Thomas Cooley, School Improvement Consultant

AEA 9 Superintendents’ Meeting November, 2009

Thomas Cooley, School Improvement Consultant Department of Education 515-242-5132 [email protected]

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS

Governor Culver declared October 2009 as Cyber Security Awareness Month. Cyber Security Awareness Month was a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure.

The DAS-Information Security Office (ISO) has a variety of cyber security awareness brochures and bookmarks, including a Cyberbullies brochure. These items are available at no charge to schools.

For more information contact Alison Radl at [email protected] or visit the DAS-Information Security Office’s web site at: http://secureonline.iowa.gov/

Additional guidance related to cyberbullying is available on the DE website at: http://www.iowa.gov/educate/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1718%3Acyberbullying- guidance&catid=411%3Alegal-lessons&Itemid=1

APPLICATIONS FOR MODIFIDIED ALLOWABLE GROWTH FOR DROPOUT PREVENTION – DUE DECEMBER 15, 2009, 8:00 PM

The application for Modified Allowable Growth for Dropout Prevention will be accessible to districts after the first of November after certified enrollment and district cost per pupil (DCPP) have been calculated. An “Approval Page” was added this year for districts to see if their application has been approved or if changes need to be made. An auto email will be sent informing the district when an application has been approved/not approved and certified. Please remember that when the Proposed Services Summary is completed that these are services only for the identified population and not what is provided for ALL students in a building wide or district wide model. The service summaries are categorized by research- based strategies and then in columns to denote age levels for reporting programming provided at each level, such as elementary, middle/junior high, senior high, and alternative schools. The budget form has been modified to include FTEs of staff providing services, line item breakdowns for accounting purposes, and justification boxes for extraordinary expenses (administrators, special expenditures). The last form required for completion is the service summary for 2008- 2009 school year and several questions required from Iowa Code 257.38-257.41. Please feel free to contact Susan Walkup at the Department of Education (515-281-5718 or [email protected]) if you need assistance or have questions when completing your application.

SPECIAL EDUCATION FILES INFORMATION

We receive a variety of questions, especially as districts prepare for site visits. One question that has been asked relates to information about the maintenance of student records, in particular, special education student records. Information about special education student records is detailed in the AEA State Procedures Manual for Special Education – beginning on page 263. http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/spedresources/Procedures_manual.pdf

PARTNERSHIP GRANTS: TITLE IIA & B: IMPROVING MATH & IMPROVING SCIENCE

November 2009 Superintendent Meeting Notes page 1 of 4 Proposals are now being taken for Title II Parts A & B for FY 2009 funds. An overview is provided below. Specific information, including the Request for Proposal, is available at: http://www.regents.iowa.gov/HigherEd/titleii.htm  Prospective grant applicants must submit a letter of intent by November 20, 2009.  Complete proposals must be received by 4:30 PM, Friday, January 22, 2010, to be considered.  Grants are made on a competitive basis to eligible partnerships.  Proposals must provide professional development to pre-K-12 teachers and improve student academic achievement in mathematics and science.  Grants will be made for single- or multi-year projects of up to three years in duration.  Partnerships may request up to $150,000 per year for project costs. Due to the allocation of funds for multi-year projects, approximately 3-5 projects will be selected for the first year of funding from the current competition.  Applicants must partner with all of the following: o Accredited four-year institution of higher education; o AEA o High need LEA (see list of “Eligible High Need School Districts” as well as other grant information at the link above)

TEACHER LOAN FORGIVENESS/CANCELLATION – IOWA AND FEDERAL

Many teachers are eligible for loan forgiveness. A brief overview is given below. For more information go to: http://www.iowacollegeaid.org/ and click on “Loan Forgiveness.”

Iowa Teacher Loan Forgiveness (up to $6704) The State of Iowa offers cancellation benefits to teachers. The maximum annual award is 20% of the teacher’s total federal Stafford loan balance, including principal and interest, not to exceed the average resident tuition rate established for students attending universities governed by the Iowa Board of Regents for the first year following the recipient’s graduation.

Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Up to $5,000  New borrower after 1998  Teach 5 consecutive years in low income school  Meet definition of Highly Qualified Up to $17,500  Employed full-time as a mathematics or science teacher in an eligible secondary school or a  Special education teacher  Low income school  Highly qualified Perkins Loan Cancellation  Low income school  Teach in a shortage area. Areas 2008-09 & 2009-10 - Agriculture (5-12); English as a Second Language (K- 12); Family and Consumer Sciences (7-12); Foreign Language (all) (5-12); Guidance Counselor (K-8 & 5-12); Industrial Technology (5-12); Mathematics (5-12); Music (K-8 & 5-12); School Media Specialist (K-8 & 5-12); Science (all) (5-12); Talented & Gifted (K-12); various special

November 2009 Superintendent Meeting Notes page 2 of 4 DATES TO REMEMBER November 14 SBRC Hearing Request (deadline for requests to appear at the December 14 SBRC Meeting) November 15 Mentoring & Induction First Semester Counts The count is reported on the on-line data collection at the Department of Education's secure website. Questions may be directed to: [email protected], 515-281-4600 November 23 SBRC Exhibits due to Su McCurdy November 30 Reorganization effect next July 1- Last day for election November 30 is the last day for an election to reorganize a school district, effective the following July 1. Election results should be submitted to Joyce Thomsen, Consultant, Department of Education, as soon as possible following the election. Questions may be directed to: [email protected], 515-242- 5612 December 7 2008-2009 Dropout Verification Collection Open: Contact: Carla Schimelfenig (515) 281-3111 December 14 SBRC Meeting at the Grimes Building December 15 Dropout Prevention programs for MAG - last day to submit application December 15 is the last day to submit an application for the following year's Dropout Prevention programs for modified allowable growth (MAG). The School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) will take official action on the requests for modified allowable growth (MAG) for the returning dropout and dropout prevention program at its March meeting. Applications are submitted on the Department of Education's secure data collection website. Questions may be directed to: [email protected], 515-281-5718 December 16 2008-2009 Dropout Verification Deadline You can view a complete Iowa Department of Education calendar of events at http://www.iowa.gov/educate/calendar/calendar.html

November 2009 Superintendent Meeting Notes page 3 of 4 IDM TRAINING

IDM: How to Get Started! Statewide training For Schools and AEAs

For Whom: School leadership teams wanting to know about IDM & AEA folks who are working with schools ready to engage in IDM

By Whom: Shannon Harken and Wendy Robinson from Heartland AEA who have trained multiple school cohort teams

When: Dec. 10th (Thurs.) and Dec. 11th (Fri.) 9:00am -3:30pm

Where: West Des Moines Christian Church 4501 George Mills Civic Pkwy, West Des Moines (515) 223-1639 Link to map: http://maps.google.com/maps? hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF8&q=West+Des+Moines+Christian+Church&fb=1&cid=0,0,5642983294299707540&near=West+Des+Moines, +IA&ei=4sO7Sri5OdqOtge4tcTFDQ&sa=X&oi=manybox&resnum=3&ct=10

Why: The purpose of this training is to help school and AEA teams understand what is needed to start a strong IDM process within a school. The elements of consensus building, infrastructure, and implementation will be thoroughly discussed along with other practical strategies.

This is a 6 day training that has been condensed and compressed into 2 days of intensive information. Teams will be presented with practical information and given time to be engaged in interactive work and discussions. The goal is to send teams home prepared!

Please contact: Eric Neessen, [email protected] 515-281-0345 or Cynthia Knight, [email protected] 515-281-5287 for more information

Limit: 200 attendees

November 2009 Superintendent Meeting Notes page 4 of 4