What is the history of the Pro-D Fund Administrator Position?
The PD Fund Administrator (PDFA) position was created as an interpretation of the Collective Agreement in the 1990s by mutual agreement between SD57 and the PGDTA in order to provide direct PGTDA oversight of the PD Fund and to eliminate inefficiency related to complicated application processes that required both record keeping and decision making. What started as a job centered around the application process, related communication, and fund management has grown to include dimensions of professional development leadership and coordination with other groups in the district including Curriculum & Innovations, District Mentorship Committee, Inclusive Education, and Indigenous Education.
For a time, the Fund was managed by a position at the board office. We know of at least one teacher who did this job, Owen Corcoran. As practices and collective agreement language were examined in the 1980s and 1990s, the Fund was intended to be managed by a District Steering Committee of eight with equal representation from board and PGDTA appointed members. In reality, this was cumbersome -- the tasks involved in approval/deliberation on PD requests and the paperwork involved were arduous when spread between multiple individuals and involved back-and-forth meetings and discussions between each step of the application process. In the early 1990s, the Board and PGDTA agreed to change the "Steering Committee" to two people -- an administrator (Don Bassermann) and a teacher (the Pro-D Committee Chair at the time, Bob Tavernor), with clerical support from a board office staff person. This, too, was unworkable and resulted in duplication of efforts and disagreement over Fund use. Finally, in 1995-96, the Board and PGDTA mutually agreed that the Fund would be managed solely by the PGDTA and the Board would fund a half-time position to take the lead instead of a steering committee. The negotiation for this agreement was done by Carolyn Rowland, the local vice-president at the time. The words "steering committee" has remained in the collective agreement to this day, but the description was dropped in 1995-96 as the "steering committee" was now one person, and the nature and funding of the PDFA was described in various correspondence between the PGDTA and the Board. At this time the PGDTA revised and developed policy around both the Fund and the Fund Administrator in order to ensure the Fund was used fairly and efficiently, and the district agreed to second an elected PGDTA representative as the sole administrator of the fund.
Thus the PDFA position was reborn, with Bob Tavernor the first to be elected for this job by the PGDTA. Bob was instrumental in designing this unique approach, and indeed had the PDFA support increased to a three-quarter position in his second year in order to match the work that was required.
The second PDFA was Sharel Warrington, elected in the late 1990s. She expanded the "administration" role to include more PD leadership in the district, including expanding the capacity for PD on the spring District PD Day to become a full-fledged conference for all teachers in the district. She later went on to become a school trustee, serving for six terms, including a term as board chair.
Next, in the mid-2000s, Deborah Vandal had the position. She devoted much time to consolidating the paperwork and records into a a digital database, and was able to free up time to build the annual District Educational Conference into a multi-district Zone Conference. This “Educational Spring Fling” conference celebrated its twentieth year in 2024 and currently draw about 950 educators from SD 27, 28, and 91 in addition to our own. These other districts do not have the numbers or PD Fund flexibility to pull off this kind of event, and so they draw benefit from the progressive set-up for coordinated use of PD Funds that we have built in SD57. While there is some help in planning and many volunteers who come together in the days leading up to the conference, the coordination of this event has rested with the PDFA. The Zone conference is funded through the PD Fund and aims to break even each year with cost recovery from members from other locals and external registrants.
Kim Rutherford was the fourth teacher in the PDFA position, serving for four and a half years (2009-2013) and continuing to organize a great conference alongside the other duties of elected PDFA and voluntary PD Chair. It was during his tenure (and the PGDTA presidency of Linda Naess) that new partnerships were formed with Curriculum and Instruction for the support of a Mentorship program. In 2010, in the wake of district-wide cutbacks and declining numbers of teachers, the PDFA position was reduced back to half-time from a three-quarter time position. The duties remained about the same, but there was less time and slightly less money to work with – due to fewer numbers of teachers in the district. Kim developed and left a legacy of strong support for teacher-led PD and the fair, effective use of funds.
There were challenges to the PDFA position in the form of school district cutbacks; attempts were made to reduce or eliminate the support for this position in 2013-14 and again in 2014-15, but school boards were convinced of the importance of the work done by the PDFA and voted to sustain this position, in no small part to a letter-writing campaign from teachers whose professional development had benefited from the level of coordination we have in our district. Until now, it has remained as a half-time secondment from the school district to the PGDTA for the task of coordinating teacher PD and administering the Fund. This arrangement is relatively unique in the province, and shows the support and commitment that our school district has for the development of its staff.
The current PD Fund Administrator, first elected in 2013, is Glen Thielmann. Glen taught at College Heights Secondary from 1996-2004 and D.P. Todd Secondary from 2004-2018. He has also been a support teacher for Humanities curriculum and was seconded to the University of Northern British Columbia to work in their teacher education program and liaise with the school district. The secondment turned into a contact, and Glen is currently splitting his time between SD57 and the UNBC School of Education. The PD role continues to evolve, balancing the administration of the PD Fund with support for diverse professional learning in the form of workshops, conferences, mentorship, and effective communication between teachers and between educational stakeholders, support for rural schools in the sublocals, and other duties. The PDFA position is ongoing evidence of the value in collaboration between the Teachers' Association and past & present School Boards, and has allowed SD57 to be a provincial leader in the way it supports the professional development of its teachers, resulting in a PD culture that attracts and retains teachers to our school district. The Spring Fling Education Conference is a highlight of this approach to PD, but the work of supporting PD is diverse and year-long.
In 2022, the provincial government concluded contract negotiations with the BCTF that resulted in an agreement to provide a base level of PD funding for every district/local in the province. Taking effect July 2024, districts will fund professional development at no less than 0.20% of the Category 6 maximum step in each district, multiplied by the total teacher FTE (as of September 30 of the previous year). This language allows professional development funding to be linked to salary increases. For the PGDTA, in 2024-2025 this will result in an initial increase to about $219/FTE from the current allocation of $150/FTE.
The School Board removed funding for the PDFA position in the 2024-2025 budget, but as no system was negotiated to take the place of the duties fulfilled by the PDFA, SD57 and the PGDTA agreed to co-fund a PDFA position at 0.325 FTE for the duration of 2024-2025. SD57 indicated that the PDFA position will not be funded in 2025-2026, and they wish to revisit the idea of Steering Committee to manage the PD Fund.
During local bargaining for the 2025-2027 contract, it was agreed that the PGDTA would fund the position at whatever FTE they saw fit, and that they would administer the funds, but SD57 would handle the reimbursement paperwork at the school level, as they were the ones with whom the fund sat. Also established was a steering committee for professional development, but this would not be to manage the PD Fund. This committee would be used as a liaison between the school district and the PGDTA to discuss professional development and keep each other informed about upcoming events, as well as any co-planning opportunities.
The PD Fund Administrator (PDFA) position was created as an interpretation of the Collective Agreement in the 1990s by mutual agreement between SD57 and the PGDTA in order to provide direct PGTDA oversight of the PD Fund and to eliminate inefficiency related to complicated application processes that required both record keeping and decision making. What started as a job centered around the application process, related communication, and fund management has grown to include dimensions of professional development leadership and coordination with other groups in the district including Curriculum & Innovations, District Mentorship Committee, Inclusive Education, and Indigenous Education.
For a time, the Fund was managed by a position at the board office. We know of at least one teacher who did this job, Owen Corcoran. As practices and collective agreement language were examined in the 1980s and 1990s, the Fund was intended to be managed by a District Steering Committee of eight with equal representation from board and PGDTA appointed members. In reality, this was cumbersome -- the tasks involved in approval/deliberation on PD requests and the paperwork involved were arduous when spread between multiple individuals and involved back-and-forth meetings and discussions between each step of the application process. In the early 1990s, the Board and PGDTA agreed to change the "Steering Committee" to two people -- an administrator (Don Bassermann) and a teacher (the Pro-D Committee Chair at the time, Bob Tavernor), with clerical support from a board office staff person. This, too, was unworkable and resulted in duplication of efforts and disagreement over Fund use. Finally, in 1995-96, the Board and PGDTA mutually agreed that the Fund would be managed solely by the PGDTA and the Board would fund a half-time position to take the lead instead of a steering committee. The negotiation for this agreement was done by Carolyn Rowland, the local vice-president at the time. The words "steering committee" has remained in the collective agreement to this day, but the description was dropped in 1995-96 as the "steering committee" was now one person, and the nature and funding of the PDFA was described in various correspondence between the PGDTA and the Board. At this time the PGDTA revised and developed policy around both the Fund and the Fund Administrator in order to ensure the Fund was used fairly and efficiently, and the district agreed to second an elected PGDTA representative as the sole administrator of the fund.
Thus the PDFA position was reborn, with Bob Tavernor the first to be elected for this job by the PGDTA. Bob was instrumental in designing this unique approach, and indeed had the PDFA support increased to a three-quarter position in his second year in order to match the work that was required.
The second PDFA was Sharel Warrington, elected in the late 1990s. She expanded the "administration" role to include more PD leadership in the district, including expanding the capacity for PD on the spring District PD Day to become a full-fledged conference for all teachers in the district. She later went on to become a school trustee, serving for six terms, including a term as board chair.
Next, in the mid-2000s, Deborah Vandal had the position. She devoted much time to consolidating the paperwork and records into a a digital database, and was able to free up time to build the annual District Educational Conference into a multi-district Zone Conference. This “Educational Spring Fling” conference celebrated its twentieth year in 2024 and currently draw about 950 educators from SD 27, 28, and 91 in addition to our own. These other districts do not have the numbers or PD Fund flexibility to pull off this kind of event, and so they draw benefit from the progressive set-up for coordinated use of PD Funds that we have built in SD57. While there is some help in planning and many volunteers who come together in the days leading up to the conference, the coordination of this event has rested with the PDFA. The Zone conference is funded through the PD Fund and aims to break even each year with cost recovery from members from other locals and external registrants.
Kim Rutherford was the fourth teacher in the PDFA position, serving for four and a half years (2009-2013) and continuing to organize a great conference alongside the other duties of elected PDFA and voluntary PD Chair. It was during his tenure (and the PGDTA presidency of Linda Naess) that new partnerships were formed with Curriculum and Instruction for the support of a Mentorship program. In 2010, in the wake of district-wide cutbacks and declining numbers of teachers, the PDFA position was reduced back to half-time from a three-quarter time position. The duties remained about the same, but there was less time and slightly less money to work with – due to fewer numbers of teachers in the district. Kim developed and left a legacy of strong support for teacher-led PD and the fair, effective use of funds.
There were challenges to the PDFA position in the form of school district cutbacks; attempts were made to reduce or eliminate the support for this position in 2013-14 and again in 2014-15, but school boards were convinced of the importance of the work done by the PDFA and voted to sustain this position, in no small part to a letter-writing campaign from teachers whose professional development had benefited from the level of coordination we have in our district. Until now, it has remained as a half-time secondment from the school district to the PGDTA for the task of coordinating teacher PD and administering the Fund. This arrangement is relatively unique in the province, and shows the support and commitment that our school district has for the development of its staff.
The current PD Fund Administrator, first elected in 2013, is Glen Thielmann. Glen taught at College Heights Secondary from 1996-2004 and D.P. Todd Secondary from 2004-2018. He has also been a support teacher for Humanities curriculum and was seconded to the University of Northern British Columbia to work in their teacher education program and liaise with the school district. The secondment turned into a contact, and Glen is currently splitting his time between SD57 and the UNBC School of Education. The PD role continues to evolve, balancing the administration of the PD Fund with support for diverse professional learning in the form of workshops, conferences, mentorship, and effective communication between teachers and between educational stakeholders, support for rural schools in the sublocals, and other duties. The PDFA position is ongoing evidence of the value in collaboration between the Teachers' Association and past & present School Boards, and has allowed SD57 to be a provincial leader in the way it supports the professional development of its teachers, resulting in a PD culture that attracts and retains teachers to our school district. The Spring Fling Education Conference is a highlight of this approach to PD, but the work of supporting PD is diverse and year-long.
In 2022, the provincial government concluded contract negotiations with the BCTF that resulted in an agreement to provide a base level of PD funding for every district/local in the province. Taking effect July 2024, districts will fund professional development at no less than 0.20% of the Category 6 maximum step in each district, multiplied by the total teacher FTE (as of September 30 of the previous year). This language allows professional development funding to be linked to salary increases. For the PGDTA, in 2024-2025 this will result in an initial increase to about $219/FTE from the current allocation of $150/FTE.
The School Board removed funding for the PDFA position in the 2024-2025 budget, but as no system was negotiated to take the place of the duties fulfilled by the PDFA, SD57 and the PGDTA agreed to co-fund a PDFA position at 0.325 FTE for the duration of 2024-2025. SD57 indicated that the PDFA position will not be funded in 2025-2026, and they wish to revisit the idea of Steering Committee to manage the PD Fund.
During local bargaining for the 2025-2027 contract, it was agreed that the PGDTA would fund the position at whatever FTE they saw fit, and that they would administer the funds, but SD57 would handle the reimbursement paperwork at the school level, as they were the ones with whom the fund sat. Also established was a steering committee for professional development, but this would not be to manage the PD Fund. This committee would be used as a liaison between the school district and the PGDTA to discuss professional development and keep each other informed about upcoming events, as well as any co-planning opportunities.