New! FREE Introductory Webinar on August 26 |
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AESA Leadership Network:
Race, Racism, and Equity
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AESA has teamed up with Lee Teitel from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Kate Ericson, Executive Director of LEARN in Connecticut, to offer a limited-series leadership practice network exclusively for ESA directors.
Now Forming - Leadership Practice Network: Race, Racism, and Equity
The eight monthly, 2.5-hour sessions will provide participating directors with an informal setting to learn about and discuss key ideas about race, racism, and equity with peers. The approach will be personal and professional, focusing on increasing the participants' understanding and "racial literacy" and providing structured opportunities to apply those ideas as directors in their ESAs and regions.
Participants will develop a deeper understanding of whiteness, exploring how ideas like white privilege, white fragility, and white silence affect them personally and in their professional leadership roles. Directors who are planning initiatives or responding to racial inequities in their districts will get consultation support, ideas, and suggestions from their peers and the facilitators.
Free Introductory Webinar
Lee and Kate will present a FREE introductory webinar on Thursday, August 26 at 4 pm Eastern (3 pm Central; 2 pm Mountain; 1 pm Pacific; noon Alaska). Join them to learn more about this new leadership network.
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Ohio's Educational Service Center Network Helps Reimagine Education in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic
In spring of 2020, the Ohio ESC Association (OESCA) membership launched a statewide project, the Reframing Education Initiative, which was a direct response to the pandemic and in support of the work of the state’s High School Redesign Taskforce and the statewide strategic plan for education, Each Child, Our Future.
Read how 31 educators from Ohio’s 51 ESCs joined together on this project to create a framework that contains guiding questions and information about gathering data, creating a team, and areas to consider including instructional resources and expectations, non-building-based learning opportunities, the needs of exceptional and at-risk students, the delivery of remote and blended instruction, technology needs, communication planning, professional learning for educators, climate and culture and the mental health of students and staff.
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Nominations for Executive Council Now Open |
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A Message from the Current Council President, Wanda Cook-Robinson |
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Each year, the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) informs our membership of its call for executive council nominations. As the current president of AESA, I am sending along my personal invitation to encourage you to serve your national association as a member of the AESA Executive Council. The executive council is the governing body for our association and there is no better way to serve the association and its members than serving on the executive council!
The council provides oversight to all aspects of the association; advocacy efforts in Washington, DC; the continued development of a strong business relations program; networking activities like the annual conference, regional conferences, Community Groups; and, the support of various research and development initiatives. Serving on the executive council provides a great opportunity to influence and lead AESA!
Leadership, commitment, hard work, and loyalty all describe the attributes of council members. Past council members describe their experience serving on the executive council as having been one of the most impactful and meaningful experiences in their educational careers. Great work leads to great friends and the opportunity to engage in council work is well worth your consideration. I strongly encourage you to consider running for the council.
AESA Bylaws, Article III, Section (3.b.) states “In order to maintain twelve council members and have four-year terms of office, each region will elect council members three out of four years. The election sequence will be determined by the council with each region having a bye every four years.” This year the southern region has the bye and will not have a nominee. The states in the southern region include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
All nomination materials can be found on the AESA Executive Council webpage. I urge you to consider running for a council position. Nominations, biographical statements, a signed pledge letter, and a digital picture are due to AESA on or before September 17, 2021. Submissions can be emailed to John Bass, COO at jbass@aesa.us.
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Educators' Call To Action Conference is
September 15-17, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
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“Principles of AI for ESAs”
October 19, 21, 26, 28, 2021 | 2-4 pm EST
A four-session virtual workshop is designed specifically for ESAs:
Stay Current. Stay Informed. Learn with AESA!
• Identify the challenges AI can solve within your organization.
• Learn important principles, processes, and concepts related to AI.
• Explore how AI can solve problems and recognize potential pitfalls using ESA scenarios.
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Free Webinar: Maintenance of Equity Provision |
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Maintenance of Equity: What You Need to Know
Friday, Aug 13, 12 Noon ET
This free webinar is sponsored by AASA and open to AESA members.
The American Rescue Plan includes a new provision, "Maintenance of Equity," a requirement for state and local education agencies alike effective for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. This webinar will highlight the provision, what it might mean for your agency and districts, potential challenges, and strategies for navigating this new mandate for the coming school year.
This webinar is hosted by AASA and the School Superintendents Association and will feature Melissa Junge and Sheara Krvaric, Co-Founders, Federal Education Group.
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AESA's Leadership Networks
Bring Nationwide Colleagues Close to Home
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Entrepreneurial ESA Community of Practice
Begins September 28
Do you ever wonder how other entrepreneurial ESAs design products and services? How do they decide when to start a new service and when the right time is to stop a service? The purpose of this network is to explore those types of questions and learn with other entrepreneurial ESAs. Sessions will be held virtually six (6) times per year for 90 minutes each session. Additionally, the network participants will be intentional about meeting at AESA national events.
Dates:
All sessions will be held from 2 – 3:30 pm (EST).
- September 28
- November 23
- January 25
- February 22
- March 22
- May 24
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Women's Leadership Network
Hurry! There is Still Room in Cohort 2!
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The ESA Women in Leadership Network is a forum for you to strengthen your leadership by networking with other women leading educational service agencies.
This year, the ESA Women in Leadership Network will focus on leadership, career advancement, and personal development.
Each cohort will meet virtually for six 90-minute sessions. In addition, AESA will be hosting an in-person, two-day ESA Women in Leadership Retreat during spring 2022, specially designed for participants in the virtual network. (Watch the Online News for more information about the retreat.)
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Topics for Virtual Sessions:
Session 1: Leadership: Equity Leadership in a Politicized Environment
Session 2: Open Guided Discussion
Session 3: Career Advancement: Essential Negotiation Skills
Session 4: Open Guided Discussion
Session 5: Personal Development: Work-Life Balance
Session 6: Open Guided Discussion
Registration Fee for Virtual Sessions: $299 per person (OWLS [retirees] - $199)
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Cohort 2 Virtual Meeting time: Noon – 1:30 pm EST
September 29
November 2
January 11
March 15
May 18
July 12
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Employee Education Lowers Healthcare Costs |
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In 2009, trustees at the Allegheny County Schools Health Insurance Consortium (ACSHIC) were worried.
The Pittsburgh region was experiencing a slow recovery from the Great Recession, prompting a severe downsizing of the city's robust corporate sector. Well-paying middle management jobs were vanishing, leaving many of the region's 20,000 suburban public school teachers as their families' primary breadwinners.
Meantime, healthcare costs were skyrocketing, increasing at average rates of more than 10 percent a year. The willingness of financially stressed property taxpayers to foot the bill for educator health plans would soon be tested if something wasn't done.
No one could foresee that this would happen. More than a decade earlier, four dozen suburban school districts in Pittsburgh took the unusual step of forming a self-insured, healthcare consortium. This decision to cooperate gave Pittsburgh's suburban school districts the heft they needed to negotiate more favorable rates for healthcare services.
But participation in wellness programs lagged. So too, did the consortium's ability to help members more efficiently use healthcare services that were too complex to navigate and not transparently priced.
Enter Community Health Magazine
The Chicago-based company is the nation's leading publisher of customized quarterly health and wellness magazines that are targeted to self-insured health plans, traditional employers, and to healthcare providers. Since subscribing to Community Health, AESA members in five states have experienced reductions in the growth of healthcare costs by about 500 basis points, from annual growth rates of 8-12 percent to 3-5 percent.
Community Health is a vital partner. Its print and digital magazine content hone in on testimonials that are unique to each and every client, to employee education regarding underutilized benefits, and to local navigation of healthcare providers. Community Health's savvier clients use the pages of the magazine to inform employees or plan members of annual plan design changes that are meant to provide quality care at a more reasonable cost.
The Educational Service Center in suburban Dayton, Ohio, for example, hired Community Health after it was socked with a 26 percent increase in rates three years ago. Board members used their new magazine to explain to new employees how high-deductible plans work and to teach existing employees how to better utilize their traditional plans. The result: annual increases dropped into the single digits.
For more information, please click the Case Study tab of the Community Health presentation that is linked here www.resultswithwellness.com.
Even better, contact Caitlyn Bettenhausen at 708-941-9917 to set up a zoom presentation and follow-up meeting at the upcoming annual AESA convention in Houston.
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Reminder: Registration is OPEN for
these Upcoming AESA Events
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Educators' Call to Action Conference
September 15-17, 2021
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
Washington, DC
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AESA Annual Conference
December 1-4, 2021
Marriott Marquis
Houston, TX
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