The Channel

Congratulations to new River Hills principal, Mike Lonning, for being featured in the September 2 Waterloo Courier. Thank you for representing AEA 267 and River Hills School so positively.

There is a major rearrangement taking place in the Clear Lake Special Education area. The staff will now be arranged by discipline. It has been a huge undertaking for all of the affected staff, as well as for the custodial staff, technology staff, and even the local telephone company. Staff have been patient while dealing with interrupted telephone and voice mail service as well as being displaced while carpets are cleaned and furniture is relocated. Since a few of the staff have relocated from the Clear Lake office to a location in one of their schools, and while all of the telephone work is being completed, please don’t hesitate to check with the receptionist or any of the Special Education secretaries in Clear Lake who will be happy to assist anyone having trouble reaching staff members.

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met at 6:00 p.m. on September 3, 2008 at the AEA 267 Conference Center in Cedar Falls for their regular meeting.

During the meeting, the board:

Heard a review of AEA 267 finances for 2007-2008 from Director of Finance, Dennis Scudder.

• Accepted with regret the retirement of Lois Hoffman, Work Experience/Transition Specialist (Waverly-Shellrock), effective December 31, 2008 and the resignation of Barbara Gransee (Eldora), School Psychologist, effective as soon as a suitable replacement is found. Motioned to hire Cassandra Wheeler, 1.0 FTE Teacher of Multi Disabilities (Gladbrook-Reinbeck MS); Lacey Brakebill, 1.0 FTE Teacher of Early Childhood Sp Ed (Denver Elem.)
• Heard and approved the Second Reading of Board Policy # 405.10: Adoption Leave
• Heard and approved the Second Reading of Special Education Policy Revisions; updates of a  variety of AEA 267 Board Policies related to special education
• Renewed the Partner Contract with Exceptional Persons for the provision of Early Access Services
• Approved the agreement with Mercy Medical Center-North for Educare Instructional Programs in which AEA 267 provides a special education teacher and an instructional assistant for the Educare classroom on a part-time basis
• Approved LEA Transportation agreements
• Approved the agreement with Grant Wood AEA for support of E2T2 projects
• Accepted a grant from the R. J. McElroy Trust
• Selected Charlotte Upah as delegate and Daryl Lind as alternate to the IASB Delegate Assembly.

AEA 267 print and production staff are doing a masterful job of keeping up with requests at this busy time of year. Still, there are simple things we can all do to make their job easier. Whenever possible, and especially given this time of year, please remember to provide ample lead time in requests.