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PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT FOR CLASSIFIED STAFF
WHITE PAPER
May 2003
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“People are an
organization’s only sustainable, competitive advantage.”
Ozley & Teerlink
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“As a learning organization, Poway Unified School District strives to be an organization
in which people at all levels are collectively and continually enhancing their capacity to
ensure that all students learn.” This statement, written by Superintendent’s Cabinet in
its 1999 Professional Development White Paper, is equally true in 2003. Every employee has a
stake in student achievement.
Fundamental to the successful accomplishment of All Students Learning …Whatever It Takes
are highly competent and caring staff members throughout the district. Therefore, a system
of high quality professional development is essential to individual employees and to the
organization as a whole. Specific to the needs of classified employees, a comprehensive,
high quality professional development program should include:
- Ongoing, accessible, and positive communication between
the District and all employees,
- Collaborative development and implementation of
professional learning activities based on staff needs,
- Practical, user-friendly content that develops both
technical and interpersonal skills as vehicles for solving work-related problems,
- Learning processes that facilitate inquiry, interaction,
and reflection,
- Job-embedded structures, such as coaching and evaluation,
to support ongoing learning and personal growth,
- Opportunities for teambuilding and leadership development,
- Visual and verbal support from District management.
PUSD Core Values form the guiding ideas, mission, and vision for
the District. The PUSD Professional Development mission, vision, and core values, in turn,
provide the guiding framework for high quality professional development. Inherent to each of
these documents is a belief in the importance of ongoing learning and continuous improvement
for all employees. By providing high quality professional learning opportunities for
classified staff, the District demonstrates that it values the contributions of classified
staff members and recognizes the strengths and abilities they have.
In times of severe fiscal constraints, the need to “do business differently” becomes
more important than ever. To meet this need, the time is here for implementation of a
coordinated program of high quality professional development for all staff to ensure that
the District continues its journey towards excellence in the twenty-first century.
Commitment of appropriate personnel and fiscal resources needs to be made accordingly. The
benefactors of such a commitment would surely be the PUSD learning community as a whole –
staff members, managers, parents, and students alike.
In a spirit of shared responsibility, the Professional Development for Classified Staff Task
Force recommends the following:
- Consistent and uniform implementation of the evaluation
process for all classified staff;
- Implementation of an Alternative Evaluation program to
offer classified personnel who have consistently demonstrated a high degree of
competence an alternative to the traditional evaluation process;
- Continued and expanded implementation of professional
development opportunities that facilitate interactions between classified and
certificated staff members;
- Implementation of a comprehensive, high quality
professional development program for classified staff, as outlined above;
- Development of a PPAP type mentoring program to support
newly hired and/or transferred classified employees;
- Establishment of a Central Office liaison to coordinate
and support job-alike networking groups;
- Compensation for professional development participation.
As collaborators invested in the successful implementation of
these recommendations, Task Force members are committed to:
- Continuing to meet and work together as a task force;
- Developing a systemic communication system that may
include newsletters, a web page, and/or face-to-face interactions;
- Seeking and building support from CSEA and SEIU
leadership;
- Participating in a pilot Alternative Evaluation process;
- Creating and communicating professional learning
opportunities that are inclusive and respectful of all classified roles and
responsibilities;
- Taking leadership roles in the development, coordination,
and implementation of a comprehensive professional development program for classified
employees.
In summary, classified employees of Poway Unified School
District take pride in the contributions they make to students, staff, and the organization.
A shared commitment to high quality professional learning and continuous improvement will
only serve to strengthen and elevate the standard of excellence already in place.
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