HFC-SSA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PER ARTICLE 10A- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professional Development Fund

1. The Board shall appropriate $50,000 each year for a Professional Development Fund (PDF) to be used to pay for the following expenses of bargaining unit members for:

a. External conferences and seminars related to the employee's current position or related to a position within an Association career path.

b. Travel related to off-site conferences or seminars, or

c. Tuition/fees associated with obtaining and renewing certifications or professional licenses required for fulfilling employment responsibilities at the College.

d. Tuition and fee reimbursement for courses successfully completed (grade of "C" or better) from an accredited institution.

2. A committee composed of an Administrator and three (3) Association members shall prepare reasonable rules for monitoring the funds.

3. All requests for reimbursement must be submitted to the committee for review prior to participating in the professional development.

REASONABLE RULES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ABOVE CONTRACT LANGUAGE ARE PROVIDED TO THE MEMBERSHIP

• Original receipts for external conferences or seminars which are related to an employee's position must be submitted by September 30th, January 15th and May 15th.

• Deadlines for applications are January 15th, May 15th and September 30th. Reimbursements will be made on or around March 29th, June 30th, and October 30th of each fiscal year.

• Members must submit receipts, official transcripts and the Professional Development form on or before the above deadline dates. All sections of the form must be completed, incomplete applications will be returned to complete and may delay processing. Receipts for college courses need to illustrate a breakdown of the tuition and fees. Pell Grants and free tuition assistance must be deducted.

• Eligible fees include, registration fee, course fee and online course fee. A course fee supports costs that are unique to a specific course, which would be considered above and beyond the cost of instruction and basic instructional materials and equipment.

• Travel, Conference and Mileage requests, must first go through the employee's department for travel approval. If the department denies the travel, conference and mileage the employee must obtain pre-approval from the Professional Development Committee. The Committee will only consider reimbursement up to a maximum of $1,000 for travel, conference, and mileage in a twelve (12) month period. Employees may contact Tiffany Webster in Human Resources at 845-9692 or t1webster1@hfcc.edu to request pre-approvals related to conference registration fee and mileage.

Note: Per IRS guidelines, employees are required to pay taxes on tuition reimbursed over $5,250. If you apply for tuition reimbursement and are reimbursed over this amount during the current calendar year, you will be taxed for any amount of over $5,250.

**HFC-SSA Employees will receive an email from Human Resources with information on deadline and the link to NEOED where the application for Professional Development is now located.