Staff development FAQ Part II

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10. Are there any circumstances under which a district is not required to reserve 2 percent of basic revenue for staff development?
Districts that are in statutory operating debt are exempt from the requirement. In addition, districts may annually waive the requirement to reserve all or any part of the 2 percent if a majority of the teachers and a majority of the school board vote to do so. The vote may occur whether or not the district committee or the site teams support the waiver.

If the teachers and the school board agree to waive part of the amount, the remainder is allocated pursuant to the 50/25/25 formula, unless the teachers and the school board had previously agreed otherwise.

11. When is a school district in statutory operating debt?
A school district must do more than declare it is in SOD. There is one criterion a school district must meet in order for it to officially be in SOD. The Department of Education will deem a district to be in SOD when its Net Unappropriated Fund Balance at the end of the year (June 30) is a negative amount in excess of 2-1/2 percent of its operating expenditures. For the exact language, see Minnesota Statute 123B.81. For information on your district’s status, contact Charles Speiker at the MDE, charles.speiker@state.mn.us.

12. What are the reporting requirements and accountability measures regarding the use and distribution of staff development monies?
Districts must report the staff development activities and use of funds to the commissioner of the MDE by Oct. 15 of each year. The report can be done online. The report must be signed by the superintendent and the staff development chair, and must include assessment and evaluation data indicating progress toward district and site goals based on teaching and learning outcomes.

Given that the essential goal of the staff development statutes is to improve student achievement, the reporting format requires documentation of student progress as a result of staff development efforts. The reports must describe both the different kinds of staff development costs and whether the costs were for best practices grants or were from district or site level fund allocations, according to the UFARS reporting system.

In addition, at the local level, each site team must annually demonstrate to the school board the extent to which staff at the site have met the outcomes of the staff development plan, including how best practices grants contributed to the site’s achievement of those outcomes. If the board determines that the staff development outcomes are not being met, the board may withhold a portion of the following year’s initial allocation of revenue, until such time as the board determines that they are once again being met.

Finally, the site teams, the districtwide advisory committee, and the school board are each accountable to the others to fulfill their respective obligations under the statute. Examples include the following:

The advisory committee must develop the plan and submit it to the board for review and subsequent approval.
With the assistance of the advisory committee, the site teams must develop a plan that is consistent with the districtwide plan.
The advisory committee must assist the site teams in developing their site plan, and must evaluate staff development efforts at the site level.
The site teams and the board must spend the staff development funds consistent with the approved plans, keeping in mind that the district must be able to document for the commissioner the student progress that resulted from staff development efforts in the district.

13. Do employees of cooperative districts, intermediate districts, and other kinds of hybrid districts have access to staff development funds? Do state employees have access to staff development funds?
The staff development statutes do not currently apply to cooperative districts, intermediate districts, or the state, because the statutes only apply to school districts that receive “basic revenue.” As a result, the extent and nature of staff development opportunities in those districts and for state employees depend largely on the employer. Options include working with member districts for access to their staff development programs, and including staff development in the collective bargaining agreement. More than this will require a legislative change.

14. If the district does not use the 25 percent that it may retain for district wide staff development, what other options does it have for that 25 percent of the reserved funds?
The board must still reserve the funds for staff development. When it spends the funds, it must do so consistent with the goals and outcomes stated in the board-approved plan. The choice that the statute gives the district is that the district can choose to use the 25 percent that is designated as district wide for other appropriate uses, including, but not limited to, providing additional funds for specific site activities or grants, reserving some funds for future or long-term plans that might require additional funds, or combining the funds with the 50 percent that is allocated to sites.

15. If a district claims to or does spend more than the required 2 percent, is it exempted from the 50/25/25 formula?
Any amount above the 2 percent is exempt from the statutory requirements.

16. Some districts have school board policies on staff development, and/or staff development language in collective bargaining agreements. Is there a “hierarchy” of authority between and among the statute, board policies, the plan and contracts?
The staff development statutes are the highest authority. First and foremost, school board policies, the district’s staff development plan, and collective bargaining agreements cannot conflict with the statute. If a conflict exists, the statute supersedes.

Second, the plan must not conflict with collective bargaining agreements. For example, if the collective bargaining agreement limits staff development to three staff development days per teacher per year, the plan may not expand the number of days beyond three. At the same time, if the agreement requires at least three staff development days per teacher per year, the plan may not restrict the number of days to fewer than three.

Third, school board policies and the board-approved staff development plan must not conflict with each other. To protect against this, school boards may want to use their policy on staff development as a preamble to their staff development plan.

Collaborative efforts between and among the employer, the district advisory staff development committee, and the unions should help minimize potential conflicts between the various documents and the statute.

17. How can an individual get copies of staff development reports, plans, budgets, or other staff development information?
Staff development reports, plans, policies, and budgets are public information. A person seeking public data on staff development may request it from the appropriate school official (every district must designate a person to be responsible for responding to requests for data). Districts may also consider developing an internal procedure for staff members to access staff development data. Easy access facilitates the work of advisory committees, site teams, individuals applying for best practices grants, etc.

Another source for much of the public data is the Minnesota Department of Education, which receives and retains the staff development data it receives from districts.

Access to government data is governed by the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13). A refusal to provide access to public data violates the Act. Each situation, of course, must be evaluated on its own facts and merits to determine whether a violation did occur. The Act sets forth legal remedies for individuals who are denied access to public data.

18. What are the substantive differences between a district staff development plan and the required staff development report? What different purposes do they serve?
As you already know, the district plan and the annual report to the Minnesota Department of Education are both required by the staff development statutes. For more details on the plan and the report, refer to FAQ 1 (the plan) and FAQ 12 (the report).

Each district must develop and adopt a staff development plan. The plan forms the basis for all of the district’s staff development efforts and activities.

Each district must also annually file a report with the MDE. The report keeps the MDE informed of the district’s staff development goals and progress towards those goals.

19. What are the technical differences between a district staff development plan and the required staff development report? For example, the report is annual, but what about the plan? Must it be revised and/or approved by the board each year?
Is there a particular date by which the plan must be in place each year? Does the Minnesota Department of Education require school districts to provide any documentation of the district staff development plan? Is there a certain format that must be used for either the report or the plan? When is the annual report due to the MDE?

Revising the plan. The law does not specifically require school boards to annually approve a plan, and does not specify a date for completing plans. However, revenues are allocated on an annual basis, and the expenditure of staff development revenues is conditioned on having an approved and current plan in place.

Therefore, the district’s advisory staff development committee should update or revise the district’s plan each spring for approval by the board. The revisions should be consistent with progress towards or changes in the district’s stated goals and outcomes. Renewing and revising the plan before the end of the school year also allows districts to begin implementation of the approved plan over the summer and for the upcoming school year.

Districts are not required to submit their staff development plans to the MDE.

Format. The commissioner of the MDE determines the format and content of the report. There are no similar format or content provisions for the plan. However, alignment of the plan to the report’s format and content will help districts in their efforts to continuously improve, and to implement and evaluate the plan.

A checklist for districtwide staff development planning is available at the Teachers as Learners and Leaders section of Education Minnesota’s Web site. Other staff development resources are also available at the Professional Development section of the MDE’s Web site. In addition, districts are welcome to request technical assistance from the MDE regarding the content and creation of the plan.

Deadline. Districts must submit the annual report to the MDE by Oct. 15. The report form is available on the Staff Development Reporting section of the MDE Web site.

20. What are the details of the statutory authority for waiving the requirement to reserve the revenue?
There are many questions on this point because the statutory language on this issue is minimal: “A district may annually waive the requirement to reserve their basic revenue under this section if a majority vote of the licensed teachers in the district and a majority vote of the school board agree to a resolution to waive the requirement” (Minnesota Statute 122A.61). The absence of specific statutory guidance means there are no “right” answers to most of the questions on this topic. Regarding some of the most frequently asked questions, however, here are some practical tips:

a. What are the details of the voting procedure for waiving the requirement to reserve the revenue? The statute is silent. The guidelines set forth in FAQ 21 may be of some help.

b. If the first vote is “no,” can a second vote occur at a later date? The statute only says a district may “annually waive” the requirement. If a vote beyond the initial vote is requested, contact the MDE or your local organization.

c. Who can call for a vote? The statute says the district may waive the requirement, but must do so by a vote of the board and a vote of all licensed teachers in the district. Any school board member may “call for a vote” by the school board by making a motion to that effect. A teacher, other staff member, or citizen may ask the board to take such a vote, but a motion to that effect must still come from a board member. Similarly, the teachers may conduct their own vote, but cannot require the board to vote on the question. Again, however, because it is the district that may waive the requirements, the board can require the teachers to vote on the question. The board will probably want to delegate the job of conducting the teacher vote to another body or individuals, such as the administrative staff, the advisory committee, site teams, or the union. Again, refer to FAQ 21.

d. Do we need to use ballots? What should the ballots say? Who counts the ballots? The statute is silent. The board should use its usual procedure for voting and counting votes for its own vote on the question. For the teacher vote on the question, the board might consider following the guidelines outlined in FAQ 21.

e. Who runs the teacher vote? The statute is silent on who can “run” the vote. The statute does not prohibit any group from running the teacher vote. The board may follow the guidelines outlined in FAQ 21, work out its own arrangement with the other interested parties, or find some other way to secure the teacher vote.

f. Are there any timelines involved? The only statutory timeline is that districts may “annually waive” the requirement. Districts receive basic revenue on an annual fiscal year basis, and it is from this annual distribution of basic revenue that districts must reserve funds for staff development, or vote to waive the requirement to reserve the funds. Therefore, districts that decide to conduct a vote on whether to waive the requirement should determine when such a vote best fits in the budget planning cycle, e.g., the vote should occur before the board sets the school district’s budget for the upcoming year.

g. Can the teachers condition a “yes” vote on the district’s agreement not to layoff staff? The statute is silent. When voting, the district and the teachers should make sure each is voting on the same question. The sample ballot and procedures outlined in FAQ 21 may be of some help.

21. How should a district conduct the board and teacher votes on whether to waive the requirement to reserve the revenue?
As previously stated, Minnesota Statute 22A.61 states, “A district may annually waive the requirement to reserve their basic revenue under this section if a majority vote of the licensed teachers in the district and a majority vote of the school board agree to a resolution to waive the requirement.” This is all the statute says about the waiver vote; therefore, it is incumbent upon the district to develop a process that will work locally. The board should endeavor to develop this process collaboratively, requesting input from the administration, districtwide and site staff development committees, and teacher representatives.

The following steps should be considered when running a “request to waive” election:

a. Board takes action to request a waiver in accordance with Minnesota Statute 122A.61.

b. Board should solicit input and discuss the waiver request with the parties identified above. The discussion should include the proposed use of the funds to be waived, dollar amounts being requested, distribution of the remaining funds, make up of ballot and voting procedures.

c. District sends notification to staff identifying its desire to waive some or all of the required 2 percent staff development set aside. This notification should include information on the date of the election. It may include additional information such as the rationale for the request, proposed use of the funds, and any other agreed upon points.

Below find a sample ballot:

District Name:
Date:
Delineation of Dollar Amount and Percentage to Be Voted On:
School Year:
_____ Yes, I vote to waive the dollar amount and percentage as requested by the School Board.
_____ No, I vote not to waive the dollar amount and percentage as requested by the School Board.

d. Ballots should be distributed using a clear procedure that ensures that all licensed staff have an opportunity to vote. This process should include procedures to ensure the privacy rights of those voting, as well as the integrity of the election itself.

e. Election results should be tallied as previously determined with results shared immediately.

January 19, 2009