We all know that self-care during this pandemic is important. Our wellness partner, Kaiser Permanente, has lots of great resources to help with this.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our grade-level specific Office Hours, Our Networked Improvement Community grants, Kaiser Permanente's resources for self-care, the “Equity through Master Scheduling: Creating College Ready Transcripts Workshop” offered by OSPI, the “Labor and Management: Coming Together to Further Outcomes for All Students” workshop sponsored by CSTP, weekly discussions about the Science and Culture of Hope with Rick Miller, a Zoom discussion with educators about preparing other ideas to support the Class of 2020, and a fundraising campaign to help us bounce along until we can reopen our Learning Centers.

Principaling has always been difficult, but now the role building leaders play in our system has grown exponentially, even though they are not leading a physical building. Principals sit in the middle of policy (state and district) and practice (what happens in the classroom) and are expected to answer to both sides of the sandwich. If being in the middle was a challenge before, what's it feel like to be a digital principal in the sandwich now?

Seniors across the state of Washington have been left without the opportunity to participate in many traditional celebrations including graduation. Our time during this webinar will focus on how we can collectively create create celebrations that students and families will remember.

The weekend leading up to the closure, all of our schools in the district were buzzing with teachers feverishly putting together work packs for students. Copy machines were running at full steam and teachers were bundling materials to keep learning alive amidst a Governor Proclamation that all schools in the state were to be closed by March 17th, 2020. Everyone has gone above and beyond to implement this new normal. Principals and district office staff have converted space in their home as their new office and teachers have transformed a space in their home as their new classroom.

Throughout these challenging times the voice of the students should be at the core. The AWSL Student Voice and Advisory Council took time to share their thoughts, questions and perspectives on how Covid-19 is affecting their academic, social, and personal livelihoods.

We assembled an expert panel of state, regional, district, and community partners to provide guidance, resources, and advice on child care during the COVID shutdown.

Looking to connect with other school leaders at your building level? Join us on Zoom for these upcoming grade-level-based office hours.

The Ed Leaders Network, or ELN, is offering three free webinars coming up. Register for Strategies for Leading Through COVID-19, an ELN Virtual Tour, and Preparing Students for College, Careers and Civic Responsibilities in the 21st Century.

We recently reached out to our contacts at online schools including Washington Virtual Academies and K12, Inc. They know that teaching students in an online environment presents challenges and are graciously sharing lots of resources with us.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss your amazing leadership during these unprecedented times, better work-life balance and selfcare, the Governor’s school closure announcement, information, resources, tools, and ongoing professional learning, our Weekly Friday Zoom AWSP Office Hours, separate office hours next week for grade-level specific virtual convenings, some upcoming online learning sessions from Inclusionary Practice Demonstration Sites from around the state, emergency rules that allow school districts to apply for greater flexibility in awarding diplomas to seniors impacted by closures, a Virtual Commencement Toolkit for every high school in our state, a 60 second survey, an upcoming webinar, and National Assistant Principals Week.

The University of Washington Haring Center is hosting online learning sessions with four school sites the week of April 20 to showcase the inclusionary practices these schools are implementing.

We know there have been way more questions than answers as the entire P-16 education system has moved into this new reality of distance learning. And now that we’ve officially heard from our Governor that schools will remain closed through the end of the year, even more questions are surfacing. So, what about the Class of 2020? What about all of those year-end events for seniors to celebrate the end of their K-12 experience? What about the graduation ceremony itself...the cap, gown, and tassel toss?

At a special Board Meeting today, the State Board of Education adopted emergency rules that allow school districts to apply for greater flexibility in awarding a diploma to high school seniors impacted by closures.

The Seattle Times had a nice Q&A with Ross Hunter, Secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). Even the best of times, managing the child welfare system is a difficult and complicated job. Learn more about how DCYF is operating and investigating during this period of social distancing.

Schools have been directed to support child care service for certain families in need. This new responsibility is nuanced, complicated and has pushed systems into very new territory. AWSP has assembled an expert panel of state, regional, district and community partners with the intent to provide guidance, resources and advice.

Pensions, Health Care, SEBB, PEBB, Other… The legislative session has concluded, the Governor has acted, and now as the show goes on, districts have to adjust.

In this special edition of AWSP News, we discuss our daily updated website, our weekly Zoom Office Hours for open discussion, Q & A, virtual hugs and principal therapy, National Assistant Principals Week, a Zoom meeting about high school graduation, a webinar on child care, maintaining equitable systems for student-learning during the COVID shut down, and updates to the 2020 Resources page on the AWSL website.

OSPI is partnering with the public televisions across our state. Beginning this week, your local public television station is offering educational programming for students in grades 6 – 12 from 9:00am – 2:00pm daily.

With the closure of our brick and mortar school buildings due to the coronavirus, access to the internet is becoming a necessity for all students. However, statistics at the Federal Communications Commission suggest that one in three households has no broadband access. As this article from The Verge states, “living with the coronavirus is going to reveal hard truths about the digital divide.” State and federal efforts are underway to change this.