The Channel

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met in a retreat prior to their regular board meeting this month to discuss plans for recruiting a new Chief Administrator and Assistant Chief Administrator/Director of Personnel for the agency. The board received proposals from four professional search firms and will meet by conference call on January 18 to select firms to interview. Interviews will take place on January 27 and a selection will be made so that the search can officially begin as early as February 3. It is believed that a new Chief Administrator and Assistant Chief Administrator/Director of Personnel will be in place by July 1, 2010. As shared before the holiday break by email, both Dr. Dean Meier, Chief Administrator and Dr. Ralph Bartelt, Assistant Chief Administrator, will retire effective the end of this school year.

In other business, the board:

• Accepted with regret the retirements of Rob Coates, School Psychologist (St. Ansgar High School); Stan Hanus, School Psychologist (Cedar Falls); and Marjorie Krull, Teacher of Behavioral Disorders (Bremwood) all retiring end of 2009-10 school year.
• Accepted the 2008-09 Audit Report from Dennis Muyskens, Hogan-Hanson auditor. It was noted that AEA 267 had no areas of non-compliance and Business Office staff are doing a tremendous job of managing agency finances.
• Heard the proposed  2010-11 budget from Dennis Scudder, Director of Finance and approved publication in local newspapers prior to the February public hearing.
• Approved participation in 2010 Iowa Drug and Alcohol Testing Program (IDATP) for bus drivers.
• Approved the 2010 Extended School Year Calendar.
• Noted the receipt of a letter from Grundy Center Community School District indicating their membership in the Special Education Pool will end on June 30, 2010. AEA 267 will work cooperatively to implement an effective transition.
• Heard a variety of reports from directors and fellow board members.

Barb Ruiter, Special Education Secretary serving the Forest City office was recently notified that an article she had written about her love of paperdolls would be published in the March issue of Paperdoll Review Magazine, a quarterly publication. “I’m excited to be published again,” said Ruiter, a former writer with the Mason City Globe Gazette. She is also the author of several stories including Pink is Perfect for Pigs, a children’s book published several years ago. She currently shares her love of writing and paperdolls through guest speaking in area schools. Congratulations, Barb!

AEA 267 staff members representing the Special Education records department in Cedar Falls donated personal care products (cologne, Chapstick, deodorant, shampoo, nail polish, lotions), winter wear (socks, gloves, hats, scarves), food, and more to students at AEA 267 Devonshire school. The donation provided a needed boost to the school store and students were able to use their behavior points to stock up on items before the winter break.

Another recent donation came from Hartman Reserve Nature Center. Staff there requested help from naturalists and park rangers across the state for new and gently used books for the AEA 267 Devonshire library. The response was tremendous and the school received over 900 books. Also donated were five bookcases and a check to buy additional books. Students helped move the boxes of books into the school and were requesting check out before they were even inventoried.

“The generosity of folks across our state blows me away,” said Paula Goetz, AEA 267 Devonshire principal.

With the 10% across-the-board cut plus declining enrollment, I’ve shared some perspectives about our future in past editions of Intersections.  A couple people replied wondering if an early retirement incentive might be the magic bullet or at least a piece of the solution.  One person pointed out that early retirement incentives are used by some LEAs.

AEAs are funded quite differently than LEAs.  An LEA covers the cost of the early retirement incentives with a special property tax levy called the Management Levy.  There is no control or ceiling on this levy.  AEAs do not have that option.  An early retirement incentive comes right out of the General Fund.  AEAs need to be very careful that an incentive program doesn’t actually cost the Agency more money.

The AEA 267 Board believes there is little financial advantage to our Agency if we implemented an early retirement incentive.  We believe we can manage the current economic crisis with a thoughtful and gradual reduction in our workforce, accomplished primarily with retirements and other attrition, over the next two to four years.  This belief does not guarantee there will not be some lay-offs, but for the most part, lay-offs can be avoided and certainly will not occur in large number.

–Dr. Dean Meier, AEA 267 Chief Administrator

Much has been reported in the news regarding the 10% across-the-board state cut and other economic problems in our state. Since many of you know that education is 45% of the state budget, it’s natural to start thinking about our situation as an agency and the challenges that may be ahead for us. Many people are wondering just how much money our agency has lost and how we can sustain our current level of service after withstanding a $1.5 million cut.

The answer is, we can’t. Simply put, with a $1.5 million across the board cut, declining enrollment, lagging state revenue and stimulus funds going away after next year, we will have to do things differently.

(Click on the video below to watch Dr. Dean Meier, AEA 267 Chief Administrator, discuss our agency’s budget situation and possible solutions.)

What’s likely to happen?

• We will need to reduce the budget for 2010-2011 and beyond.
• We will accept retirements without refilling positions in the majority of cases, which will help greatly.
• We will need to trim non-personnel related expenses such as travel, equipment, supplies and energy use wherever possible.
• The 2% allowable growth established by the legislature will likely be adjusted downward.
• Major budget cuts (10% across-the-board this year) will continue into the foreseeable future.
• We will still deliver excellent services to the children, families and educators we serve.

What may happen?

• Some forced layoffs could occur depending upon the number of staff retirements.
• We may not have allowable growth next year.

What likely won’t happen?

• We won’t have salary reductions or furloughs the current year.
• We won’t make knee-jerk reactions to the situation.

As an AEA employee, we’re sometimes asked questions that we may have NO clue how to answer. Or we’ve heard something about that topic in one of our meetings but don’t have a clear answer.

One topic that continues to bubble up is the line item in a school district budget that indicates AEA flow-through dollars. Since AEA funds appear in the local district’s Aid and Levy Worksheets, it has led some people to the mistaken belief that these funds belong to the local school district.

When the Iowa Legislature created Iowa’s Area Education Agencies in 1975, it also created a separate funding stream for the AEAs specifically to fund its services. No school district dollars were ever reduced or reallocated in the creation of the AEA system funding.

With no direct taxing authority, AEA funding had to appear on some other entities’ books for accounting purposes. Because AEA funding is based on per pupil allocations tied to local district enrollments, funding shows up as flow-through funds from each individual district in the area. The AEA budget in total was, and still is, intended to be used to provide mandated services throughout the region for all of the public and private schools not for individual school purposes.

In February 2009, the Fiscal Division of the Legislative Services Agency issued this statement after its review of AEAs: “the method of distribution of AEA funding is strictly for accounting purposes, the school district budget is not impacted.”

The AEA flow-through money is intended to equalize, as much as possible, educational opportunities for all schools, both public and accredited nonpublic, within an AEA region. Without the cooperative services of the AEAs, inequities between school districts would increase and learning opportunities for students would vary greatly. AEAs require the allocated funds to provide equitable educational opportunities. Any reduction in funding would impact the ability of the AEA to provide mandated services to the districts.

The flow-through money is not, and has never been, district money. To allow those dollars to be “rolled-over” into a single district budget would result in harm to the group.

As ambassadors of Area Education Agency 267 and Iowa’s Area Education Agencies, please feel free to share this information when the situation arises.

The front page of the AEA 267 website will have a new appearance come Monday, December 7. While all your favorite links to the best instructional content will still be visible, they may be in a new spot to accommodate more space devoted to news, professional development offerings and AEA 267 service features. The new front page was developed in response to agency needs assessment data that show that educators want more information about what the agency has to offer and how services can meet their needs. Take a sneak peak at the new site today at http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/new/

The 2009 AEA 267 River Hills School Holiday Program will take place on Friday, December 11, at 9:30 a.m. In the event school is cancelled, the rescheduled date will be Monday, December 14, at the same time. The school is located at 2700 Grand Boulevard, Cedar Falls. AEA 267 River Hills School is a public sponsored special school for students with moderate, severe, and profound development disabilities. The school serves students from birth through age 21. It is operated by Area Education Agency 267 and funded through participating local school districts.

Please change your voicemail greeting and set an away message to your email during the holiday breaks so that callers and/or e-mailers will know when they can expect to hear from you.

Voicemail Example:

“Hello, this is (your name).  Our office will be closed beginning Friday, December 25 and reopen on Monday, January 4.  Please leave your name, telephone number and a detailed message and I will call when I return.  Thank you!”

Email Away Message Example:

Thank you for your email.  I will be out of the office beginning Friday, December 25 and return Monday, January 4 and will respond to your email upon my return.

If you need assistance with either task, please visit with your administrator.

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met at 6:00 p.m. on December 2, 2009 in the AEA 267 Conference Center for their regular meeting. (The board met at 3 p.m. for a retreat to discuss the budget, progress on the AEA 267 Clear Lake Office remodeling project and the AEA 267 River Hills boiler repair project.)

During their regular meeting, the board:

• Heard an update from Dr. Jon McKenzie, Director of Assessment and Comprehensive Improvement; and Dr. Carol Sensor, Special Ed Coordinator of Services Improvement and Special Programs, on the support programs provided by AEA 267 to Schools in Need of Assistance (SINA) and Districts in Need of Assistance (DINA).
• Motioned to hire Brynn Brass, Teacher of Multi Disab-SCI/Teacher of Early Childhood Sp. Ed. (Castle Hill).
• Approved the lease/purchase agreement with Larson Construction for the Clear Lake remodeling project.
• Approved the second reading of Board Policy No. 801.2: Use of Copyrighted Material Policy.
• Approved the second reading of Board Policy No. 703.1: Gifts to the Agency.
• Approved the purchase of a replacement boiler system for AEA 267 River Hills School.
• Approved the renewal of the agreement between the Early Childhood Programs of Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation (NICAC) and AEA 267.

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

Want more interesting trivia about our agency staff?

• We have approximately 175 vacancies a year.
• Women outnumber men in the Agency 7:1
• There are 46 certified staff with either a Doctorate or Ed Spec.
• 127 classified staff either have their BA degree or a Para Educator License

Jamie Osterbuhr, AEA 267 Teacher of Multi Disab SCI

AEA 267 Teacher of Multi Disab SCI, Jamie Osterbuhr, was among nearly 80 Iowa educators nominated for an Excellence in Education Award sponsored by the Iowa State Education Association, the Farm Bureau, WHO Radio, Staples, and KDSM Fox 17.

According to the Allison Bristow CSD & Greene CSD newsletter, “The Bearcat Clause”, Osterbuhr was recognized as an educator who “goes above and beyond and touches her students lives in ways that she will probably never know.”

AEA 267 employees are eligible to receive a personal cell phone discount as part of a State of Iowa contract with four wireless service providers: AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon. Eligibility, discounts, and identification requirements vary with each cellular provider. For details go to the Iowa Educators Consortium (IEC) website and select Teacher and Student Discounts and see which provider has the best discount for your cell phone needs.

If you have already applied for a discount from U.S. Cellular and your e-mail address has come back as “invalid,” you can call (800) 819-9373 and reference the discount code you used when you applied for the discount (PED1008 or 4AB90). Contact Sue Hotzel at 319-268-7659 for further information.

Sarah Knudsen, Dr. Mary Stevens, Justin Stockdale and Beth Strike at the IMT Des Moines Marathon on October 18.

Four AEA 267 employees ran in the IMT Des Moines marathon last month as part of a team that raised over $25,000 for the Ed Thomas Foundation. Thomas, a teacher and coach with the Aplington-Parkerburg Community School District, was gunned down in June, allegedly by a former student. The team, known as Team Thomas, was coordinated by AEA 267 Bremwood principal, Justin Stockdale, and his brother, Matt. Over 30 runners took part including Dr. Mary Stevens, AEA 267 Area Director of Special Education; Sarah Knudsen, AEA 267 Special Education Coordinator; and Beth Strike, AEA 267 Communication Specialist. Stevens, Kundsen and Strike participated in the half-marathon while Stockdale ran the full marathon. (Amazingly, Matt Stockdale ran the marathon twice within a nine-hour period as part of a promise to the team to motivate fund raising efforts!)