Hatboro-Horsham presents districtwide professional development plan, highlights structured literacy and PLC rollout

Dr. David Weber, director of curriculum for the Hatboro-Horsham School District, presented an overview of the district's 2025'26 professional development plan at the Sept. 15 work session.

The plan covers roughly 400 certificated teachers and administrators and is designed both to support continuous instructional improvement and to ensure teachers meet Pennsylvania's continuing education requirements under Act 48 (180 hours every five years), Weber said. "This is the plan of professional development and learning for, roughly, 400 educational teachers and administrators," Weber said.

The program includes a two'year induction for new teachers overseen by Dr. Bree D'Angelo. Year 1 provides orientation, mentor assignments, curriculum familiarization and school tours; this year those orientation sessions ran Aug. 18'20. Year 2 emphasizes a project'based action research requirement culminating in a May expo where year'two teachers present findings to colleagues.

Weber highlighted a late'June/early'July summer institute run in partnership with MCIU that drew 35 K'8 teachers and focused on structured literacy, a set of classroom practices tied to the science of reading. He also said 76 teachers contributed more than 700 hours to 22 curriculum projects over the summer, including K'12 STEAM/STEM curriculum rewrites and grade'level planning tied to curriculum review cycles.

The district is continuing a second'year rollout of professional learning communities (PLCs). Weber said PLCs group teachers who share instructional responsibility (for example, all fourth'grade teachers at a school or all biology teachers at the high school) and operate in cyclical meetings focused on reviewing data, planning instruction and measuring student outcomes. Personalized professional learning (PPL) is separate but complementary: teachers may also join PPL groups to pursue interdisciplinary interests such as classroom uses of artificial intelligence. Weber said teachers are expected to participate in both PLC and PPL activities; PLCs typically have more recurring scheduled time.

Weber described the PLC cycle process in practical terms: teams review baseline data early in the year, identify targets that align with upcoming curriculum, plan instruction and set measures, then reconvene across multiple cycles during the year to evaluate impact. He said buildings schedule PLC time into the school calendar and that teachers document attendance for external reporting.

Weber noted two state'mandated training requirements that apply across staff: Act 55 training (behavioral health awareness, suicide and bullying prevention and substance use awareness) requires three hours annually; Act 126 child abuse recognition and reporting training is required every five years. The district also maintains processes to record attendance for PDE reporting; Weber said teachers submit attendance records to the curriculum secretary for entry into the district system.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the relationship between PLCs and PPLs and whether participation is required. Weber said both are expected and that PLC time is often built into the school schedule while PPLs are teacher selected and typically total about eight hours across the year. A board member clarified that Act 55 and Act 126 trainings apply to all staff, not only classroom teachers.

Board member Susan Hunsinger Hough praised teachers'work and the scope of the district's training efforts during the discussion.

The presentation also named district staff who lead the work: curriculum supervisors Dr. Ryan Thomas and Christine Jenkins, Dr. Andre McLaurin and Dr. Ted Domers as part of the extended curriculum team, and building leaders who implement training at the school level. Mr. Kercher, the district'designated middle'school historian, leads the district bus tour referenced in the induction schedule.

Questions raised during the session primarily sought clarification (whether PLC/PPL could overlap, hours tracked for PDE reporting, and staff coverage for mandated trainings) and were responded to by Weber and other administrators. No policy votes were taken at the end of the presentation.

Looking ahead, Weber said buildings will continue partnering with external providers (for example, MCIU and the Delaware Valley consortium named in prior materials) and with long'standing university and professional groups for targeted sessions during the year.