Directors table professional development dates

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Mt. Pleasant School Board members were caught in a catch-22 situation Monday night as they struggled to make a decision on Superintendent of School Dr. John A. Roderer?s request to incorporate sufficient professional development time into the school calendar.

After considerable input from the instructional staff and parents, the board tabled a decision and referred the matter back to the policy committee. However, directors did approve Roederer?s request for 90 minutes of professional development time weekly during the 2013-14 school year.

?My kids come home and say they hate late starts because it is total chaos the rest of the day,? observed Anne Davidson. ?You are taking valuable time out of the classroom for this. We are taking an extra Monday away from education.?

Roederer recommended a 90-minute late start every Monday of the 2013-14 school year, beginning the first Monday following Labor Day, for professional development.

In rationale for the request, Roederer said, ?The need for professional development time has exceeded our ability to creatively meet it without adjusting some day?s schedule. However, we believe providing training is important enough to do so. It affects the quality of instruction the board and community expects.?

He listed the following as some of the professional development needs:

? Staff members need time to learn from experts about current, most effective instructional techniques and embedding new technology into the curriculum.

? To strengthen student performance and programs to better equip them for the 21st Century workforce requires teachers to collaborate, brainstorm and learn from one another as well as outside experts.

? Opportunity to continue data team meeting with professional development.

? Eliminates classroom disruption on the date of data team meeting.

? Provide time to prepare for implementation of Iowa Core, RTI, common assessments; research instructional strategies with a high ?effect? size.

State law requires at least 36 hours annually outside the minimum school day must be used for professional development.

During the discussion, different days and times (late start vs. early out) were debated.

?If you asked the elementary school staffs, they would say they get the best out of the kids in the morning,? said Van Allen Elementary School kindergarten instructor Angie Jandrey. ?High school (staff) would probably say (they get most out of the kids) late in the day. It is the nature of the beast?We need 90 minutes each week.?

Roederer said Mondays are the best day for professional development. ?Wednesday is a block day at the high school, Tuesdays and Thursdays have a lot of activities going on after school and you wouldn?t want to do it on Friday, so it really leaves Monday as the only day.

?It would be an inconvenience any time we had it,? Roederer assessed. ?It really gets down to a half dozen of one and a half dozen of another.?

Directors balked at making a decision on the matter, saying they have not had enough time to study it.

Director Ken Feldmann and school board President Brad Holtkamp claimed they were not aware of the matter until they looked at the agenda over the weekend and could not support the request without studying it. ?We are being asked to make a decision in a hurry,? Feldmann said.

Lonny Morrow, school board member, said the matter is a ?can?t win? situation. ?We can?t please everyone. Whatever decision we make, we are going to offend someone?The policy committee talked about it, and I know there is not an easy solution.?

Davidson asked why parents weren?t surveyed on the matter. ?You are affecting 1,700 households. I know we want to make everybody happy,? she said. ?This is a decision affecting 1,700 households and we didn?t know anything about it until this past weekend?The chaos that goes on at the elementary school to get the students going (after professional development time) almost shoots the whole day.?

Board member Regina Erickson said she could see both sides of the equation. ?Professional development has evolved over the years. I realize collaboration is very important. My concerns are that we are taking vital time away from the classroom. However, the collaboration (of the instructional staff) through professional development improves instruction and balances things out.?

The policy committee will discuss the matter during its next regular meeting Tuesday, June 4, at 7 a.m. in the Central Office.

It is expected the committee will have a recommendation for the board to consider during the monthly director meeting Monday, June 10, at 7 p.m.