The Channel

The wait is nearly over. In just a few short weeks, we will officially become Central Rivers AEA! While the branding committee has been working behind the scenes for several months to get ready for the transition, you can help by doing your part after June 19. Please take the following steps:

Change your voicemail greeting.
Whether you are off contract for the summer or not, please ensure that your voice mail has a standard greeting that incorporates our new name.

Example of standard greeting:

Hello, this is Sam Miller, Chief Administrator of Central Rivers AEA. I am away from my office or on the phone right now but your call is very important to me. Please leave your name and number and the best time to reach you and I will return your call within 24 hours. If you would like immediate assistance, please contact my assistant, Lori Thomas, at extension 8201. Thanks and have a great day!

Example of greeting for vacation/extended absence:

Hello, this is Sam Miller, Chief Administrator of Central Rivers AEA. I am away from my office until (date) but your call is very important to me. Please leave your name and number and the best time to reach you and I will return your call when I return. If you would like immediate assistance, please contact my assistant, Lori Thomas, at extension 8201. Thanks and have a great day!

Update your email signature.          

On June 19, your email address will automatically change to centralriversaea.org. (We will keep your old email address active for a period of time to ensure that your email forwards to you.) You will need to update your email signature to reflect this change so that it looks like this:

Sam Miller, Chief Administrator
Central Rivers AEA
Street Address (the office where you receive your van mail)
City, State & Zip (the office where you receive your van mail)
Phone number where you can be reached on a daily basis
Insert our new Central Rivers AEA logo. (Logo with Instructions)

Update your social media accounts.     

Although your social media accounts should be personalized to you and not official agency accounts, you might mention where you work in your profile. Please remember to update that information to Central Rivers AEA.

On June 19, we will launch a brand new website. Watch this short video to learn what’s changed and where to find things!

A huge variety of items, sizes, colors, and options await you in the new Central Rivers AEA logo apparel e-store. Order anytime! Free shipping to Clear Lake, Cedar Falls or Marshalltown Offices.

Here are the basic instructions on how to place an order:

• The first time you place an order, you will need to Create A New Account for the Webstore.
• When setting up your password, it must be a total of 8 characters and 2 of 3 of alphanumeric and special characters (ex: !@#) Make note of your Username/Password for future shopping.
• Fill out everything in red.
• Add items to the cart, by choosing a size (please refer to the sizing information under the color swatches to make sure you are ordering the correct size), color and quantity.
• Once you are done shopping, click on Checkout.
• On the next screen in the shipping box, you have two options for delivery. You can have your order delivered to one of our three offices (Cedar Falls, Clear Lake or Marshalltown), free of charge. You will need to pick up your order at that location. For this option, click the drop-down box and choose the location as well as enter your first and last name in the appropriate boxes. The second option is to have the order delivered to your home address by UPS. There will be a charge for this that will be calculated during the checkout process. For this option click the New Address tab and fill out the required information.
• You then need to fill out the Billing box.
• Lastly, carefully review your Order Summary to make sure everything is accurate including size, color, logo color choice)
• Once everything is filled in and reviewed, click Submit Order. Your order will then deliver in approximately two to three weeks.
  

Logo colors description:

• The All Black logo will be a black/silver logo on the left chest
• The All White logo will be a white/silver logo on the left chest
• The Full-Color logo will be the logo in full color on the left chest
• The Tone on Tone logo will be the logo in a thread color that is a shade lighter or darker than the shirt color itself on the left chest.

Questions? Contact Beth Strike, Director of Creative Services at 319-273-8222. We’ll have samples at the August 14 all-staff meeting.

Mark your calendars! Our first all-staff meeting as Central Rivers Area Education Agency will be held on August 14 at our new headquarters at 1521 Technology Parkway in Cedar Falls! We will start the day with social time and registration from 8:30-9 a.m. and are planning a fun day complete with recognitions, inspiration and “edutainment” by Monte Selby. Plan to end the day by 3:30 pm or before depending on the work group.

Summer hours will begin on June 12 and run through August 11. Official office hours will be 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. during that period.

If you are going off contract for the summer, please ensure that your voicemail greeting and “out of office” email message indicate who is handling inquiries in your absence along with when you plan to return. (See related story.)

Due to the late retirement of Edie Penno, Jody Albertson has been selected to lead Region 4 as a full-time Regional Administrator. Congratulations to Jody and best wishes to Edie!

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are pleased to announce that for the 2017-18 school year, students and educators will continue to have access to many of the same digital resources they have come to depend on as high-quality, reliable instructional resources. In addition, two new resources will be available for upper elementary and middle school students.

Statewide resources continuing in the next school year:

• AEA Digital Library
• BookFLIX
• Britannica School
• CultureGrams
• Gale Resources
• iClipArt for Schools
• Learn360
• SIRS Issues Researcher
• Soundzabound
• TeachingBooks.net
• Teen Health & Wellness
• TrueFLIX
  

New resources coming for upper elementary and middle school students:

• FreedomFLIX
• ScienceFLIX

Two resources will be discontinued at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year:

• Atomic Learning
• AP Images

For more information or assistance with AEA Digital Resources, Cheryl Carruthers.

Selection Process Note: The statewide selection committee and RFP review process included AEA library professionals, Iowa Department of Education consultants, AEA content experts and teachers. Final selections were made after surveying teachers and students for their patterns of usage and preferences, examining past years of database usage and receiving and reviewing proposals from more than 30 vendors.

AEA PD Online is celebrating one million completed courses. This accomplishment represents millions of hours of professional learning and reflects Iowa educators’ dedication to ensuring all Iowa students experience high-quality learning opportunities and environments.

Agency staff may have seen news headlines related to the Department of Education’s use of FAST/TIER. We want to share this notice from Dave Tilly of the Iowa DE to ensure our staff has the latest information on this decision.

School administrators were notified last week of the Department’s decision to terminate the contract with TIES, the developer of the Iowa TIER data system. For the 2017-18 school year the Department will be working with FASTBridge, and districts and schools, to transfer all district and nonpublic school users directly into the FASTBridge data system. As our state transitions to the FASTBridge data system over the summer, the Department will be communicating important information with districts and schools in order to keep you updated on our progress and to make you aware of tasks for which you will be responsible.

District and School Summer Communication Contacts
The Department will include all superintendents and principals that we have on file when communicating about the transition to FASTBridge over the summer. If there are additional people from your district or school that you would like to receive communication updates, please forward this email to them and they can click here to subscribe to future emails. Please make sure that you have at least one contact at your district/school who will be checking email regularly over the summer and will be able to respond to requests from the Department during this transition.

Closing of the Iowa TIER Data System/Summer Interventions and Progress Monitoring
Our intent is that the Iowa TIER data system will not be available for screening, progress monitoring, or scheduling interventions after June 9, 2017, except for three extended school year elementary schools that will be finishing spring screening and literacy status certification activities through June 23rd. However, the system will remain open until June 30th for downloading information such as one-click reports, progress monitoring graphs, student profile page data, and summary reports.

Because of the closure of Iowa TIER, the Department will not be able to offer on-line assessment administration, scoring, and reports for summer school. Schools that will be having summer school are encouraged to track interventions and progress monitoring data locally and to administer progress monitoring assessments with paper and pencil. If interested in paper/pencil administration, see the Progress Monitoring Using FAST: Paper and Pencil Administration document for a brief explanation and key points and the Progress Monitoring Using FAST: Paper and Pencil Materials folder for the necessary administration, scoring, and recording forms. We are exploring options for entering or uploading summer data into the FASTBridge data system sometime during the 2017-18 school year.

Historical Data Housed in Iowa TIER
The Department and the State’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) will be working with TIES to obtain all of the historical data that has been stored in Iowa TIER since the 2013-14 school year. We are unsure when the data will be available in a consumable format for districts and schools, but it is unlikely that historical data for students will be accessible right away in the fall. Before June 30th, we encourage (but do not require) schools to export information from Iowa TIER that may be useful for the beginning of next school year – this may include one-click reports, progress monitoring graphs, student profile page data, and summary reports. Please see the Iowa TIER Export Instructions for information on the most efficient way to export data.

Preschool Screening
The FASTBridge data system will not include on-line administration of the IGDIs assessments for preschool students. The Department encourages preschool classrooms that use IGDIs to administer it with paper and pencil during the 2017-18 school year, and track student data locally. We are exploring possibilities for accommodating data collection of the IGDIs data and will keep you informed with any updates we have.

Screening with Approved Measures Other than FAST
Districts and schools will still have the option to use other approved measures besides the FAST assessments. The Department is exploring how we will have these schools report required data. Again, we will keep you informed as we have updates available.

Thanks for your support during this transition. We know it will be a summer and fall of new learning but believe we are all headed in the right direction for learners in Iowa. We remain committed to our efforts in early literacy as a state and partnering with you as we continue on that journey together.

Throughout this transition, the Department will continue to be the first line of communication and support for districts. As you have questions related to the transition, please use the contacts below. We ask that you do not use the Iowa TIER knowledge base or ticket system for questions or comments related to this transition.

• Administrative issues:  Dave Tilly
• Differentiated Accountability issues:  Amy Williamson
• Technical issues:  Janell Brandhorst
• Media requests: Staci Hupp

The AEA 267 Board of Directors met Wednesday, June 7, 2017, in the Cedar Falls Conference Center. The board packet is available online and the minutes will be published online after approval at the next month’s board meeting.

Did you miss Chief Administrator Sam Miller’s update in April? Watch this six-minute video that hits the highlights of the presentation. Questions about any of the updates? Feel free to contact Sam Miller.

Jody Albertson

Carol Sensor

In response to an increasing need for Regional Administrator support for Waterloo Community Schools, Jody Albertson will become a halftime Regional Administrator in partnership with Melissa Hesner beginning next year. Congratulations, Jody!

Given the upcoming retirement of Jerry Schnabel, who currently serves as Site Superintendent (and Executive Director of Media Services), Carol Sensor will assume the role of Site Superintendent for the Clear Lake Office beginning July 1. Carol will take on the new role alongside her other responsibilities as Regional Administrator. Thanks for your service, Carol!

The Gmail Transition Team is excited to share that the transition date for Gmail / Google Calendar has been moved from May 15th to May 12th. This change is in response to requests to align the transition with the already scheduled regional meetings on May 12th.  Therefore, starting Friday May 12th, staff will no longer receive new emails through either Microsoft Outlook, or Outlook Web Access (OWA).  The old email system will remain online temporarily, providing staff the ability to verify that their emails, calendars, and contacts have been transferred to Gmail.

What does this mean for you?

Starting on May 12th, access your AEA 267 Gmail by going to www.google.com and signing in (if you are not already signed in).  In the upper right hand corner click on the text- Mail

Or alternatively, the Gmail icon may appear under the “cube” icon

To access your AEA 267 Calendar, click on the “cube” icon and then click on the Calendar Icon.

In addition to the already scheduled trainings, the Technology Team & Early Adopters will be offering additional support during the regional meetings on the 12th. If you have already signed up for the trainings that were scheduled after May 15th, you can choose to attend as planned or withdraw and attend during one of the regional meetings.  

The trainings on the 12th will be required for staff that are already required to attend regional meetings. Staff that typically don’t attend regional meetings are invited to attend on the 12th.  View the schedule and locations via this document and complete the RSVP form if you plan on attending.

Thank you to everyone who has made this transition possible! The team is excited about the possibilities and looking forward to supporting staff.

Your Gmail Transition Team

Kay Schmalen, Cari Teske, Sarah Lalk, Bryan Knecht, Karl Langenwalter, Karl Kurt, and Beth Strike

Renovation work is occurring at a rapid pace at our new Cedar Falls-based Central Rivers AEA home at 1521 Technology Parkway. The estimated deadline for substantial completion of both the upstairs and downstairs is June 19. Based on this information, we are tentatively scheduling the move for the majority of Cedar Falls-based staff to begin on June 26. Creative Services and Professional Learning departments will move in August as the print room, garage and elevator areas will take longer to complete. Please note that professional learning classes will be held at our current location at 3712 Cedar Heights Drive through July.

For employees whose contract work will be completed prior to the start of the move-in timeline, please make the following preparations:

• Try and secure boxes to help facilitate the move.  If you need boxes please contact Gus Delamore as he may have a few available.
• Please determine what will be making the move with you. (A reminder for those without designated space, your personal items will need to be taken home.)
• Box up those items and label with your full name (last name, first name). Leave your boxes in your work area.
• Our custodial crew will move the boxes to an unfinished area at 1521 Technology Parkway and sort them so that when you return for the new school year, you can access your materials.
• For those employees who work year around, we will provide details and a schedule closer to the actual completion date, once the move can be officially scheduled.

Questions? Contact Gus Delamore or Karl Kurt.