PD on your time, your own dime
Feb 25th, 2010 by Cathy Jo Nelson
For the second time today (Thursday, February 25) a member of our SCASL listserv has said they are not allowed to use their personal days to attend our state library conference (SCASL) planned for Charleston, SC March 24-26, 2010. I am stunned at this. I really wonder if a school or district can legally deny teachers (and in the case school librarians) use of the personal days to use as one sees fit, EVEN if it is for professional development/conferences. I can believe a school administrator maybe would ask that you not use them (due to the strain on a budget for substitutes) but I do not believe they can mandate you not use them, or that personal days can be taken away. This just DOES NOT make sense.
Is it subversive to go anyway?
One shared it almost felt subversive to use personal days after being told not too. How can using personal days for conference be construed as “subversive?” If you are denied using your personal days to attend a conference, this sounds indicative of a larger problem in your district than just finances, substitutes, and district policy. Not sure we are getting the total picture if you feel it is rightful or okay to be denied. Perhaps with more details about the specific request and why denied, I would understand. I’ll say this, I’m glad I don’t work for the principals who reportedly have denied conference attendance on personal days and the willingness to pay your own way.
I hope you are not alone!
I certainly hope for these two who have been told no to using personal or professional days for what I equivocate to the best professional development in our state for school librarians, your principals and superintendents are foregoing their conferences this summer as well, which I might add are held in more touristy places during high tourism season (and with a higher cost). They are singletons in their buildings just as much as we are.
Special thanks to my principal and district–I am going!
At the same time, I am overjoyed and very appreciative that I’m allowed to attend, and for the record I always pay for my own registration, travel, and expenses–I have for several years now. It’s tax deductible, and I can make choices I might not otherwise make were it on the school’s dime.
SCASL hears your cries-a virtual experience is in the works!
Those unable to go for whatever reason can rest assured that SCASL is making efforts again this year to bring a conference experience to them. As with every year, presenters are asked to share handouts to be placed online. Last year we successfully live-streamed three sessions. This year there are plans for “vodcasting” seven. So there will be a virtual portal for those who cannot attend or those in attendance who miss sessions. A group of us will also use the My Scasl Ning, our own blogs, twitter, and other online portals to help bring in a virtual experience.
Here it is word for word from our SCASL President-elect, Joe Myers:
As the Conference Chair, I and my team have been planning a great conference. I am aware that with the tough economic times we are facing that our members would benefit from some type of electronic delivery. As I have been working on the conference program, I am building a website with all the program information to be launched near our conference date. It will include electronic access to handouts from our presenters, some select Vodcasts of concurrent sessions, websites of tours, guests, and as much information about the conference as can be put out on the web. The best way to make sure that everyone concerns are addressed is to fill out the conference survey with your opinions and ideas. Those surveys are valuable to the success of our future conferences.
With that being said, I’ll see you in Charleston–either face to face or virtually!
I am shocked at this. However, it might have to do with the wording in the teachers contract. Ours is extremely restrictive. It says for personal or family business ONLY, and NOT to extend a holiday. A porky administrator could interpret that as excluding conferences I suppose. But talk about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face!! Many, many years ago, under the regime of the “prince of darkness” (a former superintendent) a VERY talented teacher used her personal time because she was getting a national award connected to her equestrian avocation. She had the bad luck to sit next to a friend of the prince of darkness and told him where she worked and why she was flying to Chicago (on her own dime of course). He innocently shared the info with the prince of darkness, who promptly used it against her. He said she had violated the contract and fired her. So – I guess there are bad apple bosses and the trick is to know who they are. A better trick would be for the union to negotiate personal days that are just that – personal.
I would hardly consider attending a state conference “extending a vacation.” Presumably the administrators in question either don’t understand, or choose to disregard, all the networking that goes on, the connections that are made, the LEARNING that happens. Once again, supposed leaders are failing to lead.
A friend told me that many administrators are doing this because they are denying teachers left and right, and so to be fair across the board, denying librarians and other personnel who don’t need subs at all, same as teachers. It all goes back to the current financial bind education is in right now, and schools cannot afford substitutes. What is that saying? Six degrees of separation? I am so totally disgusted. Check out this post:
http://scasl.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/the-conference-date-is-nearing/
Jacquie, the wording is general rather than specific, and makes reference to personal days needing administrative approval. Vague but it pretty much means teachers (and teacher librarians) cannot fight it. Boo hiss.
[...] night I responded to a tweet from dmcordell, which in itself was a link to CathyJo’s blog post on professional development. I said that “Yes [sometimes administrators limit professional development because] there [...]
[...] now I refer back to my previous post from a few days ago (PD on your time, your own dime), as I bemoaned many teacher librarians being denied the opportunity to attend our lone state [...]