Steamboat Springs School Board members on Aug. 11 heard the district's end-of-year staff-survey summary and a proposed, year-long professional-development plan meant to address teacher workload, recognition and professional growth. Dr. Tim Ritter presented the results and next steps to the board.

Ritter told the board the district's overall survey score rose from 3.82 (2023) to 3.93 (2024), and to 4.08 in the fall, but showed some regression by spring 2025. He said areas of concern included manageable workload and measures tied to professional growth and advancement. "Professional growth is consistently seen as a high threat," Ritter said, adding that some items tracked disagreement rates (the percent of staff expressing disagreement) rather than raw satisfaction.

The presentation matters because the district plans its calendar and in-year training around staff needs. Ritter and district staff outlined three core PD areas for 2025-26: high-impact instruction, professional learning communities, and curricular-resource adoption training for staff directly involved with instructional materials. The plan includes multi-day, repeated PD; virtual follow-ups to keep costs reasonable and sustain training; expanded restorative-practices sessions; and teacher supports such as differentiated offerings and PLC time to implement new strategies. Ritter described a PD slogan to guide the effort, "anchored in excellence, driven by growth."

District administrators said they will switch survey platforms from EAB to Panorama to gain broader benchmarks and richer, content-specific reporting. Celine (district staff member) explained that Panorama permits deeper, comparable statewide data and more targeted qualitative follow-up; Ritter and Celine said follow-up interviews in buildings will dig into ambiguous questions.

Board members pressed on particulars. Laura (board member) asked whether survey items could solicit more precise qualitative feedback; Celine and Ritter said in-school follow-ups and the Panorama instrument will provide that. Board members also raised workload causes such as student behavior; Ritter and Celine said restorative-practices work and revisions to the district discipline matrix were intended to address behavior-related workload concerns.

The PD schedule presented to the board lists multiple district PD days throughout the year with required sessions (for example, a Tim Cash series on critical reasoning and creativity), content strands for multilingual learners and science, and training on generative AI ethics and logistics for K'12 staff. Ritter noted some training (CPI, CPR) is logistical and cannot be deferred to PD days and said district principals requested building-level celebration/planning time included in the calendar. The district will also pilot continued virtual sessions with outside presenters to stretch resources.

No formal board motions were taken on the survey summary or the PD plan at the meeting; administrators said the PD plan and the switch to Panorama are the district's next steps and will be implemented by staff.

Board members asked for more granular school-level analysis and a teacher-voice component for the Panorama rollout. Ritter said the district will refine questions and follow up in buildings and with principals to connect PD to measurable student-growth outcomes.

The board will continue monitoring implementation and revisit survey and PD metrics during the year.