GHAEA Voice

From Lori Kinyon, director of human resources As the holiday break approaches, here is a quick reminder about how you should handle the upcoming days when the agency is closed.      The last regularly scheduled work day for the Agency is  Thurs., Dec. 24 . All offices will be closing early that day at  2:30 pm , and all hourly employees working that day will be excused at that time. For certified staff,  Dec. 24  through  Jan. 1  is a recess period (Master Contract Article XII), and you should not have any scheduled work days during that time, nor should you adjust an early out day on your last scheduled work day in December.      All year round employees will need to enter appropriate leave for any days the agency is closed during the break, other than Christmas and New Year's Day as they are paid holidays. Options for leave include vacation, personal day, compensatory time, unpaid, or any combination of these in the leave system. Please have your leave entered before leaving

Congratulations to Elliott Elem., Griswold CSD, for being one of five schools to receive an award through Google and the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council. Last week, the district was awarded $4,000, along with schools in Pleasant Hill, Rockwell, Sioux City and Waterloo. The school hopes to use the money to purchase equipment to promote STEM education. More on this and last week's Hour of Code coming up!     

Some of you may remember Sarah Watkins. She was employed with GHAEA as a part-time school based interventionist, 2013-15. Regional Administrator  Jenny Barnett  shared this heartwarming story about Sarah and her fiance, Chris Ridl. Instead of setting up a gift registry for themselves, they asked their wedding guests to donate to Toys for Tots. With 270 guests invited to their wedding, that resulted in a lot of toys for children! Sarah and Chris were united in marriage on Dec. 5. Sarah is now a case worker with the Missouri Dept. of Social Services.  View the story here!

We have a long list of birthdays to carry through the first part of January!

Sandi Burk (literacy consultant) and Mark Draper (special education director) presented  What's Special about Special Education? Specially Designed Literacy Instruction at this year's AESA Conference in New Orleans, Dec. 2-5. Their presentation was one of more than 100 presentations over the course of three days.  The theme of this year's conference was  Get Rid of the Noise and Listen to the Music .  The Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) is a professional organization serving educational service agencies in 45 states. 

Marie Neve , literacy consultant, Missouri Valley, believes "literacy makes all learning possible." Husband Loyd is a loan processor. They have two adult children, Stephen and Jaclyn, and two grandchildren. Marie enjoys gardening, reading and spending time with her grandsons. "My husband and I love spending days reading at the beach!" .  

12-4-2000   Debra Hayes 12-6-2010   Susan Himes 12-11-1989   Julia Hood

I would like to thank everyone at Halverson, especially my co-workers in Media, for the support they have given me and my husband with the passing of my mother-in-law, Helen Dewaele. They were always willing to listen no matter what else was going on. Helen was not only my mother-in-law, but my friend and we had lots of fun together over the years.