AWSP Blog

Our advocacy team at AWSP works hard during the interim to get ready for the upcoming legislative session that begins in January 2023. This year’s session is a long session that runs from January through April and a new biennial budget for 2023-25 will be passed.  We are focused on solutions to address the needs of our school leaders through a holistic and multi-faceted approach addressing current policies, legislation, and funding so that we can attract and retain highly effective principals and assistant principals.

Curious what changes are coming via legislation for the next school year? Here's my summary of the bills that may impact you the most next school year, which started at 10 but ballooned a little more (like your workloads). For the full text of the actual legislation, the link for the bolded bill number will take you to the actual legislation. The linked text will take you to the bill report, which summarizes the bill in a much easier to read and understand format. Hopefully, you know WHO in your district is responsible for these programs (it might be you?) and HOW you can help influence them. Please send questions if you have them. Thank you!

And just like that, the Legislature has adjourned! This short session was a whirlwind of policy discussions and budget negotiations. In the end, legislators voted on final supplemental and capital budgets that show tremendous support for students, educators, and schools. There was a last-minute push yesterday to get HB 1699 across the finish line, which was amazing. This bill will allow retired educators, including administrators in districts with less than 2,000 students, to work more hours each year in schools.

It was budget week in the Legislature as both House and Senate Democrats released their supplemental operating budgets. Both budget bills had hearings within hours of their release on Monday, and both were amended within days of these hearings. Budget negotiators from both chambers will now seek to reconcile differences and come to a final budget before “sine die” (the last day of the session), scheduled for March 10.

Find yourself frustrated with your current situation as a building level leader? Ever wonder who makes some of these big statewide decisions that impact the work you are doing in your school? Ever consider getting more involved in influencing the P16 education system? How about just getting better connected with other principals and assistant principals from around the state? Well, guess what -- It’s easy to get more involved with AWSP, and WE WANT YOU!