Heartland AEA is pleased to announce the hiring of Kristi Upah as the Agency’s new Chief Student Services Officer. Upah, a 26-year Heartland AEA staff member, will replace Randy Allison, who has served as the Acting Director of Special Education for the past two years.
As the Chief Student Services Officer, Upah will advocate for an appropriate and effective education for all children and youth while fulfilling the responsibilities of the Heartland AEA Director of Special Education. She will collaborate with all work groups at Heartland AEA and with the families, schools and communities Heartland AEA serves. She will be the Agency’s liaison to the Iowa Department of Education for special education and related services and will represent Heartland AEA in the statewide AEA Special Education Directors’ Network.
Upah has devoted her career to serving students and educators in the Heartland AEA service area. Since 1993, she has served as a school psychologist, Staff Development Specialist for School Psychology, Supervisor of School Psychological Services, Assistant Director of Innovation & Accountability and Regional Director.
As a regional director, Upah has provided coordination and leadership for the provision of AEA services to districts and schools within Boone and Story counties. Other responsibilities during this time have included coordination of special education job-alike groups and providing direct support to job-alike facilitators and lead teams, facilitation and participation in professional development design and delivery workgroups (PBIS, Behavior Capacity Building, Math Capacity Building, Child Find Professional Learning Cadre) and participation in agency special education leadership workgroups.
Upah earned her PK-12 Administrator/Supervisor of Special Education Endorsement from Drake University, a Ph.D. in psychology with a school psychology emphasis from Iowa State University, a specialist degree in school psychology from Iowa State and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State.
She will begin her new duties on July 1, 2019.
Illustrative Mathematics (IM) has recently authored curriculum for grades 6 - 8, as well as algebra, geometry, and algebra 2. Please complete the following survey by April 19 to gauge your district's interest in using IM curriculum in the 2019-20 school year. Two teacher trainings are available; one for grades 6 - 8, and one for algebra/geometry/algebra 2. If there is sufficient interest in teacher trainings, Heartland AEA will coordinate the trainings. Additional information about the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum can be found here: https://www.illustrativemathematics.org/curriculum/.
Last fall, Hanover Research, a global market research and analytics firm, asked you to provide input on the services of Heartland AEA. The firm recently released results of its independent survey of Iowa’s educators regarding the services of Iowa’s Area Education Agency (AEA) system.
Key findings of the survey revealed that educators are extremely satisfied with AEA services overall in the areas of special education, educational services, instructional services, media and technology. Some services received well over 90 percent customer satisfaction rates, including audiology/hearing, due-process mediation, licensure, audio/video production, and graphic design.
Two areas of growth indicated by the survey were behavioral help services and mental health services, which are growing concerns in schools statewide. AEA personnel, along with Iowa school officials, met with state legislators this legislative session to secure additional funding for these issues, in particular.
Feel free to review the Hanover Research executive summary regarding the survey.
Thank you for providing input on our services! As always, contact any of your building’s AEA representatives if you have questions or need assistance.
