The District supports professional development of its certified staff through the maintenance of a professional development committee as well as assistance programs for new teachers and resource programs for experienced teachers.

Professional Development Committee

The purpose of the committee is to identify instructional concerns and remedies; assist beginning teachers with the implementation of their professional development plan; serve as consultant at a personal teacher's request; arrange training programs for mentors; assess faculty needs; develop in-service opportunities for school staff; and provide District administration with suggestions, ideas and recommendations concerning instruction.

Committee Composition

Eligibility to serve on the committee will be restricted to certified employees with a minimum of five years of teaching and /or administrative experience. Members selected will serve for a staggered three (3) year term with one of the committee selected each of three years. New members will be selected by classroom teachers, librarians and counselors. New members will be selected on or by April 30 of the year preceding the member's term. Teaching will be completed by June 30 and membership will commence on July 1 of the new school year. Efforts will be made to insure that each attendance center is represented on the committee and that a cross-section of grade levels and disciplines are represented. Administrators may be selected to serve on the committee but will not participate in the selection process.

New Teacher Assistance Program

Each inexperienced teacher employed by the District will be assigned a mentor by the building principal. Mentors will be required to possess at least five (5) years of teaching experience and have received or be willing to complete mentor training. Mentors will work closely with their assigned new teachers during the teachers' first two (2) years upon request or at the direction of the building principal during the mentoring period.

New teachers, with the assistance of their mentors, will prepare professional development plans. The plans will be consistent with the evaluation criteria and will establish plans of development for the teachers' first two (2) years of teaching.

Local Business Externships for Professional Development

Local business externship means an experience in which a teacher supervised by the District gains practical experience in a business, located within the District, through observations and interactions with employers and employees who are working on issues related to subjects taught by the teacher.  Any hours spent in a local business externship will count as contact hours for professional development. 

Local Business Externships for Credit

Teacher externships are practical experiences in which a teacher, supervised by the District, gains experience at a business located in Missouri through observation and interaction with employers and employees.  Requirements for teacher externships to be considered the equivalent to graduate level credit hours for salary schedule purposes will be developed by the Department of Economic Development and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by July 1, 2020.  Teachers who satisfied their state graduate credit equivalences will receive appropriate credit on the District’s salary schedule.  Unless reauthorized by the General Assembly, the teacher externship program will expire on September 2024.