Governor Signs Repeal of Staff Development Allocation Formula.  In a victory for school district administration, the Governor signed HF 2506, the bill that both eliminates the 50%/25%/25% staff development allocation formula and passes a requirement that all students have a on-time course in cardiovascular pulmonary resuscitation and automatic external defibrillator (CPR/AED) training at some point (but only one point) in their grade 7 through 12 tenure.

Note, this does not mean that staff development is being eliminated.  It only eliminates the requirement that 50% of staff development revenue flow directly to sites, with 25% being sent to the district and 25% being reserved for exemplary programs.  This might not seem like much, but as district-wide responsibilities increase in terms of recently-enacted laws like the early grade literacy effort and the teacher evaluation law that will take effect in the 2014-2015 school year and the recently-granted NCLB waiver, more flexibility for school boards will be, like Martha Stewart used to say, "a good thing."

In a year when not much is happening, it's nice to count a few smaller, but significant, victories.