It's been at the top of her to do list since she took office July 1st and now the Syracuse City School District Superintendent is executing her plan to make Syracuse teachers better. But as our Katie Gibas reports, the proposal doesn't come without a cost.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It's an equation as simple as two plus two. More resources plus more staff development equals better teachers which equals better student achievement.

"I don't know of any high performing district that has improved without investing in its employees and making sure that they are kept abreast of strategies that help them improve performance," said Syracuse City School District Superintendent Sharon Contreras.

That's why Syracuse City School District Superintendent Sharon Contreras wants to put more emphasis on staff development. She brought a proposal to the policy committee that would create an office of professional learning to oversee and implement the recruitment, retention and training of all district teachers and staff.

"Right now there is some professional development for teachers. There is some for leaders, but by in large, most employees don't have access to professional learning," said Contreras.

"It's critical. It's kind of like trying to do something without making sure you have all the tools to do it. I think it's a big change for us in the district. I think it's going to yield great results," said Monique Wright-Williams, the Syracuse City School District Policy Committee Chair.

But the equation gets more difficult when the lack of funding in the district gets added in. The district cut hundreds of jobs last year and that was with minimal staff development. But education commissioners say they're still in support of the superintendent's proposal.

"You could have 100 teachers in classrooms, if none of them know what they're doing, you still don't get any results, so I'd rather have 50 sound, solid teachers yielding positive results for our students. We're going to have to pay to get the desired outcomes that we want. So I'm not really concerned about the money. It's investment. You put money in and you hope to get more out and I'm pretty sure how it's going to work in this instance," said Wright-Williams.

Even though Contreras has not put a price tag on the proposal, she says high performing districts usually spend between seven and eleven percent of their entire budget on staff development.

The superintendent says she's working on creating efficiencies, so some of the money saved can go to staff development.

The proposal will come back to the policy committee at the meeting next month before it moves to the full board for a vote.