High school principals have a lot on their minds this month as they work to support teachers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning and sharing experiences with other principals is valuable while they navigate similar challenges, such as grading, attendance, and planning for graduation. The Chief Education Officer (CEO) Network – a partnership between the Association of Washington Principals (AWSP), Partnership for Learning, Washington Roundtable and Challenge Seattle – brings principals together this school year for monthly virtual workshops and offers access to online curriculum developed by AWSP.

The Grammarist notes that “hindsight is 20/20 is usually said in answer to an admonishment that [someone] should have known something would happen”, or that we might/could/should have made different decisions earlier on. In hindsight, 2020 has been one tumultuous year! Along with the first US COVID case here in WA last January, we have experienced social, political, economic, and, often, personal disruption during the entirety of 2020.

Science says that COVID19 cases are on the rise and spiking across the country. Science also says we should go back into lockdowns and social isolation. Science also says we are close to the release of a new vaccine that might finally bring us some relief. That same science says that we should get kids back in school as soon as humanly possible. But doesn’t that sound like conflicting science? Well, it’s not. After countless studies conducted throughout the country studying COVID cases, transmission rates, and symptoms among youth, on top of safe procedures for reopening our schools, the evidence seems to be overwhelming that we need to get our students out of isolation and back into our schools. Schools, like always, are proving to be one the safest places for our kids.

Outdoor school, the big camping trip - those 6th graders are going to embark on a weeklong adventure in the outdoors. Each student, no matter what social standing, is headed to the great equalizer: the wilderness. Yet, this is not happening for all. As a matter of fact, it is not happening - yet. A lot of talk has been placed on the social emotional learning of a child and the equity platform in education. While wonderful programs are being created and the buzz is in the air, we have to stop and consider something. The picture cannot be painted if you don’t have a canvas to lay down the work. What did our leaders receive that made them the wonderful people they are today? What canvas in the late 90’s and before were priority then and not today? The truth is, some things in education we had right and turned away from - one of which was the camp experience.

How are you going to speak about the year 2020? There has been so much that has occurred this year. It can be challenging to synthesize how to articulate our feelings, thoughts, and moments from this year. As I begin to reflect, I wanted to recontextualize the year and provide some opportunities for us to talk a moment to reflect and dig into our realizations. If we speak our realizations, we can learn and grow from them.

Here are some fun days in December and ways to use them with your students, staff, and families.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss: Work-life balance for school leaders, joining a group of new/newly assigned Digital/Virtual On-line School Leaders, connecting with a network of colleagues during this time of distance-leading, our “How to be All In as an Inclusive Leader” series with Dan Habib, a successful strategy implemented to address high failure rates in Yelm, a special MLK Day Presentation for your school, and La Chispa, an engaging and dynamic bilingual (English-Spanish) program for secondary Latinx students.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss the Washington State Principals of the Year, reaching out to the AWSP team about the realities of principaling right now, the new COVID restrictions, incredible professional learning for you and your admin teams, the alarming failure rates happening across the state and at all levels, the AWSL Adviser of the Year, our popular ASB Finance workshop, the National Conference on Student Activities, Giving Tuesday (Dec 1), helping us save Cispus, and a great leadership example.

The 2020 AWSL Virtual Fall Conference was a smashing success with over 5,000 attendees. Yes, we can celebrate the number of participants, but the success of this conference lies in who was able to attend. With the need to switch to a virtual format, we invited and encouraged schools to bring as many students as they wanted. Focusing on equity, becoming while doing, and the belief that all students can lead, we hoped that students who had never attended a conference of any kind, especially a 'leadership' conference who could learn, grow, connect, and see the leadership abilities within them.

Here are some fun days in November and ways to use them with your students, staff, and families.

November! We have crossed another threshold. Moving into November, we made it through our first ever COVID Great ShakeOut, and Halloween, had a blue moon, fell back to standard time, and are anxiously (nervously?) awaiting the results of the Presidential election. We will close out the month with a well-deserved long Thanksgiving weekend. So much is happening!

The 59th anniversary of the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) will take place in March of 2021. For the past 59 years, two students per state have been selected to receive a $10,000 scholarship and attend a weeklong program in Washington D.C., funded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. To apply for consideration in our state this year, a student must be a junior or senior and must hold an elected position in student council or school government. If students are unable to hold leadership positions this year due to the pandemic, they can submit the position they held during the 2019-2020 academic year.

AWSP is thrilled to offer its second annual Women in Education Leading and Learning (WELL) Summit. Our WELL Summit for the 2020-21 school year will be a series that is offered in the fall and the spring. Our goals for the summit are to create professional networks for female leaders in education, increase our knowledge of successful leadership qualities and experiences, discuss ways to remove barriers to leadership, and focus on self-care.

Educational gaps have persisted for decades. That question is not for debate. Another point that we need not waste valuable time discussing is the ever-widening gaps across the system with each passing day. We are starting to hear the term, “learning loss” bubble to the surface of educator conversations. Call it what you want. “Learning loss” to me is a nice way of saying “even wider gaps in achievement, access, opportunities, expectations, relationships, and hope.” That’s learning loss. Let’s call it what it is—most of our students are suffering massive unintended consequences of remote learning.

Today, October 27, is National Mentoring Day! 🎉 AWSP would like to offer a well-deserved thank you to the amazing 230 AWSP trained mentors! These mentors offer their support, guidance, friendship, expertise to over 125 new and newly assigned school leaders every year. AWSP-trained mentors are truly “friends of AWSP” as they deeply understand and are committed to impacting the effects of the principal churn rate in the state of Washington.

During October's Principals Month festivities, we asked members on Facebook, "What's one thing you wished people knew about your current reality as a principal?"  Stephanie Teel writes, "Right now, my job feels a lot like the title of an old Western: 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.'" Read more to find out why. (Thanks, Stephanie, for sharing!)

As the 2020 year continues to progress, we have the unusual vantage point for understanding an even broader meaning of inclusion. Across the world, we all experienced a form of isolation that was required in response to the pandemic and continues even now. Social distancing is something we all became intimately acquainted with. For our own safety and the safety of others we donned masks, restricted outings, and reduced gathering to those within our households. To equate social distancing to exclusion may seem over the top, but if you think about it, it has afforded everyone the experience of what many students with disabilities encounter daily in our brick and mortar schools and in truth, life, which is to be distanced in all ways. So how do we shift, in those ever-shifting sands of re-opening schools to ensure inclusion and inclusionary practices are a part of reimagining?

For many of our students, the realities are that many adults listen to them but do not hear them. Their perspectives, words, hopes, fears, and concerns often get chalked up as "kids being kids." As adults and people with positional power, we can foster and create spaces where students can be heard. It begins with the belief that their perspectives and stories matter. It's about moving beyond performative student engagement, where we ask questions but disregard their responses. It is about us as adults sitting in potential discomfort and recognizing students' agency and value speaking up and out.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our “How To Be “ALL IN” As an Inclusive Leader" webinar series, AWSL's Fall Conference where over 4000 students and school leaders have already registered, creating a Principal’s Advisory Council to build relationships with kids, our Cispus Forever Campaign, our former Learning Center Director Marty Fortin and his recognition by National FFA, Dr. Michelle Fox recognized for the 2020 Bell National Outstanding School Leadership Award, engaging with us in sharing the reality of your work in our weekly Principals Month Question challenge on Facebook, and a special message.

Rolling up in front of Liberty High School in Spangle, Washington was not like the traditional experience of which I was accustomed. For decades, if you pulled into any typical high school parking lot, you’d find cars parked everywhere and a busy scene filled with students moving about socializing in small groups. Not today. It was eerily quiet. Instead I found a half-full parking lot, void of typical activity. What I knew however was that Liberty High School opened in a hybrid model and that students were definitely on campus, but only half of them. I also knew that Principal Aaron Fletcher, a 12 year veteran principal (22 years in district), was somewhere inside principaling. What I didn’t know exactly was what “principaling” meant in our current COVID reality.