The Channel

The board of directors have approved an increase to the agency’s mileage rate in order to be more in line with the other AEAs. The new rate of $0.42 per mile will take effect on July 1, 2022.

Mental health is just as important as your physical health and deserves the same quality of support. We recognize this is true throughout the year, including the summer months.

We want to remind all Central Rivers AEA staff of our, “Reach Out Program.” This program is in-house support, featuring a small group of confidential, trained and empathetic staff who can serve as a first resource for you when struggling with a personal or professional challenge. Our staff support allies are available throughout the summer so please reach out!

• Kandi Bienfang-Lee
• Sarah Downey
• Angie Koop
• Christin Squier
• Monte Phillips

The 2022 all-staff kickoff meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 17 in the Cedar Falls conference center, beginning at 9:00 am with social time at 8:30. The morning will feature an inspiring message by Dr. Tina H. Boogren, a fierce advocate for educators, particularly for their well-being.  Lunch will be provided with regional meetings held in the afternoon. 

Attendance is mandatory for all staff, excluding River Hills and Detention Center staff.  If you are not able to be in attendance for the meeting, please notify your supervisor/HR. 

We look forward to having the opportunity to reconnect, network, and prepare for another incredible new year of service!

Summer office hours, 7:30 am – 4:00 pm, go into effect June 6 – August 5. Reminder that all Central Rivers AEA Offices will be closed Fridays during the months of June and July.

Join us in thanking our board members this month during School Board Recognition Month!   Serving almost 62,000 students, 5,000 educators and over 500 staff members, these nine dedicated volunteers are the backbone of the agency, setting the course for all we do!

• Nicole Lovik-Blaser,  Director District 1 – Districts represented: Central Springs, Clear Lake, Forest City, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, Lake Mills, North Iowa, Northwood-Kensett, St. Ansgar, and West Hancock.
• Dr. Debra Rich, Board President, Director District 2 – Districts represented: Charles City, Dike-New Hartford, Dunkerton, Nashua-Plainfield, Sumner-Fredericksburg, Tripoli, Wapsie Valley, and Waverly-Shell Rock.
• Kathy Enslin, Director District 3 – Districts represented: AGWSR, Alden, Aplington-Parkersburg, CAL, Clarksville, Eldora-New Providence, Grundy Center, Hampton-Dumont, Hubbard-Radcliffe, Iowa Falls, and North Butler.
• Dr. Darshini Jayawardena, Director District 4 – Districts represented: Belmond-Klemme, Mason City, Osage, Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, and West Fork.
• Dr. Mary Stevens, Director District 5 – Districts represented: BCLUW, East Marshall, GMG, Marshalltown & West Marshall.
• Maureen Hanson, Board Vice-President, Director District 6 – Districts represented: BGM, Gladbrook-Reinbeck, Grinnell-Newburg, Hudson, Montezuma, North Tama County, South Tama County, and Union.
• Dr. Tony Reid, Director District 7 – Districts represented: Cedar Falls, Denver, and Janesville.
• Bryan Burton, Director District 8 – District represented: Waterloo.
• Dennis Craun Jr, Director District 9 – Districts represented: East Buchanan, Independence, Jesup, and Waterloo.

We recently made the decision to change our accounting software this summer due to dissatisfaction with the support and cost of our current software. The new software is called Software Unlimited and is used by over 80% of Iowa schools and four AEA’s. The employee portal that we currently refer to as MyPortal, will be converted to Web Link, an accounting portal where items like mileage reimbursement, leave requests and paystubs/W-2’s will be located. Many other Business Office/Human Resources forms will be relocated to the staff intranet which will be given a face lift over the next few months.

Some key things to note with this new software:

• For the majority of you, there will be a slight change in how you request mileage/travel reimbursement, request leave, submit insurance enrollment and view things like paystubs and W-2’s.
• Many of our procedures and forms will be relocated as we are also in the process of “refreshing” our staff intranet site.
• The Time Clock will not change.
• You will receive a separate username and password to access Web Link.

Please be patient as we transition this summer and as always, know that our many support teams (Administrative Assistants, Help Desk, Business Office, Human Resources, etc.) are here to help when you need assistance.

Plan now to join your colleagues for the all staff virtual retirement celebration on Friday, May 27, beginning at 9:00 am. This is a wonderful opportunity to honor our retirees and recognize them for their dedication and years of service to the agency.

This year’s retirees are: 

• Chris Beumer, Special Education Consultant – 23 years
• Denise Child, Speech-Language Pathologist – 33 years
• Georgia Clark, Educational Assistant – 4 years
• Dee Crum, School Social Worker – 26 years
• Dea Ellen Epley Birtwistle, School Social Worker – 37 years
• Dawn Jaeger, School Social Worker – 22 years
• Angie Johnson, Occupational Therapist – 20 years
• Mike Lonning, Principal of River Hills, 35 years – retiring 8-31-22
• Kathleen Olson, Work Experience Coordinator – 5 years
• Diana Schuler, Teacher of Deaf/Hard Hearing – 33 years
• Pat Stenzel, Early Access Educator – 35 years
• Al Takes, School Social Worker – 27 years
• Deb White, Educational Assistant – 2 years
• Deb Wilson, Educational Assistant – 13 years 
• Tom Wise, Van Driver – 4 years

Zoom to join: https://centralriversaea.zoom.us/j/87124894173
Meeting ID: 871 2489 4173
One tap mobile +13126266799,,87124894173# US 

As a reminder, insurance open enrollment closes on May 15, 2022. All eligible employees (including those retiring/resigning) greater than a .50 FTE must complete the open enrollment process, even if you are declining coverage.  This is the only time per year you can make any changes without a qualifying life event.  The new rates and coverage take effect July 1, 2022. 

Use the MyPortal iVisions application in Classlink and go to My Benefits > Benefits Enrollment. Please use a Chrome or Firefox browser and be sure to go through each step carefully.

The zoom meeting recording (Passcode: ws1=VOR.) and PPT are available in The Portal > My Benefits > 2022-23 Insurance Information. 

The agency Equity Committee continues to meet regularly to complete the steps in the audit process. Much of the committee’s work has centered around conducting a root cause analysis to better understand the current status of our equity efforts and identifying “safe to fail” experiments designed to test practices that may move the agency forward toward a desired state. Safe-to-fail experiments are often used when dealing with complex problems (e.g. equity challenges) that often require experimentation to discover promising solutions that cannot be known in advance.

The current working themes from the audit work include:

• Leadership Communication – Central Rivers AEA leadership has an opportunity to make values and actions more visible that support the organizational priority of equity. Two-way communication (e.g. we all have our roles in working toward equity) must be strengthened. We all have to support and engage in the work together to solve problems. 
• Courage and Candor – How might we continue to grow our culture and climate to include more understanding, transparency (marketing & hiring processes), learning and building skills sets in culturally responsiveness and build upon the ability to lean into conversations to deepen people’s comfort level to increase our authenticity in being an equitable and brave work space and carry these mindsets into the systems we serve?  (How do we make these terms explicit?)   
• Professional Learning – We have a current structure for meetings and learning that often creates barriers to deeper learning and progress. There are no structured intentional spaces for discourse that support this learning and the discomfort that comes with growth.  We are lacking clear public articulation of why equity, diversity and inclusion matter to our agency from our leadership. Our focus within the three big rocks does not include much intentional room for diversity, equity and inclusion.   
• Staff Diversity – We need a system that fosters and develops the recruitment, retention, and support of marginalized groups. We need to ensure that all staff (administrators, Certified, NUSS, and Classified) explore their biases and implement a system to address biases, language used, and microaggressions at all levels. We need to be intentional in our interview process to ask questions that address DEI. Questions that ask about beliefs, experiences, practices. 

Work toward developing an action plan will take place in the near future and updates will continue to be provided through The Channel. We are also working toward an organizational definition of equity.

Questions? Please contact Karl Kurt.