AWSP Blog

The 2025 legislative session kicks off on Monday, January 13th and along with a new year, as usual, comes lots of changes. 2025 will be a long, 105-day session where over 2,000 bills will be introduced, and where the biennial operating, capital, and transportation budgets will be adopted by the Legislature and signed by Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson. The session is expected to end by the end of April.

In the 22-23 school year, my Building Leadership Team decided cell phones were limiting students’ ability to access their education to the degree that we needed a schoolwide intervention. By June of 2023, a survey to all certificated teachers showed that 98% of staff wanted a more stringent cell phone policy and that 88% of teachers were willing to support a common cell phone management strategy. In the 23-24 school year, we were poised to start our first year of being a phone-free school. Read more to learm about Interlake's road to being cell-phone free.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education, especially for students with disabilities. A recent Associated Press article highlights how AI tools are helping students like 14-year-old Makenzie Gilkison, who struggled with dyslexia, succeed academically.

Since covering pension/retirement/health insurance issues on behalf of WASA and AWSP, there are a few important points we have learned. This is just a brief summary of selected retirement related topics. One needs to check with the Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) and the Health Care Authority (HCA) for definitive answers to questions about their own situation. Policies change so this document is just a broad overview highlighting some issues.  The importance of advance planning cannot be overstated. These are not issues to put off until the last months of either one’s impending retirement or approaching Medicare eligible age. Start by requesting an official benefit estimate from DRS 3-12 months prior to your retirement date.

Here is a list of January recognitions and holidays, along with suggestions on how to observe and celebrate them within your school community.