Happy Holidays to You & Yours!

Click the image for a holiday greeting from Heartland AEA!

You’re Invited to Participate in a Short Professional Development Survey

As districts begin to develop their calendars for the 2018 - 2019 school year, Heartland AEA has been asked by Rob Cordes, Carroll CSD Superintendent, to survey district superintendents on a few items related to district professional development practices. Please complete this short survey by Dec. 8. Information will be shared with superintendents at a later date.

Prepare Your District Budget During The ISFIS Budget Workshop

Each year, ISFIS partners with Piper Jaffray and Iowa's Area Education Agencies to provide face-to-face budget workshops for business managers and superintendents. These hands-on workshops are an opportunity for leaders from each district to prepare their individual budgets in one highly productive day.

ISFIS Budget Workshops
Heartland AEA, 6500 Corporate Drive in Johnston
Jan. 29 and Feb. 19
Register online at this link

For more information, contact Marissa Gaal at marissa@iowaschoolfinance.com or (515) 251-5970 ext. 4.

FastBridge Update from Iowa’s AEAs

Iowa’s Area Education Agencies will subsidize costs for districts to upgrade their DE provided FastBridge (FAST) subscriptions. This offer will allow districts to gain access to all K-6 FAST application features, which include additional functionality in the area of literacy and access to data warehousing, reporting, training and certification in mathematics and behavior. Subscriptions are based on a per student annual cost. Heartland AEA and the statewide AEA system have committed to covering 50 percent of the cost for each K-6 student in Iowa.

This one-hour webinar recording provides an overview of the FastBridge suite of formative assessment tools available for K-6 students in math and behavior and was presented during the Statewide Curriculum Network on Dec. 1. These are the slides used during the webinar.

This is information shared by the AEAs regarding the pricing structure negotiated with FastBridge Learning by the AEAs, and deadlines for notifying your AEA if your school plans to participate in 2018-19.

Many districts have already expressed interest to their respective AEA about using this suite of assessments. We are asking that you complete this formal interest survey in order to facilitate a systemic approach to implementation.

If you have any questions, please contact Kevin Fangman, Chief Academic Officer with Heartland AEA, at kfangman@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-9030 ext. 14374. We will be collecting questions and facilitating feedback from FastBridge Learning and will share this in an FAQ document in the near future. ​

Iowa’s AEAs Would Like Your Perspective on Legislative Priorities - Take a Short Survey and Join Us for the 2018 Legislative Education Advocacy Day

Please take a few minutes to provide your perspectives to this Legislative Priorities Survey. Information from this survey will be used to create talking points for the 2018 Legislative Advocacy Event sponsored by Iowa's Area Education Agencies on Jan. 30-31. This event brings school administrators together from across Iowa to learn the most up-to-date legislative insight and meet with legislators face-to-face at the Capitol.

Legislative Update
Jan. 30, 2018
5:30 p.m.
Prairie Meadows Hotel

Legislative Visits
Jan. 31, 2018
7:30 - 9 a.m.
Iowa State Capitol

Registration is open until Jan. 23 at this link.

BoEE Superintendent Update – Dec. 2017

Topics in the Dec. 2017 BoEE Superintendent Update include CTE Information Technology endorsement, conditional licensure coursework progress, new licensing system and hiring December graduates.

Dec. 2017 School Leader Update

The Dec. 2017 issue of the School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is now available.