The Channel

By now, you should have received your invitation to the all-staff “welcome back” meeting to be held in your area. If not, just a reminder about the following dates:

• Tuesday, August 16, Cedar Falls area staff (AEA 267 Cedar Falls Conference Center)
• Friday, August 19, Marshalltown area staff (AEA 267 Marshalltown Office)
• Monday, August 22, Clear Lake area staff (AEA 267 Clear Lake Office)

Meetings begin with social time at 8:30 a.m. followed by greetings from leadership team members, including a budget update from Dr. Roark Horn, AEA 267 Chief Administrator. Meetings will conclude by 10:30 a.m. See you there!

While you may not have been at the Iowa Education Summit held last month, you can still watch videos of the speakers involved! Visit the AEA 267 Eduvision site and search for “Iowa Ed Summit” to watch replays.

As of July 1, the agency will no longer use the news media as one of the channels for announcing office closings or professional development cancellations. Information will still be shared in the following ways:

• Under “Latest News” on the agency’s website.
• Cell phone text message or email from https://schoolalerts.iowa.gov/, an automated web-based service. Sign up today!
• The official agency announcements line at 1-866-923-1089.

This change was made due to the frequent inconsistency in how the news media handled messages and the popularity of the more reliable forms of communication above. If you were a person who previously relied primarily on the news media for your announcement information, please make plans now to adjust to the change!

More accurate location information has been added to the searchable staff directory available on the agency’s website. (The classification information was removed since it often created confusion.) Please search for yourself in the directory and ensure that the information we have for you is accurate. Contact Roxanne Colling, AEA 267 Personnel Specialist, to report a discrepancy in your information. If you have not had a staff photo taken, please contact Beth Strike, AEA 267 Communication Specialist, so that your photo can be added as well.

A new video has been produced to raise awareness among new teachers about the services AEA 267 can provide for them. While not every service is covered (that would be a nine-hour video instead of nine minutes!), the video highlights many of the basic services new teachers should know about. The video was posted to the AEA 267 Eduvision channel and was shared with all superintendents to use during new teacher orientations. New teachers also received a special publication to accompany the points in the video.

The agency’s two new Site Superintendents have had a busy summer orienting to their new positions. Both Julie Davies, AEA 267 Site Superintendent for the Clear Lake Office, and Kim Neal, AEA 267 Site Superintendent for the Marshalltown Office, are working hard to get to know staff, the facilities they serve and be of service to both internal staff and external partners. Stop by and say hello if you have a chance! Formal introductions will take place at the all-staff meetings later this month. (See related article.)

Profiles for both Julie and Kim are available on the staff website.

(Login: aeastaff/Password: aea267ia)

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met August 10, 2011 at 4 p.m. in the AEA 267 Administrative Service Center for a closed session of the Annual Professional Growth Conference with the Chief Administrator. The Audit Committee met at 5:15 p.m., followed by the regular meeting at 6 p.m. at the Conference Center.

During the meeting, the board:

• Viewed a video presented by Beth Strike, AEA 267 Communication Specialist, aimed at new teachers. The video was produced to raise the awareness among new teachers about AEA 267 services.
• Motioned to accept a variety of resignations, retirements and hires.
• Decided to keep the current mileage reimbursement rate of $.37/mile as it is competitive with other AEAs and public agencies.
• Approved the Physical Therapy contract with Pruckler Physical Therapy.
• Accepted the Excellence in Education Enrichment Grant of $25,730 from R.J. McElroy Trust.
• Approved the transportation agreement between EPI, INRTC and AEA 267.
• Reviewed Board Policy 405.8 – Personal Business Leave and heard Dr. Anne Sullivan’s presentation of recommended changes per master contract negotiations.
• Heard a variety of reports from directors and fellow board members.

An AEA 267 Foundation meeting was held immediately following the AEA 267 regular board meeting.

Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) will ask voters to renew its $.20¼ Plant Levy on the Sept. 13, 2011, school election ballot.  According to IVCCD Chancellor, Dr. Chris Duree, this is not a new tax but a 10-year levy, which has been in place for 32 of the last 35 years.  All of the 15 community colleges in Iowa currently have this levy, including Iowa Valley.

“The Plant Levy provides funding primarily for utility costs and for maintaining, remodeling, improving and expanding community college facilities,” says Duree. “The levy is for 20¼ cents per $1,000 taxable assessed valuation. That means, for example, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would continue to pay about $20.25 per year, or about 5 cents per day if the levy is renewed.  The levy impacts property owners in all of the high school districts we serve.”

Voters approve this levy for a 10-year period.  The levy is paid by property owners in Marshalltown, West Marshall, East Marshall, BCLUW, AGWSR, GMG, Iowa Falls-Alden, South Hardin, Hubbard-Radcliffe, Gladbrook, South Tama, Grinnell-Newburg, BGM, and Montezuma school districts.

Iowa Valley Community College District operates Marshalltown Community College, Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa Valley Continuing Education, and Iowa Valley Grinnell.

(This message published as a courtesy to Iowa Valley Community College Districts as a public information service.)

While we wish we had more to report to you regarding legislative action and education funding, there still has been little progress down at the state capitol. The following report from Wayne Haddy, Iowa AEA Government Relations Specialist, provides the latest:

“It has been awhile since a report was sent out and in reality there has been very little to report.  I’d like to say there is an end in sight, but unless something changes quickly it does not appear that there is.

On June 8, House Republicans are bringing forward an omnibus bill that includes all legislative determined budgets and language dealing with what would be considered “social issues.”  The bill will provide for a two-year budget and included in that budget is a growth factor of 0% for the next fiscal year and 2% for FY 2012-13. Unfortunately, the bill also includes a $20 million cut to AEAs for each of the next two years. Unless something unexpected occurs over the next day or so, we fully expect the bill to pass.

We have met with legislative leaders and have prepared a great deal of information detailing the impact of such cuts.  It does not seem to have made any difference on the House side as they continue to pursue the Governor’s recommendation of $20 million.

We are also assuming at this point that the Senate will either refuse to consider this bill or will take it up, reject many parts of it and send back to the House.

Also, on Monday, Brent Siegrist made a presentation on the impact of the cuts to the Senate Education Appropriations sub-committee.”

Wayne Haddy, AEA Government Relations, 515-249-0740, whaddy@gwaea.org

The AEA 267 Personnel Office appreciates any updates from you regarding home address, phone number, etc. so that the staff database remains current. Please contact Shirley Horak at 319-273-8245.

Although this is the last official Intersections until August, you can keep up with AEA 267 news by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook! (Please remember that when you “Like” AEA 267 on Facebook, it does not mean that the agency Facebook page manager can view your Facebook site, thus your summer vacation pictures are completely private!)

The sunshine and warmer weather have arrived and so have summer hours. As of Monday, June 6 AEA 267 will observe summer hours in all agency offices. Hours will be 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. until August 12.

Please keep in mind that the office will be closed on July 4th in observance of the July 4^th holiday.

If you are going off contract for a length of time this summer, please be sure that your voice mail telephone greeting and email account vacation message indicates to callers and senders when they can expect to hear back from you and who to go to for immediate assistance.