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District outlines professional-learning requirements and use of waiver days
Summary
Curriculum and HR leaders described state training requirements: a 28-hour FCS for paraeducators (14 live hours) and a 70-hour general certificate, the district's use of waiver days in October and March for in-person training, course topics and staff feedback (about 89% positive).
Dr. Matt Gar, the district's director of curriculum and instruction, and colleagues reported to the board on professional learning across certificated and classified staff.
They outlined state-mandated requirements for paraeducators: the Fundamental Course of Study (FCS) consists of 28 hours across 12 units, of which 14 hours must be live, in-person instruction; after FCS completion, paraeducators pursue a general certificate (70 hours of training). The presenters said waiver days (state-approved conversions of instructional days) are used to deliver required live training and district learning days took place in August, October and March this year.
Training topics the district described include equity and hate-speech response, math curriculum training, GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies, de-escalation and social-emotional-learning strategies. Presenters said the district offered both internal and vetted external trainers (educational service districts, certified GLAD trainers and publishers) and that training design includes feedback loops; presenters reported an average satisfaction rate of about 89% across recent sessions.
Presenters acknowledged challenges in making some training content sufficiently job-specific for a diverse classified workforce and described plans to offer more choice-based or conference-style options in future waiver days. They also said the district will align curriculum adoptions to follow-up training sessions so staff are prepared.
