Connecting with Kay: Whatever Happened to “Managing the Demand?

Wow!  I can’t believe I am actually blogging…and have this incredible opportunity to communicate with Prairie Lakes staff in this way.  This is actually a piece of the answer to managing the demand for myself.  As I continually struggle to prioritize my tasks in order to be the administrator that you deserve,  it often feels like I am far too disconnected from YOU…the folks I most value (next to the kids we impact of course!)  So…this medium will become another way for us to communicate.

In our inaugural edition of the Friday News blog, Connie mentioned that I had the opportunity to share our integrated services model with the Governing Boards of the AEAs earlier this month.   In that session, I shared that we are still trying to figure out how to manage the demand for time and resources.  (An audio recording of this session is in Documents>The Source. A presentation on branding the AEA system can also be found there. This was presented by members of the State AEA PR Team.)

The RISE study and our tiered services model are two of the ways we are trying to learn how to do this.

The RISE study has not vanished into the woodwork despite seeming like it happened long ago and has not been heard from since.  The Iowa State researchers have taken all the data gathered from the interviews and are doing their analysis.  We originally expected a report from them in May and I was hoping to have this in time for our May 2 All-Agency Inservice.  However, Robin reports that they will not have the report ready until the end of May.  We will plan to share as soon as we have something and will have a more extensive conversation about the report at our fall All-Agency Inservice.

The tiered services model is a strategy to help manage the demand that was the result of a series of meetings last spring and fall involving various staff members.  The tiers were shared at the September 2007 All-Agency Inservice and your ideas were added to those of the initial group.  The tiers were also shared with the LEA Advisory Group (superintendents, principals, and teachers representing each zone) for their reaction and input.  We continue to hone this strategy with the intent to roll it out to the superintendents and with district leadership teams as we develop new Individual District AEA Service Plans.  We haven’t moved fast on this because we continue to have concerns about our own understanding of how this might work…we don’t want to propose this to our schools until we (AEA staff) are comfortable with the idea.

 So…we will continue to work on strategies to manage the demand for our services.  James Surowiecki, in The Wisdom of Crowds, provides evidence for what I know to be true at Prairie Lakes AEA – that there is synergy in groups of people.  The decisions made based on the information aggregated by the group are consistently better than those made by the individuals.  I have no doubt that the aggregate of the Prairie Lakes staff will solve the problem of managing the demand in ways that will maintain Prairie Lakes as a great place to work AND provide high quality service to our schools, kids, and families.

Consider being a mentor for a new member of our PLAEA ohana
Applications are being accepted for those interested in mentoring staff new to Prairie Lakes AEA. The selection of the mentor for new employees is an important component in the induction process for our new employees to Prairie Lakes AEA.  Interested staff should complete the application and submit it to their Zone Coordinator or Supervisor.  The Zone Coordinator or Supervisor will forward applications to the AEA Induction and Mentoring Facilitator, which is Sandy Spangler.  Applications are due by May 15. Mentors will be assigned to new staff as needed.  If no new employees are hired, applications will be kept on file for future years. 

If you have any questions, please call or email Sandy Spangler.

A mentor must be willing to..

• help build a supportive environment within the AEA.
• promote the personal and professional well being of a new employee.
• build a relationship based upon trust and permission.
• maintain confidentiality.

A few of the responsibilities of a mentor:

• Is accessible to the new staff member-via face to face, cell phone, home phone, work phone, polycom and/or email
• Provides useful feedback to the new staff member that stimulates ongoing reflective practice.
• Supports the new staff member in learning to develop new professional skills. 
• Coaches the new staff member on strategies to solve problems/conflicts. 
• Is able to refer the new staff member to appropriate agency resources.
• Celebrates successes with the new staff member.

The complete list of responsibilities and characteristics can be found in this document. The application and mentor selection process documents also have a permanent home in Documents>Forms & Templates.

PD strand sign-up
Sign-up for the three strands of professional development for AEA staff (facilitation, differentiated instruction and coaching) is underway! Each zone coordinator/supervisor will be visiting with staff and work together to make this decision. Sessions can only welcome a limited number of participants. Sign-up sheets are due to Sandy Spangler by May 1st!

Internal Tech blog…check the Blogroll!
Looking for information regarding technology services at the AEA? Check out the Internal Technology Blog where you can find tech tips, repair and request forms and other interesting information regarding technology. The blog can be accessed from the blogroll of Friday News or from the Agency Tools area of AEA Manager. New information will be posted to the blog on a regular basis, so consider bookmarking the link or subscribing with your favorite RSS reader.

News from the AEA Government Relations Specialist

SILO
On A 59-41 vote the House approved the SILO legislation on Wednesday.  The legislation changes the local option school infrastructure sales tax into a state tax so that the state sales tax is raised to 6%.  The bill requires school districts to approve a revenue purposes statement for spending the funds.  It also allows voters to petition for an election on the revenue purpose statement.  Purposes for which the tax may be used includes the reduction of bond levies, regular and voter approved PPE levy, the public educational and recreational levy, and schoolhouse tax levy, and spending for infrastructure.  If the voters reject the district revenue purpose statement it requires the money to be spent in the order listed above.

An amendment was offered during debate by Rep. Kraig Paulsen of Cedar Rapids to divert 1% of the funds to AEAs for maintenance purposes.  It was defeated on a voice vote.  The defeat should not be construed as a negative toward the AEAs, but rather the fact that they strategically did not allow passage of any of the some 15 amendments.  The Senate is expected to take the bill up next week and pass without any changes.

Teacher Quality Cleanup Bill
The TQ cleanup bill passed committee this week.  Included in this bill is an appropriation of $1.165 million to the DE to work with AEAs to develop Early Childhood Staff Development that is designed to support the statewide preschool program for four-year-old children. The bill also:

* Increases the allocation for national board professional teaching certification to $915,000 in FY 2009, with up to $250,000 to implement the national board certification program. 
* Allocates $10 million to schools for professional development, related to core curriculum, and extends certain professional development changes through 2009. 
* Requires school with a whole grade sharing program to include the disposition of the money for student achievement and teacher quality in the agreement. 
* Raises the minimum salaries for teachers (beginning teacher, $28,000, first-year career teacher to $30,000) and eliminates other minimum salary language. 
* Reduces the pay-for-performance and career ladder pilots to $335,000 from $2.5 million for FY 2009.
* Defines regular compensation when a school district and a teacher’s union have not reached an agreement for distributing teacher salary funding.
* Makes the three-year review for teachers subject to funding, rather than limited to certain areas. 
* Increases the amounts for mentoring programs to $600 a semester.
* Eliminates the Market Factor Pay incentive.

Compulsory School Age
The Ways & Means Committee passed legislation raising the compulsory school age to 17 effective July, 2009. The bill also:
* Encourages a student who turns 18 during the school year and who wants to drop out to file a formal notice and to have an exit interview. 
* Requires the school to try and determine the reasons that the student is dropping out and to notify the parent of the formal declaration.
* Requires the DOE to create a working group on compulsory attendance and to gather information on different options to keep students in schools, including support programs and financial options for schools to pay for support programs.   A report is due by January 2009.

Vision Bill

SF 2251, which deals with eye exams for children prior to entering school was amended and passed by the House this week.  The Senate accepted the amendment and the bill is on its way to the Governor.  The bill requires that a parent be given a student vision card from the Iowa
Optometric Association when registering a child for kindergarten or pre-school programs, with the goal of every child receiving an eye examination by age seven.  It also requires AEAs to work with local organizations to make vision screening available to children between the ages 2-4. 

Prior to the House amendment the bill allowed a student to receive an eye exam pursuant to the adoption of an individualized education plan.  Even though the bill stated that the parent was to make sure that the student receive this exam, AEAs were concerned that this would shift the cost of
such exams to the AEA under federal special education laws.  

The House amendment struck the provisions on students receiving eye exams as part of an individualized education plan and instead allows schools to encourage children to receive eye exams prior to receiving special education services.  We still have concerns about this language, but it is better than the language it replaced.

The bill does not take effect until July 2009.

Elections bill goes to governor
The election bill passed both chambers this week and is on its way to the governor.  The bill changes the terms of elected school board members,
directors of AEAs and directors of merged areas from three years to four years under a transition phase.  The first election for four year terms
occurs in 2009.

This bill also sets specific dates when special elections can be held.

• In even-numbered years, on the first Tuesday in February, the first Tuesday in April, the second Tuesday in September or the first Tuesday in December. 
• In the odd-numbered years, on the first Tuesday in February, the first Tuesday in April, the last Tuesday in June or the second Tuesday in September.

IPERS/403(b)
During on-going discussions of the IPERS bill, meetings have been held to make changes to 403(b) annuities.  It appears that after several meetings the final language will incorporate the following:

Allow local decision of:
     Adopting the State of Iowa sponsored plan or
     Locally designing and sponsoring an individual plan
Above option determined by equal representation from board and association (similar to TQ)

If adopting State of Iowa plan:
     Initially adopt vendors of the existing 457 plan covering 12,000 public employees
     State will bid 403(b) vendors by January 1, 2010 (not enough time to bid before January 1, 2009)
     Local boards could adopt state as their plan provider
     Local board plan would be simplified to be the “State Plan”
    
If choosing locally sponsored plan
     Vendors must be selected through a competitive bid process
     Since bidding is not possible prior to January 1, 2009 the bidding requirement will not go into effect until January 1, 2010.
     For January 1, 2009 board may select up to 5 vendors and the unions may select up to 3 vendors, which  will sunset as of January 2010.