The Sewanhaka Central High School District
Professional Development Plan
2014-2016
Superintendent:
Dr. Ralph P. Ferrie
Professional Development Committee:
Dr. Cheryl H. Champ, Chairperson (Administrator)
Denise Nystrom (Administrator - Central)
Dr. Richard Faccio (Administrator - NHP)
Dan Mezzafonte (Chairperson - FPM)
Daisy Amaris (Teacher – SHS)
Susan Glatman (Teacher – FPM)
Todd Herrle (Teacher – SHS)
John Koscinski (Teacher – SHS)
Barbara Paulinski (Teacher – FPM)
Liz Gottlieb (Parent – HFC)
2
Introduction
The Sewanhaka Central High School District is the largest district in Nassau County,
serving over 8,500 students from ten distinct communities. The District consists of five
secondary schools, each serving students in grades 7 – 12: Elmont Memorial High School,
Floral Park Memorial High School, H. Frank Carey High School, New Hyde Park Memorial
High School and Sewanhaka High School.
With over 700 members on its professional staff, the Sewanhaka Central High
School District is serious in its dedication to ensuring that its educators receive the opportunities
for professional growth needed to provide its students with the quality education they deserve.
Professionals are afforded a variety of opportunities in which they may enhance their content
area knowledge, pedagogical skills, and understanding of adolescent development and
educational needs. Professional development activities are designed to promote higher levels of
student achievement, as well as higher levels of professional achievement on the part of the
faculty.
Most importantly, professional development in the Sewanhaka District is rooted in the
belief that to succeed in the 21st Century, teachers must be agents of change. They must be
dedicated to using change as an impetus to promoting student success and readiness for
challenges in various post-secondary workplace or educational environments. As agents of
change, teachers will be provided with a diversity of opportunities to become exposed to new
ideas and pedagogical strategies. We believe in building upon our teachers’ successes by
fostering their spirit of intellectual inquiry and rewarding their willingness to take risks and
experiment with new ways of promoting greater student success. We take great pride in the high
standards our faculty sets for its own professional growth.
Standards, Goals, and Objectives
The Ten NYS Standards for High Quality Professional Development
1. Designing Professional Development: Professional development design is based on
data; is derived from the experience, expertise and needs of the recipients; reflects best
practices in sustained job-embedded learning; and incorporates knowledge of how adults
learn.
2. Content Knowledge and Quality Teaching: Professional development expands
educators’ content knowledge and the knowledge and skills necessary to provide
developmentally appropriate instructional strategies and assess student progress.
3. Research-based Professional Learning: Professional development is research-based
and provides educators with opportunities to analyze, apply and engage in research.
4. Collaboration: Professional development ensures that educators have the knowledge,
skill and opportunity to collaborate in a respectful and trusting environment.
5. Diverse Learning: Professional development ensures that educators have the knowledge
and skill to meet the diverse learning needs of all students.
6. Student Learning Environments: Professional development ensures that educators are
able to create safe, secure, supportive, and equitable learning environments for all
students.
7. Parent, Family and Community Engagement: Professional development ensures that
educators have the knowledge, skill, and opportunity to engage and collaborate with
parents, families, and other community members as active partners in children’s
education.
8. Data-driven Professional Practice: Professional development uses disaggregated
student data and other evidence of student learning to determine professional
development learning needs and priorities, to monitor student progress, and to help
sustain continuous professional growth.
9. Technology: Professional development promotes technological literacy and facilitates
the effective use of all appropriate technology.
10. Evaluation: Professional development is evaluated using multiple sources of information
to assess its effectiveness in improving professional practice and student learning.
4
The SCHSD PD Plan Goals and Objectives

To provide staff development opportunities that reflect current educational
research and practices
To ensure that professional development activities are provided by individuals who
are leaders and innovators in their chosen fields
To ensure that professional development activities are intended to provide teachers
with information and experiences that will bolster their understanding of 21st
Century student learning needs

To provide the District faculty with substantial staff development opportunities
throughout the calendar year
To ensure that professional development is an ongoing process that enables
teachers to expand their knowledge and expertise throughout the year
To ensure that professional development opportunities are scheduled at times when
a variety of teachers may participate
To ensure that professional development activities are scheduled at times of the
year when they will have the greatest impact on subsequent student learning and
achievement

To provide the District faculty with staff development opportunities from a
variety of sources
To support teacher attendance at workshops and conferences either specific to their
content area or related to the teaching profession
To support teacher engagement in collegial sharing opportunities with colleagues
both from within and outside of the district
To support teachers in benefitting from professional growth activities in a variety of
formats and locations
5
The Professional Development Committee
The Sewanhaka Central High School District’s Professional Development Committee
was appointed by its Board of Education at its September 24, 2013 Board of Education Meeting.
In accordance with the regulations of the Commissioner of Education pursuant to Section 100.2
of New York State Education Law, the Committee is comprised of:
The designee of the Superintendent of Schools (Chairperson of the Committee)
Administrators designated by their bargaining units
A curriculum specialist (one of the selected administrators)
Teachers, who are the majority of Committee members, designated by their unit
A parent designated by the established parent group in the District
The cover of this document identifies the individuals currently serving on the Committee.
These individuals plan to meet four times during the school year, in the fall and spring
semesters. They are dedicated to ensuring that the approximately thirty hours of scheduled staff
development opportunities provided to the District’s faculty are valuable learning experiences
that lead both to improved student achievement and the faculty’s professional growth.
Their dedication to the development of this plan is greatly appreciated by the entire
district community of parents, administrators, faculty, and students.
The Professional Development Plan
The Professional Development Plan is intended to ensure that the staff development
opportunities provided to District faculty are meaningful, ongoing and reflective of best
practices. In addition, these opportunities must reflect changes in curriculum, statistical insights
gleaned from standardized test results and current research findings.
Teachers will have the opportunity to work with their colleagues at the school and
District levels in a diversity of meetings, workshops, and programs. They will be able to
exchange ideas in both grade level and vertical teaming meetings. Most important, they will have
the opportunity to engage in both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary curriculum evaluation
and planning sessions. They will be able to partake of workshops and programs scheduled at
both the District and building levels.
Particularly important will be the analysis of student data in promoting collegial sharing
and the development of staff development programs. The Sewanhaka Central High School
District prides itself on its ability to address the diverse intellectual needs and individual needs of
its students. This necessitates the provision of staff development programs designed to facilitate
our teachers’ ability to promote student success on a variety of national and statewide
assessments. Student assessment and performance data available through the NYSED portal,
BOCES Data Warehouse, and eSchool will be used to identify areas of curriculum, instruction,
and assessment needing additional staff development initiatives.
6
On an annual basis, all teachers will be provided with at least 20 – 30 hours of
professional development opportunities depending on the approved school calendar. In general,
this will be facilitated via faculty participation in the following:
Superintendent’s Conference Days
18 hours
Faculty and Department Meetings
10 hours (per contract)
Content Specific Professional Development opportunities
5 hours
All faculty members will be required to avail themselves of these opportunities for professional
growth and collegial sharing.
Teachers will furthermore be able to engage in professional growth activities via their
registration and participation in the following:
District Sponsored Activities:












In-service courses
The District mentoring program
Peer coaching
Curriculum writing workshops
Textbook review committees
State assessment scorers’ training sessions
New teacher orientation program
Interdisciplinary team planning meetings
Articulation meetings
Supervision of student teachers and observers
District and/or school committees, such as Technology, Shared Decision Making,
Professional Development, Observation and APPR
Site-based teams
Activities Sponsored by Other Organizations:









Courses, conferences, collegial circles, mini-grants and other programs offered by
Nassau TRACT
Courses and workshops offered by Nassau, Western Suffolk and Eastern Suffolk
BOCES
National conferences sponsored by curriculum specific professional organizations
Regional conferences sponsored by curriculum specific professional organizations
Local conferences sponsored by curriculum specific professional organizations
Visitations to local colleges and universities
Membership and participation in professional organizations
Workshops and institutes offered by the College Board
College and university coursework
7
Teachers will use My Learning Plan to register for conferences, courses, and in-service courses.
This program enables them to track their participation in professional growth activities in a
readily-available online portfolio.
Counselors and clinicians in the Sewanhaka Central High School District will be provided
with opportunities for collegial sharing and professional growth that are commensurate with
those provided for teachers. They, too, will be afforded opportunities to analyze data and use
that data as the basis for professional development activities. Both in- and out-of-District
options for professional growth will be available; in addition, all counselors and clinicians will
have approximately 20 hours of mandated growth opportunities yearly, as does the teaching
faculty. Our counselors and clinicians will, however, be given a opportunities unique to their
positions and responsibilities, which will enable them to address their own unique professional
growth and goals. They, too, will use My Learning Plan to track their professional growth
activities.
Professional Development
For New Teachers
In addition to the opportunities for professional development listed for all teachers,
teachers new to the District will be provided with an additional half day of professional
development prior to the start of their first school year on the faculty. This orientation program
will include an introduction to the District’s mentoring program and APPR process. (Attachment
A is the description of the District’s mentoring plan.) Other workshops will serve to orient new
teachers to pedagogical strategies, curriculum mandates and both the District’s mission, as well
as the goals of their individual schools and departments.
An in-service program for new teachers may also be sponsored by the District.
Participants receive one in-service credit for their completion of approximately ten hours spent in
workshops addressing:

Classroom management

Parental communications

Instructional planning and learning standards

Adolescent psychology

Pedagogical strategies and the use of technology

The needs of Special Education and 504-plan students

Collaboration with clinicians and counselors

Effective communication strategies for dealing with students
First year teachers engage in meaningful communication with their chairpersons each
week when reviewing and discussing their lesson plans for the week. These meetings are
intended to create a supportive environment in which the new teacher can benefit from the
experiences and expertise of the school’s specific content area specialist.
8
Sources of Data
Reflective of Student Needs
Each year teachers will be provided with opportunities to engage in meaningful staff
development activities which have arisen out of various needs assessments. Professional
development activities will reflect data and information gleaned from:

The annual District and School Report Cards

BEDS data submitted to the state each October

NYSED portal information not yet reflected in published Report Cards

Regents, AP, and district literacy post-assessment information

Data Warehouse assessment reports

Student attendance and punctuality rates

Graduation and drop-out rates

Student discipline data

Post-secondary study and college admissions data

Cohort reports for the various state assessments
In addition, the following sources of information will inform the development of
professional development activities:

Parent and student feedback

Priorities of the Superintendent of Schools

Priorities of the Board of Education

Changes in USDOE or NYSED Regulations

Administrator and teacher feedback about school improvement that is obtained via
Committee participation and formal communication.
Evaluation of the PDP
Annually each teacher will be surveyed in regard to his or her need for professional
development activities for the upcoming school year. At that time, teachers will have the ability
to provide information on the activities attended in the current year, as well as to identify those
areas they would like to see highlighted in the following year. This information will be collected
in each building and summary reports will be provided to the District’s Professional
Development Plan Committee.
In addition, student performance data will be scrutinized for the purpose of ascertaining
the impact professional development activities have had on student learning and performance.
9
The Office of Personnel
The Office of Personnel will inform holders of the professional certificate that they must
complete 175 hours of professional development every five years to maintain their certification.
The responsibility for logging these hours, obtaining proof of attendance for courses, conferences
and workshops attended and reporting professional development activity rests with the individual
teacher. The District will retain the following information for each professional certificate
holder:

The name of the professional certificate holder

His or her teacher certification identification number

The title of the staff development program

The number of hours completed

The date and the location of the program
The District will retain these records for a minimum of seven years from the date of completion
of the professional development by the professional certificate holder.
The Office of Personnel, via MyLearningPlan, will also maintain documentation for the
District mentoring program. This documentation will include:

The name of the individual receiving mentoring

His or her teacher certification identification number

The type of mentoring activity

The number of clock hours successfully completed in each activity

The name and teacher certificate identification number of the individual who
provided the mentoring
The District will retain these records for a minimum of seven years from the date of completion
of the mentoring program.
The Office of Personnel will ensure that its employees are provided with opportunities to
obtain mandated training in school violence prevention and intervention; these courses are
available via local providers. The course will encompass those topics suggested by the
Commissioner’s Regulations, Section 100.2. In addition, the provider of the course will give
those teachers who successfully complete this course a certificate attesting to the two clock hours
of completed training in school violence prevention and intervention. The teacher is responsible
for providing the state with the necessary documents for maintaining or obtaining his or her
certification(s).
Revised 7/1/14