School Employees’ Benefits Advisory Council Special Election Update

• Pearl Dixon, building supervisor, Oakton High School.
  
  
• Amanda Morrow, administrative assistant, Dunn Loring Center.
  
  
• Clarence Tweedy, bus driver, Lorton Center.

An election for one representative and an alternate for the teacher-scale job group will be held electronically December 10 and 11 via e-mail for active teacher-scale employees. There were no nominating petitions for the instructional assistant job group.

Questions about the election process may be directed to the Office of Employee Performance and Development at 571-423-3252.

The Outstanding Performance Award (OPA) Committee will meet on February 28, 2008. All unified-scale (except school-based administrators) employees and instructional assistants are eligible for nomination. An OPA recipient may receive a maximum payment of $1,000 net after taxes.

All nominations should be sent to T. G. Bowen, director, Office of Salary Services, Gatehouse Administration Center I, suite 2400, and must be submitted by February 1, 2008. In addition to the original OPA nomination, 15 copies should be submitted for distribution to committee members. Additional information pertaining to the OPA can be found in the current version of Regulation 4670.

VPN Available for All FCPS Employees

FCPS uses a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to allow its employees to access school system computer network resources when they are not at an FCPS site. Every FCPS employee has permission to use VPN, but a small piece of software is needed. The VPN software can be downloaded from the VPN Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) web site on FCPSnet (http://fcpsnet.fcps.edu/it/CPS/itcsc/itservicedesk/vpnfaq.htm). This software is not available for download from home, so if you plan to connect back to an FCPS resource when you are not at an FCPS site, please be sure to download, install, and test the software before leaving your site. 

If you would like more information on VPN and the regulations that govern its use, see the FCPS Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) Regulation 6410, the Data Security Regulation 6220, the Data Security Policy 6220, and the Remote Access Technical Bulletin 631.

The IT Service Desk can be reached at 703-503-1600 or ITServiceDesk@fcps.edu for questions or further information. Please note that the IT Service Desk only supports computer equipment that is supplied by FCPS.

Register Now for Winter-Spring ACE Classes

Registration for winter and spring 2008 (January-April) classes offered by the Office of Adult and Community Education (ACE) is now under way. Course offerings can be viewed at www.fcps.edu/aceclasses, and most, but not all, classes can be registered for online. The course catalog, ACE Classes, is in the mail to residents and will also be available at Fairfax County public libraries and ACE registration centers.

Online registration for spring 2008 academy courses will be available beginning at 4:30 p.m. on January 2, 2008. All employees must register for courses through MyPLT.

Follow these steps to use MyPLT for the first time:

1. Go to http://www.fcps.edu/plt/MyPLT/index.html.
   
   
2. Click on the LOGIN button.
   
   
3. Type your FCPS domain name in the username field.
   
   
4. Type the same domain name in the password field.
   
   
5. Click on the LOGIN button.
   
   
6. You will be prompted to type a new password with a maximum length of 8 characters.

The FCPS Spring Academy, ACCESS, and Leadership Academy Seminars catalogs will be available online at http://www.fcps.edu/plt/catalogs.htm starting on December 17.

If you have problems with your user name or password, contact the IT Service Desk at 703-503-1600 or ITServiceDesk@fcps.edu.