FAQ: Minnesota's staff development statutes, part I

Created September 2001, updated July 2002, March 2006, February 2008

In response to many interpretation and implementation questions about Minnesota’s staff development statutes, the organizations listed below have jointly developed this set of frequently asked questions. The statutes discussed in this set of FAQs can be found at Minnesota Statute 122A.60 - Staff Development Program and Minnesota Statute 122A.61 - Reserved Revenue for Staff Development.

Minnesota School Boards Association
Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association
Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals
Minnesota Rural Education Association
Education Minnesota
Minnesota Association of School Administrators
Minnesota Staff Development Council
Minnesota Department of Education

1A. What is the purpose of staff development?
The fundamental purpose of staff development is to improve student learning. The intent of the legislation is that schools and districts implement a site-based process for both educational goals and staff development opportunities that will best help meet these goals. Providing teachers and other school district staff with individual and professional organizational growth and development opportunities prepares them to provide excellent educational experiences for students, and ultimately helps achieve the fundamental purpose of improving student learning.

1B. What is the appropriate use of staff development funds?
Use of staff development funds must be outlined in a board-approved plan and targeted to expenses incurred to create, implement, monitor, and evaluate that plan.

According to law, staff development outcomes must be consistent with local school board education goals. A district’s plan must include ongoing staff development activities that contribute to continuous progress toward these goals:

Improve student achievement of standards using best practice methods;
Meet the needs of a diverse student population;
Provide an inclusive curriculum;
Improve staff collaboration and develop mentoring and peer coaching programs;
Teach and model violence prevention policy and curriculum; and
Provide site-based teams with appropriate management and financial skills.

See Minnesota Statute 122A.60 for full language of the goals listed above.

Staff development activities may include:

curriculum development and curriculum training programs,
activities that provide teachers and other members of site-based teams with training to enhance team performance, c) other activities required by law, and
activities associated with professional teacher compensation models.

Effective 2007, districts may also use staff development funds for grants to teachers to pay for coursework and training leading to certification as a college in the schools or concurrent enrollment teacher. A teacher receiving such grants must be enrolled in a program that includes coursework and training focused on teaching a core subject.

1C. Are any uses prohibited?
Staff development reserved revenue may not be used for:

release time provided for teachers to supervise students on field trips and school activities and
independent tasks not associated with enhancing the teacher's knowledge and instructional skills (such as preparing report cards, calculating grades, or organizing classroom materials).

2. What revenue must be reserved for staff development activities?
Two percent of a district’s basic revenue must be reserved for staff development activities, programs, plans, and experiences, including workshops, conferences, the cost of substitute teachers, other in-service education, and other related costs. A district may, however, spend more at its own discretion.

3. How must the 2 percent be distributed?
Initially, the school board must allocate 50 percent of the total staff development revenue to the sites on a “per teacher” basis. The phrase, “per teacher,” means that the amount allocated to each site is based on the number of teachers at that site. It does not mean that the site funds are distributed or allocated to each individual teacher. See FAQ 4 and FAQ 5 for information about who is eligible for staff development funding and how sites determine how to spend the site funds.

Each site retains the funds allocated to it for site-level staff development activities in accordance with the approved district and site plans. If funds remain at the end of any given year, the unspent funds remain at the site and are carried over to be spent for site-level activities at that site during the following year(s). Sites that carry over funds must still get the full amount of the next year’s allocation.

Of the rest of the reserved revenue, 25 percent may be retained to be used by the district for district wide staff development efforts, and 25 percent must be used to make grants to school sites for best practices methods. The 50/25/25 allocation is specifically outlined in the statute.

4. Who is eligible to receive staff development funding?
All staff, which means all district employees, licensed and non-licensed, qualify for staff development funding, including the revenue retained for district wide staff development efforts, funding for best practices grants, and funds allocated to the sites.

The expenditures must be consistent with the approved district plan. Expenditures from site funds must also be consistent with the site plan. Although the amount of funding allocated to sites is based on the number of teachers at the site, the site plan may allow or even require the site team to spend site funds on staff who are not teachers.

5A. How are decisions made about districtwide staff development expenditures?
The local school board must establish an advisory district staff development committee to:

develop a district staff development plan that is consistent with education outcomes that the board has determined,
assist site professional development teams in developing site plans that are consistent with the goals of the district plan, and
evaluate staff development efforts at the site level.

The districtwide committee must be composed of a majority of teachers, representing an array of grade and subject specialties, plus special educators, non-teaching staff, parents and administrators.

The plan must be approved by the school board. The school board and the advisory district staff development committee must work together to resolve any differences.

District (25 percent). The board has ultimate authority over how to spend the 25 percent of the staff development revenue that it retains for district wide staff development efforts. However, the board makes these decisions consistent with the plan developed by the committee and approved by the board.

Best Practices (25 percent). See FAQ 5B and FAQ 9.

5B. How are decisions made about site staff development expenditures?
Each site must have a professional development team that includes a majority of teachers. With assistance from the district committee, the site team develops a site plan that is consistent with the goals of the districtwide plan. The site team then decides how to spend the portion of the site funds allocated to the site.

In making decisions, the site team must follow both the site plan and the districtwide plan approved by the board. The site team also manages any best practices grants that the board awards to the site.

5C. What happens in districts that have only one site, and what constitutes a “site”?
In smaller school districts that have only one site, the board may prefer to have one committee serve as both the district staff development committee and the site team. The committee must be careful to separate its actions as the district committee, which has advisory status, and as a site team, which has decision-making authority over the 50 percent site funds and which manages any best practices grants awarded to the sites.

What constitutes a site is a district decision. Sites are not necessarily defined by buildings or facilities. For example, a district’s ECFE program might be housed together with an elementary school or a secondary school, but could be defined by the district as its own site. Districts that have only one or two physical sites retain the option of identifying staff development sites by grades, subject matters, or other criteria.

6. Are professional development site teams and school site decision-making teams the same thing?
Some districts have established site-based decision-making teams as part of their management structure.

These teams, which are sometimes called site councils, exist for a different purpose than the site professional development teams. Moreover, each district determines the role and authority of its site councils. The statute requires that the site professional development teams be composed of a majority of teachers. This means that one group of individuals can serve as both the site professional development team and the site council or site-based decision-making team only if that group is composed of a majority of teachers.

7. Can we use staff development monies to pay salaries?
Yes, if a position is designated as full-time or part-time to engage in staff development activities, such as

researching or designing,
planning,
writing,
delivering,
coaching, or
coordinating staff development activities, that percentage may be reimbursed using staff development funding.

Staff development funds may be budgeted to pay staff development committee members for time spent planning and implementing staff development plans.

The districtwide 25 percent of the revenue may be used to pay salaries on staff development days only if the approved district plan allows for the funds to be used for salaries. The site-based 50 percent of the revenue may be used for this purpose only if the site plan allows for it and the site team authorizes it.

For more clarification regarding when the money is allocated and how that works with the district plan, see FAQ 8.

8. If the plan allows the district to spend staff development funds for salaries, costs for workshop days, or other related costs, at what point in the process does the 50/25/25 allocation of revenue occur?
Having a plan that provides for such expenditures does not change the district’s initial responsibility to reserve and allocate the funds as set forth in the statute. Districts must first reserve 2 percent of basic revenue for staff development purposes. Next, districts must distribute the reserved revenue using the 50/25/25 formula set forth in the statute. Districts and sites may then expend staff development funds from the amounts allocated to them.

9. Best Practices grants: Who awards them and for what reason?
The statute requires the school board to use 25 percent of the basic revenue set aside for staff development “to make grants to school sites for best practices methods.” The statute lists several purposes for which grants may be used.

While not specifically identified in statute, it is recommended that the board-approved staff development plan include the criteria and accountability standards under which best practices grants will be judged. The criteria should be developed in keeping with the district’s overall plan for staff development. In addition, the approved plan should identify the procedure by which each grant application will be judged. Site teams oversee any grants awarded to the site.

Staff Development FAQ Part II (questions 10-21) >>

January 19, 2009