A new state law will mean changes for the license renewal process for teachers. Now, area educators are voicing their concerns.
House Enrolled Act 1002 has several provisions related to workforce development, but it’s also creating a lot of frustration, according to Plymouth School Superintendent Andy Hartley. “For teachers who look to renew their license using professional growth points or PGPs, they have to have 90, if they’re taking that route, to renew their license,” he explained to the school board last week. “The requirement in that bill says that 15 of those PGPs have to be through an externship with a local business or through professional development provided by a local, state, or national group or organization that is providing professional development in the area of workforce development and local workforce needs or national needs or things like that.”
Hartley said the school corporation is doing everything it can to be as helpful as possible to teachers. “I’m not going to discredit the continued need for us to work with our local businesses and continue to strengthen those partnerships that we have,” he said. “It is an additional hoop for teachers and other certified staff to jump through that is really quite frustrating.” Plymouth Education Association President Laura Kruyer called the law an unfunded mandate that was developed with no input from teachers.
Hartley also mentioned that the state will be going back to two student count days to determine how much money each public school district receives. “We had that previously, a September and a February count that went away two years ago,” Hartley explained. “It’s come back. It’ll be present moving forward. There’s an outrageously high number of school districts who experience enrollment loss throughout the year, so that would impact funding, as well, throughout the year, if we were to see that same trend.”
Hartley said there are several more bills that Indiana educators are still going through and analyzing.
