AWSP Blog

Every now and then, a conversation with a student becomes profound and life-changing. A conversation where you leave the conversation a different person than when you entered. Where students teach you a lesson that you never knew you needed to hear. That sums up a conversation I had with a student this week.

We are clearly in some of the most challenging times of our careers. And, quite frankly, you probably never envisioned leading your school in and through these circumstances. We hear you. AWSP has been supporting school leaders since 1972 and continues to make the necessary changes to provide the relevant, timely, and personalized support you need. Just as COVID has impacted members like you, COVID has impacted AWSP in many ways. At our recent annual September AWSP and Foundation Board meeting, the board made a difficult decision to terminate our Chewelah Peak Learning Center contract with the Department of Natural Resources and ESD 101. This was by no means an easy decision. Word is spreading quickly about both the action related to Chewelah Peak and the precarious position of our Cispus Learning Center because we officially launched our “Cispus Forever” Campaign this week. This state (and national) campaign is focused on both the short-term survivability of Cispus (in response to COVID) and the establishment of an endowment to forever secure the future of Cispus. We have to start somewhere while we work to build an endowment that will help us weather future storms like COVID.

Our Principals Month celebration continues with a special surprise: We’re offering a brand-new workshop on inclusion absolutely FREE to AWSP members. How to be 'ALL IN' as an Inclusive Leader is a 5-part series with international film-maker Dan Habib.

Every fall, the Association of Washington Student Leaders holds a Fall Leadership Conference. With obvious travel restrictions and complexities at the beginning of the school year, we decided to shift our conference course.

Picture it: The buses roll into the learning center and kids begin to pile out of the buses with luggage in hand. Surrounded by trees and fresh air, each student knows they are about to take on the outdoors. They're in a place where no one has an advantage, only a fresh start to explore what everyone has to offer. Accelerated learning is about to take place.