WWU

DCS Video: Community Partnerships

We are pleased to announce the completion of our first Community Partnership DVD for your viewing. The participants on the DVD represent voices from communities across the state expressing the importance of community engaging and support. Our goal is to allow these examples to give the viewer a greater appreciation of the value and involvement of all communities.

You may contact Community Partnerships and Support Services for more information.

Servella Lee Terry

New Destination for Your Travel Expenses on October 1

TO: All Fiscal and other Staff    

FROM:    Joe Holzmer, Executive Director of Finance and Administration

DATE:    September 18, 2009

SUBJECT:    TRIPS Alert **** TRIPS Alert**** TRIPS Alert **** 

Please be aware that we will NO longer be using TRIPS as of September 28, 2009.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:    If you are not up-to-date with submission of your mileage reimbursement requests, by September 25, 2009, YOU MAY NOT BE PAID.  At a minimum, your requests will become taxable income to you if submitted after 60 Days old.  At the maximum payment could be withheld for a substantial length of time.  

In either event YOUR mileage/travel reimbursement requests must be APPROVED THRU 2ND LEVEL APPROVAL before Friday, September 25, 2009, in order to be reimbursed.  

If mileage/travel reimbursement requests have not been approved thru 2nd level approval by 2:30 p.m. on September 25, 2009, the remaining unclaimed days in September will be entered on October 1st in Edison.

Beginning October 1, you may begin entering your travel and mileage reimbursement requests directly into Edison.

Here's a link to the Edison guide  about learning how to handle travel expenses.

Adoption Tour Readying for October Rollout

The 2009 Adoption Tour celebrates its fifth exciting year of growth in promoting the message of permanence for children through adoption! 

The riders begin Monday, October 5 in Johnson City on their new tour route.

The Adoption Tour is proud to keep our theme for 2009: A Journey Home!  Through the traditional symbol of childhood, a bicycle, 75 enthusiasts will embark on a statewide tour pedaling 433.7 miles in 5 days to spotlight the journey each child takes on their way to their forever family. 

In addition to celebrating adoptions, we will also ride for hundreds of children who are still awaiting their forever family.  So please join us, won’t you?  In a child’s celebration of, and pursuit for, A Journey Home, by supporting The Adoption Tour!  For more information, please visit adoptiontour.org where you can find pictures, videos, and maps on the Adoption Tour 2009.

Flu Follow-Up: Google Labs' Flu Trends

The folks at Google have come up with a new way to track flu trends -- based on the Web search terms that people are using from around the world.

Status Report: Hamilton County and Special Educational Services

During the 2008-2009 school-year, 211 students with or suspected of having educational disabilities were served by DCS Education and the Hamilton County School System. Of those served, 170 of the students were from the Hamilton County Region and the other 41 were placed here from other counties. Of course, this count does not take into consideration those children under the age of three that are served by Tennessee Early Intervention.

As of today, June 11, 2009, there are 111 students in state custody with educational disabilities: 85 from Hamilton Co and 24 placed here from other counties. (5 Bradley Co; 4 Marion Co; 2 each from Coffee, McMinn, Franklin, and Warren Co; 1 each from Blount, Campbell, Knox, Lawrence, Polk, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi; and 1 student from Michigan here on ICPC.

We education specialist also serve 41 Hamilton Region students with educational disabilities in other regions of the state and I am assisted by the Education Specialist from the region in which the children are placed. 

As a team, we are backed up by our Education Consultant 2s (supervisors) and our illustrious leader, DCS Director of Education Mary Meador, and last but not least our ever-willing-to-help Administrative Secretary, Shirley Verble.

Lois Rhea

Edison Financials rolling out July 1 at DCS

(Editor's Note: Edison Financials Roll-Out has since been pushed back to October 1, 2009 )

The beginning of the fiscal year means that DCS will begin handling its financial transactions in a new way. The Edison financials package is going live July 1. Sure, any new computer system will have its hiccups and its adjustment period, but Edison marks a profound and vastly more modern improvement over the antiquated systems that Tennessee has long used. This is change that is long overdue, and we're determined to make it work for all us.

 I'm a DCS employee. What does this shift to Edison Financials mean for me?

First, we're not talking about the Human Resources component of Edison, the part that handles your payroll, your time and your 401K. At DCS, Edison financials will handle foster-parent board payments and payments to vendors, for example. Private providers will rely on it to process their invoices, submit requests for proposals and to receive payment for services. It will be the backbone of how DCS pays its bills, and how it issues its bills -- how it does business, in other words -- so it primarily affect DCS fiscal units. It will also handle mileage and travel expenses.

 Did you say mileage?

Yes.

Right now, we use TRIPS, and we're in the process of closing out that system at the end of the current fiscal year. Come July 1, those of you who file for mileage and travel expenses will use the new Edison financial package. We're still fine-tuning the instructions, but if you want an overview of how it will work, here's the self-study link at the Edison site.

 

I'm a DCS provider. What do I need to know?

We want this to be as transparent as possible. You just need to know that we are in the midst of a big transition. You can help out most effectively by handling your invoices and contract issues as timely as possible. For many of you, though, we hope that this will won't be a big change. Some of our documentation and forms will have a different look, and some cases, additional information you're not used to seeing will be provided. Check the contact list below if you have further questions.

 

What happens next?

 Over the next few days, you'll be hearing from us with up-to-the-minute updates and instructions as the countdown continues. Remember, you can always check the links yourself.

 

Help! Who will answer my questions?

The fiscal unit managers in each region are the first place to turn. Here's who they are:

Northeast

        Hobert McCreary         423-979-5238

East, Smoky

            Steve Bass                         865-425-4457

Knox

            Martin Krall                     865-594-7091 #141

Southeast, Hamilton

          Ray Taranto                      423-296-2267

Upper Cumberland

            Sheryl Figg                      931-646-3151

Mid Cumberland

                   David Krebs          615-360-4398

Davidson                   

John Payne                            615-532-4032

South Central

Dean Harvill       931-490-6440

Northwest, Shelby

    Melanie Johnson        731-364-3733

Southwest  

          Yvonne Hayden        731-426-0764

But what if I have questions for the Fiscal Division in Central Office?

Call Joe Holzmer at 615-741-7263 or Cynthia Setters at 615-253-5978.

Or Kathy Jones in our contracts office, 741-0581

Thanks,

Joe Holzer and Cynthia Setters.

Big Success with Aggression Replacement Training

Henderson House Group Home is proud to announce that one its residents, Justin, was the first person in the state of Tennessee to be recognized for displaying all 15 character traits as part of the Evidenced Based Aggression Replacement Training Program.

Like some of our other residents, Justin was initially skeptical of the A.R.T program, but he eventually became one of the best participants.  He displayed an early understanding of all of the character traits, and he was always willing to assist staff and students become more familiar with the traits.  He volunteered to co-facilitate on many occasions, and he was always forthcoming with positive feedback during group discussions regarding A.R.T. and related character traits. 

Justin is at the end of his program at Henderson House, but the lessons he has learned from the ART program and the staff here at Henderson House will follow him for years to come!

Here's some video about ART:

Quitting Seminars Begin In May

Good morning,

 

As mentioned in the last Tobacco Use Surcharge update, a series of tobacco quit seminars will be held across the state beginning in May.  In fact, these sessions begin next week and will run throughout the month of May and into June.

 

In order to make employees aware of these seminars, we're sending along the attached flier with seminar dates for the next three weeks.  Please distribute and share this with your employees accordingly.

 

Dates and locations for the remainder of May and June will be sent to members via mail at their home address.  We will be sure to also pass this information on to you when it becomes available.

 

Should additional dates be added, we'll also communicate those to you.

 

As always, please contact us with any questions you may have at benefits.administration@tn.gov.

Updates on Tobacco Surcharge

From our colleagues at Cover Tennessee:

As you know by know by now, the State, Local Education and Local Government Insurance Committees approved at their meeting on Tuesday a plan which will put in place a $50 per-month tobacco surcharge and a quitter’s refund for all insurance plan members who use tobacco.  This surcharge will be implemented Jan. 1, 2010.

 

Attached is information we hope will be of help to you. You’ll find attached a one-page overview, FAQs, the Policy Briefing Paper the committees reviewed, a list of other states that have some sort of tobacco initiative and finally, a fact sheet.

 

This just happened on Tuesday so we do not have all the answers yet, but our staff is developing them as quickly as possible and we will e-mail new FAQs out to you in batches so you’ll have them.

 

Please note one important change, which is reflected in the attached documents:

 

In order to avoid the surcharge in 2010, employees and/or their spouses must be tobacco free by July 1, 2009.  This is a modification from the originally published date of June 1, 2009.

 

All of this, plus updated FAQs, is on our Web site at http://www.state.tn.us/finance/ins/ins.html and we would like for you to direct all inquires to that central point of information.  Also, please ask your employees to e-mail their questions or concerns to benefits.administration@tn.gov.  Tell them we intend to answer each employee directly.

-eds

 

Breaking News From the Upper Cumberland

WWU:
So, how was the COA site visit?

Upper Cumberland Regional Administrator Cheri Richards:

I am so proud of how my region did. We took on more curve balls than the Red Sox last season, and we hit it out of the ball park. They said we were a model region.

Then we rested for just a few minutes and have already made some plans for next steps because we want to ensure that the COA standards are woven into our everyday practice.

Congratulations, Upper Cumberland. Congratulations.