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Director outlines CMCSS Goal 6: expand targeted professional learning for certified and classified staff
Summary
Tina Smith, director of professional learning, told the board the district plans to provide role-aligned, targeted professional learning—highlighting facilitator development, expanded offerings, and data showing high participant agreement on alignment and readiness to implement.
Tina Smith, director of professional learning, presented the board with the district's Goal 6 for 2025–26: "provide targeted professional learning that is aligned to the roles of both our certified and classified employees, but we're paying particular attention to those roles that directly support students." Smith said staff will emphasize facilitator development, content refinement and role-specific series for classified staff.
Smith reported quantitative results from recent activity: district staff earned more than 239,000 hours of professional learning last year (district-captured hours only), and the summer learning event gathered about 1,400 adults and produced more than 10,000 hours of learning. She said the district offered 436 unique course offerings during the summer, which totaled approximately 764 class sessions to ensure access for staff who needed repeat offerings.
To improve quality, Smith said facilitators complete a multi-phase "facilitating district learning" course and will move into a third phase this year. She cited participant survey data showing 96–97% agreement that sessions were aligned, engaging and prepared participants to use strategies in the classroom. "They're walking away feeling ready to put that learning into practice, which is the most important part of professional learning," she said.
Smith described specific offerings: an eight-part behavior-management series for educational assistants (more than 53% of assistants completed at least one module); expanded administrator courses (22 offerings during summer); an eight-part bus-driver series on managing student behavior created in collaboration with transportation; and a pre-service classroom management workshop, "Comp," required for new hires before they begin classroom duties.
Board members asked operational questions. A board member asked whether out-of-district training costs are borne by teachers; Smith said costs vary and some state events have no registration fee but travel costs may apply and are not captured in the district's internal data. A board member asked about required in-service hours: a staff member present said, "the state outlines that teachers need to receive 30 hours of in service each year. We have 12 of them built into the district's calendar, so they have to get 18 hours on their own outside of the workday." The meeting included additional clarifications about mentor personalization (89% of surveyed new teachers agreed mentoring was personalized) and that more than 300 new teachers were hired for the current school year.
Smith closed by describing continued work on facilitator capacity, course refinement tied to school needs, and monitoring participation data; no board action was taken during the presentation.
