The professional development budget was cut approximately $32,000 for 2014-15 over the 2013-14 budget. This has been difficult to accommodate given the volume of professional development done this summer and the discontinuation of the Safe Schools grant. The Professional Development Reimbursement Program (PDRP) is funded at $72,000 (roughly $60/teacher/year), and those funds are split across two “semesters,” July 1 – December 31 and January 1 – June30. The PD team has been able to supplement this funding in past years with monies not spent in other categories, like Opportunities workshops, Making Connections, New Teacher Academy, etc., but those are the areas from which the $32,000 in cuts came.

In an effort to remain under budget while also managing teacher expectations, we updated the PDRP website to indicate, “We will be instituting the priorities during this window of PDRP applications.” Continue reading →