The 2020 Washington Great ShakeOut is coming soon! We are all experiencing what happens in times of a statewide threat to our schools. Even in times of COVID, that means: “Drop, Cover, Hold on!” The official date and time is October 15 at 10:15 am, but any date that works for you and your school community is fine. Make sure you involve your families!

Each year, AWSP’s Advocacy Advisory Council has the opportunity to select a state-level public servant who has demonstrated support of principals and the principalship in the education of all students. For 2020, the Council selected Representative Lisa Callan as AWSP’s 2020 Torch of Leadership Award winner. Representative Callan is a Democrat representing the 5th legislative district, which includes Issaquah, North Bend, and the surrounding areas.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss one of the strangest experiences in education history ever, our brand new membership portal, virtual school-wide programs for your school, our ASB Practices in a Virtual World, a survey about the realities of principaling during COVID, our SMART START professional learning series, the AWSP Leadership Framework Version 3.0, the Inclusionary Practices Project 2020–21 Grant Funding Application, our 2020 Torch of Leadership Award Winner Representative Lisa Callan, and our Save Cispus Campaign.

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

The 5th Annual School Safety Summit was held on June 12 of this year. Annual Summits are designed to be participatory. Over the years, we have had targeted presentations on specific funding issues, safety topics, and studies mandated by the legislature. Some excellent recommendations have come out of the Summits, and some notable legislation has been proposed – and passed.

To assist school and district leaders with specific, evidence-informed guidance and operating procedures for keeping school communities healthy during school reopenings, a number of nationally recognized and trusted school health organizations have come together to develop a playbook for school reopening — “Planning for the Next Normal at School: Keeping students, staff, and families safe and healthy.”

After a crazy sprint to wrap up the school year amidst all the change due to COVID-19, including putting on our first-ever virtual conference, we're going to shut our doors for a few days to relax, recharge, and rest up. Some of us will still be checking email periodically, but we'll be officially closed until Wednesday, July 8th. In the meantime, you can email each of us or our webmaster account and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.

How about a fun, rewarding safety activity for students this summer? Washington Operation Lifesaver (WAOL) is a non-profit organization consisting of public and private entities whose purpose is to educate the public about safe practices at highway-rail grade crossings and other locations along railroad tracks.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss one of the craziest school years ever and the impact of your incredible leadership, OSPI's weekly updates, our virtual Summer Conference, learning opportunities for all members, AWSL's Summer Leadership Days, our AWSL Fall Conference, our Learning Centers now open for business, our online change of status form, and nominating a fellow colleague for Principal and/or Assistant Principal of the Year.

In this episode of episode of AWSP News, we discuss focusing on what is within the realm of your responsibilities, what school will look like next Fall, our AWSP/WASA Summer Conference, the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP), TikTok and a number of enhancements to safety policies, AWSL bringing our leader development programs to your campus, our AWSL Fall Conference, Juneteenth and the significance of this date in history for african americans in our country, and your self-care as a top priority.

One popular app, TikTok, recently launched a number of enhancements to safety policies, controls, and educational resources that will help keep kids safe. The National PTA -- along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Family Online Safety Institute and ConnectSafely -- are partnering with TikTok to help inform parents of the new parental controls, like its Family Pairing feature, which gives parents the ability to guide their child's online experience while also educating them about online safety and digital citizenship.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss the OSPI Reopening Washington Schools 2020 Guidance, the University of Washington’s SMART Center “Hope and Cope” event, the Jostens Renaissance Virtual Conference, the AWSP/WASA Virtual Summer Conference, the AWSL camp staff coming to your campus this summer, resources for your equity journey, Microsoft US Education's incredible resources, our online change of status form, and a specific challenge issued by OSPI Superintendent Chris Reykdal.

As we proceed, let’s take a collective deep breath and ensure we do no harm in the present. Let’s avoid getting bogged down in the grading-during-a-pandemic question in order to create the bandwidth needed for everyone to focus on the future of school. Let’s ensure our decisions move past the problematic nature of pre-COVID grading. We have an opportunity to push the system towards evidence-based, student-centered, assessment practices, and creative ideas for returning to school in the fall.

I’ve been “out of the building” now as a recovering high school principal for about seven years. My trips to the grocery store are still filled with high fives and hellos from kids and families. As a principal, I always prioritized relationships above all else, and the evidence of that can be found in any aisle of the grocery store to this day. There is no way those relationships would have happened with sixteen little video squares on a computer screen

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our statement on the tragic death of George Floyd and our continued commitment to lead an equitable and bright future, new guidance coming soon from the Department of Health and OSPI, the “Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Vaccinated” campaign, a statewide survey to collect student voice and perceptions about distance learning, a shout out to the Elementary GLLC, the 2020 AWSP/WASA Virtual Summer Conference and a message from Joe Sanfelippo, our Friday morning Coffee Chats, our online change of status form, and a Why Try Webinar.

The COVID–19 shutdown unexpectedly sent thousands of university students home and left them disappointed and uncertain about their future. However, many of them knew they could rely on support networks to help them continue their coursework online. They also knew many K–12 students across the nation would struggle to maintain academic support networks and succeed with the limited supports being provided by their school district, so a group of Ivy Leaguers decided to create a free, online tutoring service. This is how CovEd was founded.

With a little creativity and the right tools, there are ways to celebrate graduations safely this year and make positive memories for all. You're invited to join Microsoft live this Friday at 11 a.m. where they will share how you can create an engaging and rewarding virtual graduation experience for students, families, and educators alike. Use this link to access the conversation live via Microsoft Teams.

Some might say we’ve come a long way as educational organizations, stakeholder groups, schools, districts, and higher education spent the last few years talking about and addressing systems of inequity. That progress is only the tip of the iceberg. We will never be able to rest on this pursuit until access, opportunities, expectations, and outcomes can no longer be predicted by the color of one’s skin. We can’t rest until we’ve equipped new generations and addressed the biases of older generations so there is never another horrific example like George Floyd.

Come join us for our virtual coffee chat. Every Friday, at least for the foreseeable future, we'll be hanging out in Zoom. We'll start by providing new updates, we'll answer questions, and then we'll turn it over to you to share stories, successes, challenges, and learn from each other. We hope to see you there.

During this “Stay Home, Stay Safe” period of time, we can all benefit from a little structure. At our recent spring AWSP board meeting, we discussed providing additional resources for families. Here is a resource the principals at the Washington Virtual Academy (WAVA) shared with us to help students in grades K-12 and their families create schedules to manage their time.