MPS board approves professional development stipends
Nov. 23—McAlester teachers and staff will get a professional development check in time for the winter holiday break.
Board members recently approved a one-time $1,000 stipend for certified staff and a one-time $500 stipend for support staff at McAlester Public Schools who participated in the Great Expectations professional development program.
MPS Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Delilah Rodriguez said district staff continue working through the program and implementing ways for students to succeed.
"We invested a lot in our teachers and our school staff at the beginning of the school year with Great Expectations so we're continuing that throughout the school year," she said.
Board members approved the one-time payment for staff completing Great Expectations training from Nov. 15 to Dec. 9. The district will use federal funding for the stipends to be paid on Dec. 16.
Great Expectations is a professional development program founded in 1991 to provide teachers and administrators with skills to manage a classroom and inspire students to pursue academic excellence.
The science-based educational reform model focuses on innovation to pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade in public and private schools nationwide.
Six basic principles guide schools through the training and serve as standards for evaluating districts. The principles include setting high expectations for students, promoting positive teacher attitudes and responsibility, remembering all children can learn, building self-esteem, creating a climate of mutual respect, and ensuring teacher knowledge and skill.
Those principles become further defined through 17 classroom practices for GE classrooms and districts. The program aims for classroom practices to help students become self-directed learners, productive citizens, effective communicators, critical thinkers, and cooperative contributors in the classroom — with the ultimate goal of teaching those same principles for students to carry into society.
The program also recognizes classrooms, schools and districts that meet certain criteria.
"We have two buildings that are working on being GE Model School status," Rodriguez said. "There's a lot of training and requirements that go into that, but we may have one as early as next semester."
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Paula Meadows said representatives from the Arvest Bank Foundation indicated interest in providing more funds for teachers after previously helping fund trips to the Ron Clark Academy.
Meadows said the foundation agreed to an amount that was later matched through a Great Expectations grant.
"Arvest Foundation did give us $7,500 dollars and when they told them at Great Expectations, they matched it," Meadows said.
"We're very excited about that," she added.
Contact Adrian O'Hanlon III at aohanlon@mcalesternews.com
