River Hills School held their annual open house on Thursday, October 3. The event was a huge success with students and their families, friends and staff enjoying a fun night of fellowship and great food. The highlight of the evening was the students’ pumpkin decorating contest.
Each classroom created a decorated masterpiece to proudly display in the front lobby of the school. There were scary pumpkins, funny pumpkins and even a Papa Smurf pumpkin!
What a talented and creative group of students!
As you may know, staff members in our Information & Technology service area have been reviewing three and five year trends in how we deliver materials to the classroom. Physical delivery of materials has gone down 39% in the past five years; with a total of 90,000 items shipped from the lending library last year. Two million items were accessed or downloaded electronically this past year, which is an increase of 43% in the last three years.
Given the undeniable trend toward digital delivery of classroom materials, it has become apparent that we could better serve our schools by spending more resources on enhancing digital services and fewer resources on van delivery by moving to weekly physical delivery of materials. Thus, beginning the week of October 21, AEA 267 will move to once a week van delivery to our school buildings.
The new van delivery schedules for our school buildings have been posted to our GetMedia web page.
Two school districts have exceptions to the once-a-week delivery. The Cedar Falls CSD has a contract with our print/production services that requires a daily pick-up of materials and the Waterloo CSD buildings will receive media items 3 times a week.
For more information about this transition, or to provide feedback, please contact Dr. Jerry Schnabel, AEA 267 Director of Information & Technology.
As you work through your first time submitting mileage and expense reimbursements in the new Infinite Visions system, you may experience some frustrations if you haven’t taken time to review the screencast or written instructions provided within the portal. Please take a few minutes to use these important resources to assist you in the process. If you find that it would be helpful to have someone personally walk you through the process, please contact any administrative secretary, Cindy Fry or Sarah Brown in the Business Office.
Please be aware of a recent change to the email addresses of Heartland AEA staff members. The protocol for email is now first initial, last name @heartlandaea.org.
You may wish to make changes to contacts from Heartland AEA in your email address book.
As you use the Infinite Visions system to submit leaves, mileage/expense reimbursements and to access other tools and resources, please be sure to double-check your personal information and make any necessary updates. Use the “My Personal Information” menu within the system.
The AEA 267 Board of Directors met October 2, 2013 at 6 p.m. at the AEA 267 Clear Lake office for their regular meeting. During the meeting, board members were recognized for their dedicated service to AEA 267 this past year. The board then adjourned the final meeting of the 2012-13 Board of Directors.
Immediately following, the board called to order their first meeting of 2013-14 during which time the board:
(The following message is shared as a courtesy to the United Way. Pledge consideration is completely optional.)
United Way is changing lives of children, seniors, families and individuals in our community. By focusing on education, income and health—the building blocks for a good quality of life—United Way is making this a better community for us all.
Data tells us the investments United Way is making in our community are working. Thanks to your donation, families are more stable, teen pregnancies are down and child abuse has decreased. But the work is not done. United Way wants to do better, and you can help.
By giving what you can, you can change our future, and make our community better. Please give. You can do so online with your local United Way. There you will also be able to find information on your local United Way and its funded partners and programs, as well as other ways you can be involved in making your community stronger.
The iVisions expense reimbursement module is now ready! It is located under the My Toolbox menu item. This is the required method for submitting reimbursement requests effective Monday, September 9th. Requests that have already been submitted for August are being manually processed, no further action on your part is necessary. Although the instructions are archived in the portal, a courtesy copy can also be downloaded here.
The AEA 267 Monthly Mileage and Travel Reimbursement Claim form (located at the bottom of the Travel policy in My Toolbox) must be completed before submitting a request in iVisions. The form has been modified to account for regular travel separate from professional learning travel. You will simply enter the total dollar amounts for each type of reimbursement. The date range should be the first through the end of the month. Please save the completed form to your desktop. The form will be attached to the request in iVisions along with any required receipts.
Other Expense Reimbursement information:
Questions may directed to your administrative support secretary or ap@aea267.k12.ia.us (accounts payable in the Business Office)
![Ed Direcct cover[1]](http://intersections.blogs.aea267.k12.ia.us/files/2013/09/Ed-Direcct-cover1.jpg)
While the online searchable schools directory (including labels) is current and accessible, the hard copy of the Ed Directory is still being printed. The directory will be distributed to AEA 267 staff members within the next two weeks. Questions? Contact Lori Thomas, Administrative Secretary.
The AEA Contact Manager system will be current with updated educator contact information by the end of the month.
A special note about the superintendent and principal labels: These labels contain van route information effective October 21, 2013. Thus, the route numbers are actually incorrect until that time. Please make manual changes to the labels until October 21.
Thank you again for your attendance and participation during the sector kick-off meetings held last month. For your continued reference throughout the year, the materials shared during the meeting are now located under the “Sector Resources” category on our staff website (remember to use your email login and password to access the staff website).
Please take note of the following reminders from the Human Resources (HR) office:
September 15 is the deadline for notifying HR of intentions to change lanes on the salary schedule (certified staff).
Per changes in law as explained during the Sector kick-off meetings, background checks are being conducted on all AEA 267 staff members. Checks must be completed by June 30, 2014.
Personnel files are in the process of being converted to an electronic form to be included in each employee’s specific iVisions file. Stay tuned for password-protected access in the future!
All professional licenses must be kept current. Professional licenses renew on the last day of the month of the individual’s birthday.
The AEA 267 Board of Directors will meet in the AEA 267 Clear Lake Office for their October board meeting. The location change will allow board members to view recent improvements to the facility as well as tour the AEA 267 Charles City office en route.
Opheim
Barb Opheim, who represented the Waterloo territory on the AEA 267 Board of Directors, attended her final board meeting this month. Opheim, whose term has expired, will not run for re-election. She was awarded with a plaque for her contributions to the agency and will be missed on the board. We wish her the best in her future endeavors!
The AEA 267 Board of Directors met September 4, 2013 at 6 p.m. in the AEA 267 Conference Center for their regular meeting. During the meeting, the board:
Heard a program review regarding the Web IEP. The presentation was delivered by Kimberly Crowe and Lisa Yoder, AEA 267 Speech Language Pathologists.
Approved the 2013-14 Certified Annual Report.
Selected Richard VandeKieft as the AEA 267 Board Member to attend the IASB Delegate Convention. Dr. George North will serve as the alternate.
Approved the Reciprocal Transportation Agreements for LEAs.
Held a public hearing to review Internet Policy/Regulation 101.4R2 and approved the Acceptable Use policy.
Approved the 2013-14 agreement with Four Oaks Independence Shelter Program.
Approved a second reading of Board Policy 504-Early ACCESS Policies.
Accepted submitted bids and approved the sale of buses.
Approved an agreement with the Center for Authentic PLCs.
Approved an agreement with HSHMC.
Heard a variety of reports from directors and board members.
The AEA 267 Foundation met immediately following the regular board meeting.
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Hello everyone and welcome back for those of you who are returning after a summer break! We look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming sector meetings. Please remember that this is a required meeting for all staff (Note: Pinecrest and River Hills instructional staff will receive the information at a later date).
Although we are planning on each staff member attending their specific sector’s meeting, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to attend another sector meeting location instead, it is very important that you let your supervisor know in advance so that adjustments can be made by those in charge of logistics. We will have sign-in sheets at each location.
A social time will be held at 8:30 a.m. followed by the official start to the meeting at 9 a.m. We will break for lunch (on your own) at approximately 11:30 am. and return at 1 p.m. for breakout meetings by service area until approximately 3 p.m. (Note: Clerical staff, Info Tech staff not assigned to a sector, and central administrative team members who are not a part of a sector may be free to return to their work locations after lunch. Please check with your supervisor.)
Meeting materials:
Power Point presentation outlining our work for 2013-14
Peer collaboration information
AEA 267 peer collaboration log
Employee background check information
Update on Emergency Medical Leave request process
Core, supplemental and intensive resource (Learning Supports)
Learning Supports matrix example
Check back in the coming weeks for an online photo album from this week’s meetings!
Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are pleased to announce the launch of a statewide Pinterest site.
The Iowa’s AEAs Pinterest site is a collaborative project of Iowa’s nine AEAs. The site is maintained by AEA consultants from all over the state who specialize in different curriculum and instructional areas. The over 35 pinning boards provide a visual, dynamic forum which informs parents, educators and school administrators about AEA programs and resources, as well as other quality, credible ideas and resources relating to education.
Items posted to the site are reviewed by AEA staff with the intention of providing participants with quality ideas that can be used in the classroom and beyond.
Would you like to share your expertise and become a “collaborator” on one of the AEA Pinterest boards? Please contact Beth Strike.
Learn more about the value of Pinterest to educators in a recent article published by Edutopia.
