CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In light of recent reports here regarding the state Department of Education spending in excess of $250,000 a pop to hold Teacher Leadership Institutes at Morgantown's Waterfront Place hotel, I asked the department to provide a breakdown of its annual budget for professional development, along with how much of that budget is spent on the various conferences it hosts at hotels in Charleston, Morgantown and other locations.

As of Friday, I was told by the department's Alison Barker that it will "definitely take some time" to tabulate those numbers.

It does look like there are three primary offices whose functions include hosting professional development conferences:

The Office of Leadership Development, with an annual budget of $1.8 million; the Office of Professional Preparation, with a budget of $3.43 million; and at least a portion of the Office of Instruction, with a $3.5 million budget.

Meanwhile, the two Teacher Leadership Institutes hosted at the Waterfront Place this summer at a total cost of $563,000 were not the first at the luxury hotel.

In 2008, the department also staged two weeklong institutes at the W-P.

The first ran from July 27-Aug. 1, and cost a total of $275,673 for 250 participants ($191,621 for meals and meeting facilities, $79,900 for accommodations, and $4,152 for parking).

(Some interesting charges on the hotel's invoices from that session included $4,400 for charter bus transportation within the city, a $480 fee for "unloading trucks," and a $150 charge for three-dozen balloons.)

The second institute followed on Aug. 2-8, at a cost of $283,714, again for about 250 participants.

Charges on that invoice included $280 for a refrigerator rental, $500 a day for 200 assorted granola bars, $590 a day for 200 assorted fruit yogurts, and $3,500 for "The Candy Shoppe," a break-time display on Aug. 4 featuring assorted candy bars, Swedish fish, gummy worms, Jolly Ranchers and Laffy Taffy.

In 2007, the Waterfront Place played host to its first Leadership Institute, charging a total of $223,357 that August.

Speaking of the Office of Leadership Development, the office spent $88,026 to host a 21st Century Leadership School - a professional development conference for school principals - at the Waterfront Place, April 3-5.

With 140 in attendance - including 30 listed as Department of Education staff (among them, Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine), presenters or facilitators - the event was even more lavish than the Leadership Institutes, with costs exceeding $209 per person, per day.

Besides the same breakfast, lunch and dinner fare as the institutes, two of the three days the participants enjoyed the "executive meeting package" at $23 per person, or $3,105 a day, on April 3 and 4.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In light of recent reports here regarding the state Department of Education spending in excess of $250,000 a pop to hold Teacher Leadership Institutes at Morgantown's Waterfront Place hotel, I asked the department to provide a breakdown of its annual budget for professional development, along with how much of that budget is spent on the various conferences it hosts at hotels in Charleston, Morgantown and other locations.

As of Friday, I was told by the department's Alison Barker that it will "definitely take some time" to tabulate those numbers.

It does look like there are three primary offices whose functions include hosting professional development conferences:

The Office of Leadership Development, with an annual budget of $1.8 million; the Office of Professional Preparation, with a budget of $3.43 million; and at least a portion of the Office of Instruction, with a $3.5 million budget.

Meanwhile, the two Teacher Leadership Institutes hosted at the Waterfront Place this summer at a total cost of $563,000 were not the first at the luxury hotel.

In 2008, the department also staged two weeklong institutes at the W-P.

The first ran from July 27-Aug. 1, and cost a total of $275,673 for 250 participants ($191,621 for meals and meeting facilities, $79,900 for accommodations, and $4,152 for parking).

(Some interesting charges on the hotel's invoices from that session included $4,400 for charter bus transportation within the city, a $480 fee for "unloading trucks," and a $150 charge for three-dozen balloons.)

The second institute followed on Aug. 2-8, at a cost of $283,714, again for about 250 participants.

Charges on that invoice included $280 for a refrigerator rental, $500 a day for 200 assorted granola bars, $590 a day for 200 assorted fruit yogurts, and $3,500 for "The Candy Shoppe," a break-time display on Aug. 4 featuring assorted candy bars, Swedish fish, gummy worms, Jolly Ranchers and Laffy Taffy.

In 2007, the Waterfront Place played host to its first Leadership Institute, charging a total of $223,357 that August.

Speaking of the Office of Leadership Development, the office spent $88,026 to host a 21st Century Leadership School - a professional development conference for school principals - at the Waterfront Place, April 3-5.

With 140 in attendance - including 30 listed as Department of Education staff (among them, Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine), presenters or facilitators - the event was even more lavish than the Leadership Institutes, with costs exceeding $209 per person, per day.

Besides the same breakfast, lunch and dinner fare as the institutes, two of the three days the participants enjoyed the "executive meeting package" at $23 per person, or $3,105 a day, on April 3 and 4.

According to W-P's Web site, that features a morning break with fruit juices and bakery goods, a "mid-morning refresh" with soft drinks and coffee, and a mid-afternoon break with assorted cookies and brownies.

They also were treated to six-dozen miniature pepperoni rolls (at $162, or $27 a dozen, or $2.25 each) on April 4, and 125 "bagged snacks" at $7 each, for $875, on their departure day of April 5.

Also, unlike other conferences, 21 Department of Education staffers arrived a day early, billing room costs ($100 each with parking) for April 2.

That evening, 19 of the 21 employees had dinner at the hotel's Regatta Bar and Grille, billed to the department.

According to the receipt, 12 had the New York strip entrée, at $30 each, while seven opted for the sea bass ($33 a piece).

Total tab, signed for by Charles Heinlein, executive director of the Office of Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership, was $756, with a $151.20 tip.

A day later, the hotel credited a 25 percent discount for the dinner, bringing its adjusted cost to $680.40.

Regarding the recent columns, I got an angry, anonymous e-mail that read: "In your rants about hotel charges and the way the state is wasting money using overpriced hotels for meetings, instead of the to-be remodeled [Capitol complex] conference center, you leave out the fact the most of the actual hotel room charges will still exist. ... You also neglect to note that when the conference center is remodeled, the state will charge the agencies to use it."

True, the Department of Administration will charge agencies fees to use the conference center, but it will be a heck of a lot cheaper than the roughly $30,000 a day the Department of Education is paying to hold conferences at Waterfront Place.

Finally, unlike the lavish spreads put out for teachers at the Waterfront Place, an attendee of last week's Purchasing Division annual training conference at Canaan Valley State Park complained via e-mail about the lack of amenities there.

"[Division Director] Dave Tincher is notoriously cheap," the e-mail stated. "Break sessions include free water."

(The e-mailer could have a point. Compared to the quarter-million dollar costs for each week of Education's Teacher Leadership Institutes, the Purchasing Division last year spent $35,395 for its weeklong conference.)

However, for the record, I was advised that soft drinks and coffee were also available during breaks.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.