The Channel

Just a reminder: the monthly Zoom update for Central Rivers AEA and Keystone AEA staff takes place on the second Thursday of each month from 4:00 to 4:30 pm (unless canceled if there are no updates). This month’s update is scheduled for October 10 at 4:00 pm. You can find the Zoom link on the CRAEA Master Calendar or use the link provided below.

• https://aea1.zoom.us/j/93464974419?pwd=Q2hl1s1RZIcSHzDYbdAl9ARPrXdLAY.1
• Meeting ID: 934 6497 4419
• Passcode: 002870

Empower Half-hour

Want a quick, practical way to release negative energy and feel more empowered? Join your colleagues on October 11, from 8:30 to 9:00 am on Zoom for the “Empower Half-Hour” with Dr. Leslie Moore, a Certified Professional Coach. Dr. Moore will guide you through a simple exercise to help you tap into positive energy, tailored to your unique situation. Sign up today to receive a calendar invite and get a sneak peek of the activity!

INspired Leadership workshops

Mark your calendar for the INspired Leadership Workshop on October 18 and 31, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Cedar Falls office! During this two-day event, you’ll join colleagues in exploring how to harness your inner energy to reach both personal and professional goals. Discover the seven levels of energy, learn to let go of fear, shame, and guilt and tap into positive, growth-oriented energy. You’ll also gain insights on how to influence the energy of those around you. Register online today!

Micro-credentials for INspired Leadership

This year, Central Rivers AEA is continuing to support staff well-being by offering a $250 incentive for completing one of three INspired Leadership micro-credentials! The options are:

• Awareness of Internal Energy
• The 4 Key Mindsets
• An upcoming new option – coming soon!

All of these are available in our On-Demand Library, and submissions will be reviewed by Dr. Leslie Moore. If you have any questions or need help signing up, feel free to schedule a quick 15-minute session with Leslie by sending her a calendar invitation!

Our office buildings, grounds and River Hills School are always looking spotless, thanks to our custodial/maintenance team! While they may be more behind-the-scenes, their hard work does not go unnoticed!

Cedar Falls office:

• Kevin McKenzie, Supervisor of Buildings/Maintenance
• Shyla English, Lead Custodian/Maintenance
• Derrek Grapp, Custodian

Clear Lake office:

• Skyler Wood, Lead Custodian/Maintenance
• Greg Hampton, Custodian

Marshalltown office:

• Micheal Ballhagen, Lead Custodian/Maintenance

River Hills School:

• Todd Thompson, Custodian
• Jessica Devries, Custodian
• Cory Teepe, Custodian

Congratulations to Marc Groen, who was recently honored with the Leadership in School Psychology/School Psychologist of the Year Award at the Iowa School Psychologists Association (ISPA) conference! This prestigious award recognizes Iowa school psychologists who have made a significant impact on their AEA, district, school, community and the students they serve.

October is Cybersecurity Month! Check out these four easy ways to stay safe online:

1. Recognize and report phishing: Many online attacks happen when people click on harmful links or give their personal information to scammers. These scams often use scary language or make promises that sound too good to be true. Don’t click on these links or share your information. Report the phish and delete the messages.
2. Use strong passwords: Use strong passwords that are hard to guess. Make them at least 16 characters long and use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Use a different password for each account. A password manager can help you store and use these passwords.
3. Turn on multi factor authentication (MFA – AKA, two-factor authentication): Use two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever you can. 2FA adds an extra layer of security by asking for something only you have, like a code sent to your phone. This makes it much harder for hackers to get into your accounts.
4. Update your computer software: When your devices, apps, or software say that there’s an update, you should install it right away. Updates fix security problems and help protect your data. Turn on automatic updates to make it easier.

When you receive any suspicious communications: Stop and think before you click! Reach out to the Help Desk at 319-273-8231 or at helpdesk@centralriversaea.org if you have questions. Visit https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month for more cybersecurity tips and information.

The Educational Directory for 2024-25 has been updated and can be viewed and downloaded on the agency website under About Us > Directory of Services.

ACHIEVE Reminders – we are partnering with Keystone AEA to help with ACHIEVE data. This list provides you with the data tech assigned to each district and their contact information as well as the person responsible for the SIS within the district. Please review these reminders about ACHIEVE – our data techs are working hard to get things updated for fall and they are getting bogged down by emails – these tips will help reduce this. Access issues can be handled with these directions AEA or LEA.

• ACHIEVE issues should be handled through the ACHIEVE ticketing system and not via emails to Nicole or other data techs (left sidebar under ACHIEVE Support, select Support Request or Support Email).
• The district SIS is the source of truth for student name, date of birth, and grade level – if you have issues with accuracy, start with the district SIS – if this doesn’t work, submit a ticket (be sure to say you already worked with the school).
• Facilitators must finalize IEPs, exits and enter a change status on consents.
• Evaluation button missing – make sure FIIE consent is approved, then refresh.
• Meetings can only be dated 7 days prior to the date the IEP is opened.
• Amendments – when an Amendment requires a meeting it should be scheduled after the amendment is open – otherwise you will likely run into issues with finalizing.
• Exiting:
  • PRC code doesn’t display until after the consent is changed to parent revoked.
  • When reeval meeting required – paperwork needs to be completed within 30 days of the meeting or it won’t finalize. Submit a ticket if the system is requiring a 2nd meeting.
• If you are unable to assign teachers/staff in learners’ IEPs (prompts used outside of ACHIEVE), the learner is likely displaying at their resident district vs. attending. Submit a ticket with the attending district info.
• The AEA Powerschool is used for students not in a district SIS. Submit a ticket with all demographic information to have a student added.

Family Verification in ACHIEVE: in preparation for the family portal launch, districts and AEAs are required to verify the contact information and role for each family in ACHIEVE. This means that Early ACCESS service coordinators and any AEA support staff providers with support only IEPs will need to complete this process in September/October.  We will be sending out specific directions once data techs have rosters updated. Watch for more information in the coming weeks. If your district(s) request that you complete this process, please assure them that you will have this accomplished by the due date and then wait for our direction. You will notice a banner on ACHIEVE and may get questions from teachers – encourage them to reach out to their principal for guidance. This document provides an overview of parent roles that need to be identified as part of this process.

Harvest: guidance doc – remember, we are only tracking services provided to districts. Your paperwork and planning time specific to students should be included in the amount of time you document for that building.

Special Education Count Date for 2024 will be Friday, October 25.

Live documents, helpful resources and guides can be found on our staff website.

• Special Education Updates page
• Updates with CRAEA Special Education doc (this will include every update from editions of The Channel)

Here is the Harvest guidance information for Ed Services. Please be sure to go back and log for July 1. If you did not have service in a particular week, you can simply press “submit for week” at the bottom right of the entry page. 

Live documents, helpful resources and guides can be found on our staff website.

• Ed Services/Media Updates
• Updates with CRAEA Ed Services & Media doc (this will include every update from editions of The Channel)

Iowa Iowa Legislature has published the application process for the AEA Task Force legislated by House File 2612. According to Code, the task force will be composed of the following voting members who are appointed by the legislative council to represent different geographical regions of this state. It is not known when the Task Force will convene.

(1) One special education teacher who is employed by a school district with a total enrollment of greater than or equal to one thousand students.

(2) One special education teacher who is employed by a school district with a total enrollment of less than one thousand students.

(3) One superintendent who is employed by a school district with a total enrollment of greater than or equal to one thousand students.

(4) One superintendent who is employed by a school district with a total enrollment of less than one thousand students.

(5) One teacher who is employed by a school district and who does not provide special education programs or services.

(6) One parent or guardian of a student who has an individualized education program.

(7) One parent or guardian of a student who has a plan under section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794.

(8) One president or chief executive officer of an accredited nonpublic school.

b. The task force shall also consist of the following voting members:

(1) One member to be appointed by the governor.

(2) One member to be appointed by the director of the department of education.

(3) One member who is the chief administrator of the heartland area education agency.

c. The task force shall also consist of the following ex officio, non voting members of the general assembly:

(1) Two state senators appointed by the majority leader of the senate.

(2) One state senator appointed by the minority leader of the senate.

(3) Two state representatives appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives.

(4) One state representative appointed by the minority leader of the house of representatives.

Some of you may have noticed that as the school year has gotten underway, media outlets have been requesting interviews with many of the AEAs to follow up on the implementation of HF2612 to see what the immediate impact has been on AEAs and school districts.

A few of the recent stories that have focused on the AEAs as a whole have been:

• Iowa AEA changes phase in as school year begins (CRAEA mentioned)
• Area Education Agency staff numbers see sharp decline (CRAEA mentioned)
• Iowa Public Radio – Iowa AEA changes phase in as school year begins 
• Iowa’s Area Education Agencies lost 429 staff since last school year
• Area Education Agency staff numbers see sharp decline
• Iowa AEAs see 429 fewer staff as school year begins, Democratic lawmakers say
• KCCI – Close Up: What’s the impact of Iowa’s new law reforming AEAs? 

We’ve received a few questions about the reported staffing numbers, so we wanted to share that data with you.

As a state system, we are down 429 staff from the beginning of last school year to the beginning of this school year. Specifically at Central Rivers AEA, we are down 68 staff from last school year.

Thank you for continuing to ask questions and wanting accurate information to share with others.

Iowa’s AEAs have launched a new, more user-friendly AEA Professional Learning Registration System! While the new system will have separate sites for each AEA and AEA Learning Online, you’ll still have access to courses from all AEAs and find the sites easier to navigate.

As we continue to enhance the system and introduce new features, we’re confident you will benefit from being able to:

• Browse course catalogs without having to be logged in.
• Log in with identAEA, which uses Google or Microsoft credentials. 
• Create a new account instantaneously, rather than waiting 24 hours for activation.

What about my course history & transcript?

Each person’s course history is currently being imported into the new system. As the transcript feature in the new system is being finalized, you may want to download your transcript from the former registration system, as that system will not be available after Sept. 30, 2024. Instructions for how to download your transcript are available here. If you need assistance, reach out to the PL team.

What about instructors?

Instructors should have already entered their credentials (vita) in the new system. If you are an instructor, and you have not yet done this, refer to this communication for more information.

If you are an instructor proposing a new course, make sure to enter the course in the registration system of the AEA you are teaching the course for. Example: If you are teaching a course for Central Rivers AEA, go to the Central Rivers AEA registration site to enter your course proposal.

AEA Professional Learning Registration Websites:

• AEA Learning Online
• Central Rivers AEA
• Great Prairie AEA
• Heartland AEA
• Mississippi Bend AEA
• Prairie Lakes AEA
• Grant Wood AEA
• Green Hills AEA
• Keystone AEA
• Northwest AEA

If you deliver professional learning and are asked to share resources you’ve developed, please use this system-wide response:

“We currently don’t have open access to share our resources. The AEA system is seeking legal clarification and guidance on our proprietary rights. Once we receive guidance, we will update you.”

Additionally, for your reference, a disclaimer and copyright policy are being developed for AEAs, but we need to wait for them to be finalized. It’s also okay to inform your audience that recording or photographing the presentation is not permitted at this time. If anyone pushes back, please refer them to a Regional Administrator.Please reach out to Annette Hyde and Tesha Moser-Zimmerman with questions. Keep an eye out for more updates in the coming weeks!

A monthly Zoom update for both Central Rivers AEA and Keystone AEA staff is planned for the second Thursday of each month, beginning August 29, 2024 through May 8, 2025, from 4:00-4:30 pm. The Zoom link for these meetings has been updated. You can find the new link below as well as in the CRAEA Master Calendar.

• https://aea1.zoom.us/j/93464974419?pwd=Q2hl1s1RZIcSHzDYbdAl9ARPrXdLAY.1
• Meeting ID: 934 6497 4419
• Passcode: 002870

These updates will be conducted by Chief Administrator Stan Rheingans, Executive Director of Ed Services Tesha Moser-Zimmerman and Executive Director of Special Education Annette Hyde. Please join each month as your schedule allows.

If you missed the first meeting on August 29, the slidedeck and Zoom recording are now available.

• August 29, 2024 meeting slides
• August 29 Zoom recording (expires in 30 days – Watch before September 30)

All future joint staff meeting slides and recordings can be found on the staff website. (Resources > Post-HF 2612 Resources & Guides)

At the Educator Quality (EQ) meeting on August 29, 2024, the EQ Committee – made up of both Certified Staff and Administrators – approved several important budget decisions.

The committee:

• Agreed on a $250 stipend for staff who complete a micro-credential.
• Confirmed the continuation of the $1,000 stipend for Year 1 and Year 2 mentors.

$50,000 was set aside for professional development opportunities for Certified Staff. If you’re interested in using these funds, please consult with your Sector Administrator about your learning goals. It was also noted that the EQ budget is being gradually spent down, with an expectation that it will be depleted during the 2025-2026 academic year, following the legislative decision to discontinue support for these funds a few years ago.

Farewell to HR Coordinator, Shirley Horak, who will be retiring at the end of September 2024.

“Shirley’s 38 years of dedication leaves an imprint that can’t be erased. Her attention to detail, institutional wisdom, and gentle guidance have been invaluable to me personally and to the HR Department. We will miss her ability to catch those ‘errors’ before they happened, but most of all, we’ll miss her caring and supportive presence. Central Rivers AEA won’t be the same without her. Please join me in wishing Shirley a well-deserved ‘Happy Retirement!'” -Karl Kurt, Assistant Chief/HR Director

Thank you for your years of service, Shirley! Central Rivers AEA wishes you best on your much deserved retirement! If you would like to send Shirley off with your own words of encouragement, submit your message on this Padlet.