Information for Full-time Faculty

While full-time faculty do have an obligation to participate in the Flex / Professional Development Program for a specified number of hours per fiscal year, most full-timers engage in many, many more hours of professional development than they ever report. Almost anything that can be explicitly connected to student, staff, or instructional improvement and that is above and beyond your contractually obligated duties and responsibilities is likely flex-eligible (see "Documents and Forms").

Any MCC-offered activity is considered a "Category I" activity; "Category II" activities are those non-MCC-offered activities for which you can produce documentation proving your participation (certificate of completion, registration receipt, etc.), and a "Category III" activity is any activity for which you do not have the documentation listed for Category II. All of these types of activities are available to faculty, provided they meet the criteria for flex-eligible professional development as defined by the state (see "Documents and Forms").

We urge you to register as early as possible for advertised workshops since some have limits and fill early, while those with low enrollments may be cancelled. The current term's flex week schedule is posted on the main site page.

If you have questions or suggestions for professional development activities, please contact PDP. If you are interested in presenting or facilitating a professional development workshop, please propose a flex workshop. Your participation and ideas are integral to the strength and health of MiraCosta's Professional Development Program.

Guidelines for Full-time Faculty Flex Participation

• Please remember that the flexible calendar program is a privilege! The local policies and procedures of the PDP committee are not simply to protect the integrity of our flex program: they are in place and enforced to protect you, the faculty member, in the event of state oversight and/or a full audit of our program. The program can be revoked by the state at any time.
• Flex-eligible professional development activities must be activities done above and beyond your contractually obligated duties and responsibilities and must meet the state's criteria for staff, student, and/or instructional improvement (see "Document and Forms").
• Information on properly documenting your professional development activities in MyFlex is available on the MyFlex page and from the "Documents and Forms" page.
• Important dates:
  • The flexible calendar program operates on the fiscal year cycle: 01 July - 30 June.
    • Flex-eligible professional development activities can break across the fiscal year but must be recorded properly on your transcript. For example, a Category III independent project may span the period from 15 June - 15 July, however this activity must be submitted as two separate projects since only the part from 15-30 June counts on one transcript, while the part from 01-15 July counts on the next year's transcript.
  • Transcripts must be completed and certified by the faculty member no later than the second Friday in September or your pay may be adjusted accordingly. There are no exceptions.
    • For example, to complete and certify your transcript for 01 July 2011 - 30 June 2012, you must check the box for the certification statement (as if you were enrolling in a workshop in MyFlex) no later than the second Friday in September 2012. This completes the process.
• To submit a completed transcript, simply check the box next to the certification statement just as if you were enrolling in a workshop. There is no automatic notification system so you will not receive any sort of "confirmation." As long as you are "enrolled" in the "workshop" that is the certification statement, your transcript is considered completed and submitted.

For assistance with the types of activities that are flex-eligible, see the "Documents and Forms" page.