Cooperating School Districts on the Web (2.0)

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis is excited to announce the launch of its revamped website, which will go live later in July 2010.

In our streamlined site, you’ll find easy links to CSD’s legislative advocacy, programs, workshops, conferences, educator resources and business services. Under resources, there is both a teacher and an administrator section that will each have items regularly updated. A new CSD/RPDC Event Calendar will make programs easy to find– searchers can look programs up by subject, content area or event in either month, week, day, or list view.

In addition to a newly updated website, CSD now has both a Twitter feed and Facebook page to help our members stay up to date on what is taking place within the organization. I encourage you to find and follow us!

Missouri House Bill 2 and Regional Professional Development Centers

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Missouri House Bill 2 “appropriates money for the expenses, grants, refunds, and distributions of the State Board of Education and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.” If this bill were voted into law, funding would be eliminated for teacher professional development. The purging of funds for professional development would likely mean the closure of Regional Professional Development Centers in the state. HB2 has passed the House and is now in the Senate for consideration.

Created by Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as part of the Educational Reform Act of 1993, the St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center is one of nine regional centers strategically placed across Missouri. More than 250,000 teachers each year receive professional development through Missouri’s RPDCs.

The St. Louis RPDC operates under contract with Cooperating School Districts, and combines CSD staff development opportunities with DESE resources.

The Regional Professional Development Centers act as a vehicle for school improvement. What does the RPDC provide educators?

• premier growth and development opportunities
• community resources
• specialized academies
• consulting and evaluation services
• information about models and applications of current research

In St. Louis, the pooled resources between DESE and CSD make it possible for the RPDC to offer cost-effective, high quality professional development with both national and local experts. The Regional Professional Development Centers are key to offering proven, research based programs to teachers and administrators in Missouri, which will result in improving education for our students.

Here is a short list of examples of workshops and programs offered by the outstanding staff of St. Louis RPDC:

• St. Louis Teacher Academy
• Quality Health and Physical Education Workshops
• STEM – Starting Everyday Mathematics
• Cognitive Coaching
• Aspiring Principals
• Music Educator Forums
• Best Practice Institute
• Team Building
• Instructional Coaching
• Research-Based Strategies
• DOK – Depth of Knowledge

If Missouri’s Regional Professional Development Centers were to be closed due to lack of funding by the state, it would severely limit our ability to train and retrain teachers to affect much needed improvement in skills necessary to educate children for the 21st century. Educators need to both teach and learn, and the St. Louis RPDC, and those across the state, facilitates important continuing education.

CSD is currently working with our state Senators in order to get money to fund our RPDCs. To learn how to contact your state Representative and Senator to share your opinion on the importance of our RDPCs, please visit Cooperating School Districts’ Legislative Updates and Advocacy website.

CSD Welcomes Kyrgyzstan Educators

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Today, November 4, 2008, is Election Day! One of the greatest freedoms we have in America is the access to vote, so be sure to visit your local polls today!

Yesterday, Cooperating School Districts welcomed a special group of visitors: Russian-speaking educators from Kyrgyzstan. The visit was coordinated through Irina Bronstein LaRose with the World Affairs Council of St. Louis and Diane Stirling with Cooperating School Districts’ CHARACTERplus. Thank you to both for their efforts.

Our visitors learned about the many services and programs offered through CSD that make a difference in the education of students in our region. From CHARACTERplus and the Virtual Learning Center to REAP and the International Education Consortium, CSD’s services help school districts work to improve the quality of education for all.

One of the topics of discussion was CSD’s advocacy work on legislative issues. I walked the group through CSD’s Legislative Action Center, a multi-faceted online tool that allows citizens to engage in the legislative process by learning more about bills and taking action on proposed legislation by contacting their legislators directly. The online tool allows you to input your home address and, at the click of a mouse, immediately obtain information about your national, state and local elected officials. If you have yet to visit CSD’s Legislative Action Center Web site, please do so by clicking HERE.

As we prepare for the start of the Missouri General Assembly, your interest and support of public education issues is vital. As I have shared before, it is the collective voice of constituents in our public school communities that truly make the difference in raising awareness and influencing legislators on important issues that impact public schools. CSD’s Legislative Platform is approved and will be used as a benchmark for advocating for our member districts. Please click HERE to view the platform.

Be sure to vote today!