Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Kajeet Announces Lower Pricing for Iowa Schools!

AEA Purchasing, AEPA and Kajeet are pleased to announce a new pricing agreement for Iowa schools! This pricing is effective immediately. Please note the following details: 

  • Lower pricing reflects applicable TAF and shipping, included in the price

  • Revised Product/Data SKU descriptions have been modified to better align with ECF and E-Rate programs

  • Kajeet’s Data Plans are now unlimited, featuring 4 main data plans:
         Student Essentials
         Student Unlimited
         Home Unlimited
         SmartBus Unlimited

Certain SKUs in Kajeet’s portfolio have been retired due to End of Life (EOL). The total number of SKUs has been reduced, greatly simplifying the business model. Also, please note we have recently added two new Kajeet products:

  • Kajeet HomeWireless is a new configuration of hardware and service that safely and securely connects multiple students in one household.

  • Sentinel Accessibility addresses students with impairments and disabilities; these features were added to the Sentinel platform for all users at no cost. 

On behalf of AEA Purchasing, Kajeet is happy to discuss these exciting changes with you, so please reach out to your dedicated Kajeet representative for more details. Be sure to reference AEPA IFB 021.5 D to insure contract pricing.

Kajeet
Chris Chambers, Business Development Executive
cchambers@kajeet.com
240-482-4623 

Happy saving!


Surprising Ways to Improve School Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is of the utmost importance in school buildings — perhaps even more so in this ongoing time of COVID. Did you know taking a wholistic approach to “sealing” your building envelope can help you to improve IAQ? Fortunately, through AEA Purchasing vendor partner Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance and affiliated construction services company WTI, you can obtain air barrier testing and solutions to not only improve indoor air quality, but to improve interior safety, comfort, health, and energy efficiency – all through the AEPA contract. 

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average school building is 42 years old. In all buildings, (but especially in older buildings), there are often unseen gaps, cracks, and holes in the various parts of the building envelope. This can include roofs, walls, windows, doors and all the components in between. Their condition can impact ventilation, air distribution, pressurization, energy usage and ultimately, how comfortable, safe, and healthy the building’s interior is for staff and students. If you’d like to find out how “healthy” your building envelope is, the first step is to conduct an air barrier audit to find out where leaks occur.

What Is Air Leakage and Why Does It Matter?

“Air leakage” is any breach in any of the building envelope components that causes a lack of continuity between connections. This allows unintended infiltration/exfiltration to occur in a conditioned (heated or cooled) space. Common sources of unintended air leakage include roof/wall joints, mechanical vents, poorly insulated doors and windows, baseboards, outlets, roof level changes, and soffits/overhangs. An often-overlooked culprit is the joints of assemblies. Examples include roof/wall junctions, parapets, low level soffits, the intersections of different cladding systems, and internal vertical or horizontal shafts.

When unconditioned air seeps into your buildings and conditioned air leaks out, several things can happen.  HVAC systems struggle to keep up, resulting in wasted energy and uncontrollable costs. Hot and cold spots can develop, impacting occupant comfort. And unintentional air flow can bring with it odor, dirt, and pests – and potentially even the spread of viruses.

To prevent these issues, start with a professional air barrier audit to identify where leaks occur. The
auditor should also be able to provide you with air sealing options as well as with energy savings calculations to help you demonstrate how air sealing will improve energy efficiency and reduce costs.

COVID Contamination
According to the CDC, “SARS-CoV-2 viral particles spread between people more readily indoors than outdoors.” Indoor, occupied spaces are particularly susceptible areas of transmission and further spread because the virus is spread person to person.  As part of recently published COVID guidance, the CDC recommends evaluating ventilation and HVAC systems.  This is because the coronavirus can residually contaminate a building in two ways: infected droplets settling on high touch surfaces, or by infected droplets entering, settling, and traveling in the HVAC System. 

Through Tremco/WTI, you can also procure environmental diagnostics services, building and room decontamination, and HVAC system hygienic cleaning and restoration. 

Keep a “Healthy” Building Envelope
The building envelope is the first line of defense against weather, moisture, and pollutants. Maintaining its integrity is essential to keeping a “healthy” building that is safe and comfortable for building occupants. Better building envelope performance translates to better indoor air quality for healthier buildings with happier occupants. To learn more about improving your indoor air quality through Tremco/WTI solutions, please contact: 

Tremco/WTI
Jeremy Yoder
jyoder@tremcoinc.com
515.208.4241
AEA Purchasing contract: 
AEPA IFB 021-D 

About Tremco Roofing/WTI
Tremco Roofing & Building Maintenance and our affiliated construction services company WTI provide industry-leading roofing and building envelope solutions.  With a focus on improving long-term performance and ROI, our capabilities include quality products with an emphasis on sustainability.  Our roof restoration systems enable school districts to restore many types of roofing systems versus replacing them, potentially saving millions of dollars. And our unique Roof Management Programs take a holistic approach to managing roof inventory, so you can understand the condition of roof systems across your district, establish priorities and spend your money wisely for the best ROI and building performance. 

Through our affiliate Canam Building Envelope Specialists and Premier Services Partner PureAir Control Services, we can help you to address indoor air quality and Coronavirus remediation through the following: air barrier audits, building envelope testing, continuity systems, indoor environmental testing, and HVAC, building and room decontamination.

Tremco Roofing meets the needs of our school customers with a dedicated team that includes expert WTI Technicians who provide world-class diagnostics, repair and maintenance services, and Field Sales Representatives who are among the most highly trained and experienced roofing experts in the country.   Tremco Roofing/WTI solutions are available through the AEA for speed, quality, and compliance. To learn more, please visit tremcoroofing.com or request a consultation at yourroofexperts.com.

Monday, September 20, 2021

NSLW - Wild About School Lunch!

Mark your calendars for October 11-15 for this year's National School Lunch Week.  The theme, "Wild About School Lunch" seems to fit right in with the past year- it's been a JUNGLE to say the least.

The School Nutrition Association has all the resources you need to make your celebration a success- marketing materials, toolkits, handouts, artwork and much more. 

Find all of your NSLW information and resources here.
Here are a few fun Market Basket ideas to incorporate into your celebrations!  
 
1.  Use clementines (376566) or oranges (376690) to make tigers!  Use a permanent marker to draw a tiger face on the peel. 
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2. 411678 WG Animal Crackers- Use animal crackers to make a wild snack mix or to top a yogurt parfait.

3. Frost one of our Market Basket donuts with zebra, tiger, or leopard patterns.
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Brighton Jetty Bakery

4.  Do your kids love breakfast for lunch?  Try bird waffles- 983058
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5. Chili Owls- use your favorite chili recipe and add wings (crackers or a breadstick split in half), eyes (sour cream or mozzarella cheese) and a beak (cheese or orange pepper)! 
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A few more fun ideas: 
  • Grapes make egg-cellent snake eggs
  • Carrots or Cheetos can be tiger tails
  • Bananas are monkey treats
  • Fruit roll ups can be jungle vines.  
  • Serving areas can be turned into jungle cafe's
  • Staff can dress up like zoo keepers.  
Use your imagination and have fun! 

Don't forget to take pictures of your fun lunches, decorated serving areas, and NSLW celebrations and share them with us (barb@aeapurchasing.org)- we love to see your fun!    

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Unified Classroom™ Schoology Learning

From the folks over at Schoology, we bring you this post on their latest product, Unified Classroom™ !

PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education. Our mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way.

PowerSchool Unified Classroom 2021 simplifies data-driven teaching and learning with a best-in-class K-12 learning management system, integrated student assessment and reporting tools, and support for special programs so that teachers are better prepared to build and deliver personalized instruction to every student.

Check out this on-demand demo of Unified Classroom 2021.

Unified Classroom 2021 brings together three industry-leading technologies into one powerful classroom solution:

Unified Classroom™ Schoology Learning
K-12 LMS built for personalized instruction
Provide personalized experiences to students in any setting
Monitor student progress with embedded formative assessments
Access collaboration tools, shared resources, and professional learning communities
Support family engagement with built-in communication capabilities

Unified Classroom™ Performance Matters
Comprehensive assessment management designed to inform teaching and learning
Gain visibility into instructional gaps to identify and address unfinished learning
Support consistent student assessments across your district
Give curriculum teams and teachers more time to focus on student performance
Visualize, filter, and share student learning data securely within your district
Connect local and third-party assessment results with attendance, behavior, and SEL data

Unified Classroom™ Special Programs
Special education software for compliance, classroom, and case management
Simplify case management to help meet the needs of students with learning differences
Collaborate with general and special education staff
Meet 100% of district and state compliance requirements
Streamline documentation for IEPs, 504 plans, RTI, Gifted, and English language learners


Thursday, September 2, 2021

September Vendor Promotions

Have you checked out the latest info and specials from our vendor partners? 

What are you waiting for? 

Check out our September promotions today!