of Directors with an overview of ELL programming during their regular board meeting this month. The board found the following facts and statistics very enlightening! Did you know?

• There are 3,168 ELL students in our agency’s service area
• 43 public school districts have identified ELLs along with two non-publics
• ELLs represent 4.5% of the total enrollment
• 49 languages are spoken in school districts served by AEA 267
• Over 1,100 participants participated in ELL professional development provided by the agency in 2009-10
• Since 1991, the percentage of ELL students in our agency’s area has increased 564.7% or 1,976 students. Since 2001, growth has been closer to 80%.

Annalisa and Lisa do a tremendous job meeting the growing demand for services for this special population of students. Great work!

October is National Physical Therapy month! AEA 267 physical therapists work as part of an intradisciplinary educational team and provide expertise in the areas of mobility, independent skill building, assisted skills, educational and work activities, gross and visual motor development and so much more. If you see any of the AEA 267 physical therapists listed below, please thank them for the important role they play in our agency:

• Mandy Burns
• Robin Charlson
• Judith Dale
• Christa Kelly
• Jaymie Redfern
• Arlys Stevens
• Jamie Van Erem
• Karen Weltzin
• Sarah Schultes

Jennifer Davis, AEA 267 Speech Language Pathologist, will be awarded the Bingham Innovation Award by the Iowa Speech Language Hearing Foundation for her innovative plans to use iPods with students. A $500 cash prize will be given to Jennifer to go toward the purchase of two iPod Touch devices and related apps to be shared by the AEA 267 Speech and Language department. Congratulations, Jennifer!

AEA 267?s Julie Crotty, Consultant for Curriculum Development, will present a ticketed session on brain-based learning at the National Middle School conference next month in Baltimore, MD. Congratulations, Julie!

As of October 1, the agency will no longer rely on Snowcap as our announcement provider for text and email announcements. While Snowcap provided some additional options that served us well, unfortunately, reliability proved to be an issue. Instead of Snowcap, the agency will go back to using Iowa School Alerts, a free, state-hosted announcement system, which many of our school districts also use. If you previously were signed up to receive announcements through Snowcap, please take a few minutes sometime before October 1 to sign up with Iowa School Alerts at https://schoolalerts.iowa.gov/. Downloadable directions for those that want step-by-step directions are available here!

Please note that the Iowa School Alerts system sends emails to cell phones. If you do not have an email enabled phone, you will receive the message as a text. Dependent on your cell phone provider, you may or may not receive all of the message (due to length of message). You should check with your cell phone provider to see if you will be charged for any text messages you would receive (incoming text).

Questions? Contact Jerry Schnabel, Kerri Wilson or Beth Strike for more information.

Members of the AEA 267 crisis team were called into action last week when a long-time elementary teacher in the Grundy Center Community School District died suddenly. Tragically, the teacher was just 36 years old and both students and adults in the school system were understandably impacted. Crisis team members provided counsel and support within hours of receiving the call for help. This service continues to be of great value to schools and team members are to be commended for representing the agency so professionally. Thank you!