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Inclement Weather Day & 

Suspension Make-Ups

Teachers' contracts are for 181 days and cannot be converted into hours like we can do with students' instructional time. So while students do not have to make-up school days canceled due to inclement weather, teachers still need to make-up that missing time to legally fulfill their contracts.
  • Elementary and middle school teachers must complete a total of 36 hours of approved professional development training outside of the instructional day. Six will make-up the lost contract day on 1/16/2018. Thirty will make-up the suspension days of 4/2-4/6/2018.
  • High school teachers must complete a total of 30 hours of approved professional development training outside of the instructional day. Six will make-up the lost contract day on 1/16/2018. Thirty will make-up the suspension days of 4/2-4/5/2018. (For BHS teachers, the 4/6 suspension day turns into a day with students on 5/25, requiring no PD points.)
  • No types of leave may be used to offset these required professional development points, except for specific FMLA cases.
The following points can be awarded for teachers who attended various meetings and advocacy days during the suspension:
  • If you attended the 3/29 Teacher Meeting from 4-6 p.m. in the BHS FAC, you can earn 2 points.
  • If you attended the 4/5 Teacher Meeting from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at St. Luke's, y can earn 1 point.
  • If you attended the 4/8 Teacher Meeting from 2-5 p.m. in the BHS FAC, you can earn 3 points.
  • 1 or 2 days, which means 6 or 12 points, can be credited if you participated in advocacy in Oklahoma City on the grounds or inside the Capitol or participated locally during the suspension, such as being at the Hospitality HQ at St. Luke's, local picketing, etc. This is self-reported in Frontline and on the tracking spreadsheet with options of 0, 6, or 12 points.
Click here for directions on how to claim those in Frontline Professional Growth. Be sure you also manually enter them in your April Suspension Days Make-Up PD Tracking Spreadsheet, which is linked below.

General guidelines:
    • 6 hours of the extra professional development must occur after 1/15/2018. 
    • 30 hours (or 24 for BHS teachers) must occur after 3/14/2018. 
    • All make-up points must be earned, tracked, and signed off by your site principal by 6/6/2018. Be sure to earn all of your points by 6/6 to prevent full loss deductions in your June payroll checks, as each inservice point is worth 1/6 of 1/181 of the total salary, which is between $31.36 and $50.86 in gross pay.
    • The extra professional development can include department or grade level or committee meetings, but it cannot include the five state-mandated trainings in the next section of this page. The Building Positive Relational Skills training may be used by non-special education teachers for such purposes, however.
    • Six hours of training on PowerTeacher Pro, Gmail, and Google Calendar will be held on a district campus on May 31 as well as 6/1. Please DO NOT end school with over a half-dozen hours still to make-up, putting yourself in a bind on your June paychecks.
    • Each teacher is responsible for tracking his or her completed extra professional development on their copies of the following spreadsheets. Open the links below and then use FILE > MAKE A COPY to get your own copy to  edit. They require your supervisor's signature upon submittal:
    • Eligible professional development includes:
CAUTION: Many teachers have encountered frustrations with the Frontline Professional Growth video courses, which rely on Adobe Flash. 

    Mandatory State Trainings

    • State law requires several mandatory annual trainings. You can tell if you've received credit for a training by checking "Staff Development" in the New Employee Portal (access instructions).
    • The training Building Positive Relational Skills is no longer required for all teachers and support staff but is posted for those who need to complete it: special education teachers and special education paraprofessionals. Bus drivers who are unable to do that training in person on the district's scheduled date may use that online training, and it is available for anyone who wishes to benefit from training on reducing workplace violence through positive behavioral supports.
    • After completing a training, you do NOT need to print out your completion certificate unless you with to do so to retain for your own personal records. 
    • When will the various state-mandated training be posted to Professional Growth?
    Completion of the state-mandated trainings for 2017-2018 is tracked in a SurveyMonkey account. Later this spring the district will begin transferring those completions into Professional Growth. 

    If you are concerned, you can check in Professional Growth after May 1, 2018 to see if they have been posted. If by that time you have done the trainings but nothing has been posted, please email Laura Salzyn, who manages Professional Growth for the district in one of her many duties as a Teacher Specialist at the ESC. 
    You can see what is posted in Professional Growth by logging into it with the link at BPSTRAINING.ORG and clicking either Learning Plan (the notebook icon) in the left sidebar or by clicking My Info (the portrait icon) and then selecting View My Activities.
    • Can I count completion of these trainings toward making up an inclement weather day or a suspension day?
    Usually no, the mandatory state trainings do NOT count for those purposes. One exception is that teachers outside of special education may complete the Building Positive Relational Skills training after March 15 and earn a point toward the suspension make-up which they can then include on their tracking sheet.

    Mandatory State Trainings

    Frontline Professional Growth

    The Professional Growth service from Frontline Education is how the district tracks and supports staff Professional Development, including:
    • Tracking the professional development points earned by staff members 
    • Signing up for district workshops
    • Centralizing the evaluations and materials for district workshops
    • Providing access to a large library of video training resources to assist staff members with targeted professional development, including the new Professional Learning Focus requirement
    Staff members set up accounts via email invitations. If you need an invitation sent to you, contact Laura Salzyn at the ESC.
    Professional Growth
    PG Help

    There are also instructional videos posted in a "Frontline Training" Team Drive for Instructional Technology Assistants, Instructional Coaches, Department Chairs, Grade Level and Special Area Elementary Coordinators, and Middle School Building Coordinators who instructor rights in the Professional Growth system.

    Professional Development Records

    • In-district professional development is tracked through sign-in sheets at the workshop/training and is recorded in Frontline's Professional Growth system.
    • Out-of-district professional development after July 1, 2017 will also be tracked with Professional Growth. 
      • Before you can attend an out-of-district professional development activity, the activity must be approved by your building principal or your direct supervisor.
      • All purchase orders for registration, travel, lodging, per-diem, materials fees, miscellaneous fees, stipends and substitutes must be requested six weeks before the first day of the activity.  The BPSD Board must approve all Purchase Requests before a Purchase Order can be issued.  A Purchase Order must be in place before the first day of the activity.  Advanced planning for out-of district professional development activities is critical. You can access the Travel Forms online.

      • To receive professional development credit for an out-of-district professional development activity, AFTER THE ACTIVITY HAS BEEN COMPLETED you must:

        • Scan and upload a copy of your participation certificate or some other proof completion into Professional Growth. (If you lack the documentation, you’ll need to insert a comment in the form to that effect and your supervisor will know to work with you on obtaining confirmation.)

        • Complete and submit the online PDA Out of District Request Form in Frontline's Professional Growth.

    Professional Development Requirements

    • Every five years, full-time teachers must acquire 75 hours of professional development.
    • Two hours per year of professional development have to be technology related. (You can document this yourself and have a principal sign-off.)
    • Part-time teachers have no defined amount of hours required, but must come to district professional development days.
    • If you are currently going through alternative certification, you need to verify with Laura Salzyn the amount of hours you must document; the amount varies for different teachers. Please contact her so that you aren’t blindsided by a requirement of 150 hours when it is too late.

    TLE PL Focus

    Download and open the template in Adobe Reader and it will be a fillable form.

    Professional Improvement Committee

    Per state law, the district has a Professional Improvement Committee which includes a representative from each school site. Please contact the PIC representative for your site if you have questions or concerns regarding professional development.