Professional Development Requirements

Overview: The purpose of the Professional Development Office and of the Faculty Professional Development Committee is to coordinate meaningful professional learning opportunities for faculty, staff, and administration.

Professional development is the general process at any California community college or university for development and continued improvement of certificated and classified staff.  Briefly, here at Grossmont College, full-time classroom faculty are required to complete forty (40) hours of professional development in an academic year.  Part-time faculty are responsible for completing the same number of professional development hours for the number of hours they teach per week.

According to the California Ed Code, a community college district may designate from 1-15 days of the state-mandated teaching year of 175 days for faculty development.  At Grossmont College, we have designated nine days of the teaching year for this purpose: five in the Fall semester and four in the Spring that are related to “staff, student, and instructional improvement.” (Title 5, sec. 55720).

The FLEX week handbook describes these staff, student, and instructional improvement activities as follows:

• Professional development activities that provide methods and strategies to assist students with more personal, farther-reaching issues, e.g. making better-informed life choices, becoming more meaningful contributors to society, becoming better-informed citizens, etc.

• Professional development activities that provide training or instruction expected to improve the performance of other professional (non-instructional) workplace duties.

• Professional development activities that offer training or instruction expected to help develop instructional skills, methods, and abilities.

Faculty can fulfill their faculty professional development obligation by:

1. Attending any activity that is on the Grossmont College or Cuyamaca College Professional Development Calendar.  Any workshop or activity that is listed on the professional development calendar is eligible for professional development credit. 

2. Attending a discipline-specific or teaching and learning conference that has been approved by their division dean. You may request up to $500 from the Faculty Professional Development Fund to support travel to conferences and workshops. Forms related to conference attendance, including an Off-Campus Travel Request can be located here.

3. Proposing an independent activity that must be approved by their division dean. A list of independent project proposals, which have either been previously approved, or that the Faculty Professional Development Committee has pre-approved for professional learning, is available here. 
4. Participating in any of the Webinars listed on the approved Webinar/Online learning page. These online learning opportunities have been pre-approved by the Faculty Professional Development Committee, and may be used to satisfy the professional development obligation.

The use of time/hours spent on an individual project or conference attendance must be approved in advance by the Department Chair/Coordinator and the Division Dean. 

Professional Development Requirements for Full-time Faculty

Full-time classroom faculty are required to complete forty (40) hours of professional development in an academic year. If you teach overload, you must take additional professional development, calculated the same way as part-time. (Note that reassigned time is exempted for the number of hours from which you have been released.) This is usually split into twenty (20) hours per semester, however, a full-time faculty member may complete the forty hours at any time during the academic year. Full time faculty must submit all documents which demonstrate evidence of completion of their professional development activities no later than the twelfth (12th) week of the semester. Faculty may begin accruing professional development hours on the first day of the fiscal year (July 1). Hours may not be banked or carried over from one school year to the next.

If an extra-pay class is taught, then additional hours are required equal to the numbers of hours that the class meets in a week (e.g., an extra-pay three (3) unit class that meets three hours weekly requires three additional activity hours).

A Faculty Professional Development Contract form must be completed and submitted to the Department Chair by the end of the first week of the semester. If a full-time faculty member wishes to fulfill development hours later in the semester or school year, he/she must (1) submit a Request for Attendance at Off-Campus Activity form if attending a conference off campus, (2) notify the Division Dean when hours are completed in mid-semester on-campus activities, or (3) submit a Project Proposal form to the Department Chair and Division Dean for approval before beginning that project.

Professional Development Requirements for Part-time Faculty

Part-time faculty are responsible for completing the same number of professional development hours that the class they teach meets per week.

A Faculty Professional Development Contract form must be completed and submitted to the Department Chair by the end of Professional Development Week. When a part-time faculty member wishes to fulfill hours with other activities, arrangements (in writing) must be made in advance with the Department Chair and Division Dean.

Any part-time faculty planning to finish professional development hours after Professional Development Week must turn in an Activity Plan" (detailed memo) to his/her Chair/Coordinator for approval by the end of Professional Development Week. The plan should detail how the hours will be completed. Without an approved plan submitted by the end of Professional Development Week, no hours may be completed thereafter and pay will be adjusted accordingly. The time window to complete professional development hours in an approved plan is during the first twelve (12) weeks.

For part-time faculty who are (1) teaching a class within the first eight weeks of the semester, but are (2) hired after the beginning of Professional Development Week, please turn in your Activity Plan" to your Chair/Coordinator for approval by the end of the first week of your class. You then have until the end of the fifth week to complete development hours. 

For part-time faculty hired to teach a class with a start date in the second eight weeks of the semester or later, you must turn in an "Activity Plan" to your Chair/Coordinator for approval by the end of the first week of your class. You then have until the end of the twelfth week to finish any development activities.

See your Chair/Coordinator for suggestions/recommendations regarding activity plans.

Part time faculty who are teaching a fall semester course MAY claim professional development activities beginning July 1; however if a part-time faculty member chooses to engage in professional development activities earlier than flex week, and if her/his teaching load is subsequently reduced, she/he is not entitled to be compensated for the extra hours.

NOTE: There are no exceptions to the above Flex Week guidelines. For additional information please see the hire letter and/or contact your manager.