Omaha Public Schools outlines districtwide professional‑learning system, moves registration into Canvas

Omaha Public Schools officials presented a district workshop on professional learning alignment, telling the Board of Education that the district is moving toward a unified, phased professional‑learning system that uses Canvas for registration, delivery and analytics.

The presentation, led by members of the Office of Professional Learning and Chief School Improvement Officer Suzanne Creamer, said the work is grounded in the district’s moonshot goal of having all students reading on grade level by 2030 and in five evidence‑based guiding principles for adult learning. Officials described a phased rollout of a facilitator development network (FDN), department‑by‑department discovery and migration meetings, and the creation of 5‑, 3‑ and 1‑year learning arcs for role groups across OPS.

Why it matters: Leaders said professional learning is a system levers tied to the district’s accreditation and school improvement work and is intended to create consistent, job‑embedded learning for every role from nutrition services to principals. Centralizing offerings in Canvas is meant to provide “just‑in‑time” access to learning artifacts, allow staff to revisit courses, and capture enrollment and engagement data to inform continuous improvement.

Officials described three main components of the plan: alignment of professional learning with the moonshot and strategic plan; shared guiding principles to evaluate new offerings (transformative learning/change management, reflection and feedback, collaborative participation, equity, and learning design); and Canvas as a unified tool for catalog, registration and access. Suzanne Creamer, Chief School Improvement Officer, said the district intends to keep many courses available after their initial offering when appropriate and to archive others to avoid confusion during registration cycles.

Presenters showed Canvas examples already in use: a registration site for district instructional coaching, a District Professional Learning Day enrollment that served more than 6,000 staff, and paraprofessional online modules that more than 700 paraprofessionals used during improvement‑day late starts. Alex (professional learning staff) said the Canvas catalog also tracks enrollment and provides built‑in tools to support blended, online and face‑to‑face learning. "We had over 6,000 staff across the district" register for a recent district professional learning day, presenters said.

The facilitator development network (FDN) will initially be an internal network of OPS facilitators who will be trained on the district’s guiding principles and learning designs. Presenters said external speakers or partners may be used for in‑person events, but their materials and artifacts will be included in Canvas so staff can access them later. The team emphasized the system is a “closed ecosystem” for OPS content at this stage, with expansion to more departments over time.

Board members asked how long content will remain available, whether external partners’ materials will be hosted, how feedback and quizzes are handled, and how the district will ensure equity and cultural relevance. Presenters said retention of course access will depend on the learning type and need; some items (for example safety protocols or principal institute materials) will remain open, while other courses may be archived to avoid registration confusion. Presenters said feedback mechanisms in Canvas and research‑department surveys are used to provide both immediate and descriptive feedback to participants and building leaders.

The team noted examples of improvement processes tied to learning: principals receive feedback on improvement‑day agendas, articulation day templates are available for grade‑band transitions, and structured literacy and MTSS materials are being used in schools with artifacts reviewed through improvement cycles. Presenters said analytics inside Canvas will allow the district and its leaders to report participation counts and basic engagement metrics for board review.

No board action or vote was taken; the item was an information workshop. Presenters said the timeline will bring all departments into the system over multiple semesters and to prioritize some departments sooner when district initiatives (for example an enterprise resource planning rollout) require earlier training.

Ending: Board members expressed support and asked for future updates showing long‑range plans and implementation metrics. The workshop closed with the board chair noting the meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.