With the spread of the Coronavirus and the tremendous impact it’s having across our state, we know you have a ton of questions. First, what does the Coronavirus COVID-19 mean for AWSP? Just because all our districts are closing doesn’t mean all your troubles go away too. AWSP staff has always been a phone call or email away when you are in need, and this closure will not change our response time to you. Our office will continue to operate on your behalf. Some of us will continue to come into the office, some of us will be working from home, but all of us will still be available to serve you.

Sine Die occurred and the 66th Legislature has concluded. The last act is the Governor’s responses to the various legislative proposals that have delivered to his office. Once his ‘singing’ is done, attention will shift to the upcoming national and local election. There will be a more complete ‘End of Session’ summary to follow, but this is just an update on some selected bills.

The session is moving toward Sine Die and there’s a great deal of unknowns still to come. It’s the part of the session where bills need to be voted out of their opposite house. Some bills will make it; others will die as the clock runs down. Each chamber has lengthy lists of other bills eligible for debate and votes. Many won’t make it. There are at least four main areas yet to be dealt with, any of which will take a great deal of floor time as bills addressing these are debated. These are bills that seek to establish a low carbon fuel standard, a clean air rule, guidelines protecting data privacy and those that deal with the repeal of the Boeing tax break. Additionally, time can be consumed by virtue of debating proposed amendments attached to these or any remaining bills.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss some coronavirus resources, the new immunization rules,  our last episode of AWSP TV Highline Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield, Omak’s 3F Club,  the annual Equity Conference, the AWSP/WASA Summer Conference, the NASSP Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, the NAESP Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, a new survey and winning a $15 Amazon Gift Card, and a last chance to nominate a Principal of the Year or Assistant Principal of the Year.

AWSP is excited to be one of many organizations involved with the IPPDP cadre as an external partner navigating the implementation of better inclusionary practices for Washington state educators; our focus being, of course, YOU, the building learning leaders. Since November 2019, AWSP has embarked on a “fact-finding” crusade to measure the understanding of what inclusion and inclusionary practices are from our members’ perspective and evaluate what the immediate needs are in order to embed targeted inclusionary practices within all of or professional learning opportunities.

We have some openings to serve on our Grade Level Leadership Committees (GLLC), formerly our component boards. Join the many principals and assistant principals who've become more involved with us. We know how busy you are, but our board and committee members consistently tell us about incredibly value the networking and professional learning, both formal and informal, is to them.

Daylight Savings Time! Spring! St. Patrick’s Day! March is full. Here are some important topics rising to the top in March.

A change is coming in August 2020 that you don’t want to miss. The way schools collect immunization records and comply with immunization rules will be different beginning with the 2020-21 school year. Effective August 1, 2020, a state rule change will affect three areas of immunization compliance: The definition of “conditional status” has been clarified. Students must turn in their immunization paperwork on or before the first day of attendance. All new immunization records from students need to be medically verified. The Tdap vaccine requirement for 6th through 12th graders has been changed to a 7th through 12th-grade requirement.

As many of you know, Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency due to the growing presence of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in our state. What does that mean? Should you freak out? Is this something we're all overreacting to? Great questions, but we're no doctors (although we do have a Dr. Scott Seaman). Here's what we can tell you though; listen to advice and guidance from your district and from local, state, and national health experts. Aside from that, our best piece of advice is to make sure you are communicating frequently and clearly with your students, staff, and community.

After noticing an increase in discipline between Thanksgiving and holiday break, Omak High School principal David Kirk reached out to the community to open a space for any school-aged child to have access food, friends and fun, and created the 3F club.

Proposed bills dealing with providing a benefit increase to those members in TRS1 and PERS 1 plans can easily be seen as NTIB (Necessary to Implement the Budget) so will remain alive until Session ends.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss Future Educators Month and our Future School Leaders Day, our “Give ‘em your keys” campaign, Black History Month, nominations for Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year, a new survey out about graduation pathway options, our HB 1599 Fact or Fiction series, a new graduation requirements workshop, a new texting service from the Washington Student Achievement Council, 2020 WA State Teacher of the Year Amy Campbell, the next issue of Washington Principal magazine, and an event on March 9th organized by the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools.

Proposed bills have now either passed their respective chambers and are awaiting further action in the opposite house, or they are ‘dead’. Remember that no bill is really ‘dead’ until Sine Die. Bills with fiscal impacts can be deemed ‘necessary to implement the budget’ (NTIB) or just plain deemed necessary by a majority of a legislative body. Bills now move relatively quickly with public hearings and often same-day executive sessions.

Otterbot is a free texting service designed to help Washington high school seniors navigate financial aid for college and career education. Students can access Otterbot via text message 24 hours a day, seven days a week by texting "Hi Otter" to 360-928-7281.

The first deadlines have come and gone. Action now shifts to the floor of each chamber. A bill needs to be brought out of the Rules Committee, put on the floor calendar, and then brought before the body for debate and vote. This process has to have all bills out of their chambers by February 19th. Then the process starts over with committee hearings and votes on opposite house bills – however at a much more rapid pace. Currently, there are over 300 bills sitting in the House Rules Committee and around 343 bills before Senate Rules. The challenge now becomes how to get one’s bill to rise above the herd and move to the floor? Admittedly, one hopes some bills don’t make the cut. Many won’t.

The United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) announces that high school students Ms. Dana S. Ahmed and Mr. Andre James Ramsey will join Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell in representing Washington in the nation’s capital during the 58th annual USSYP Washington Week, to be held March 7 — 14, 2020. Dana Ahmed of Kennewick and Andre Ramsey of Spokane were selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the 104 national student delegation who will also each receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.

Our AWSP and Foundation Board met January 25–26, our Grade Level Leadership Committees met on the 26th and 27th, and on the 28th, members of each joined our Advocacy Advisory Council for our annual Day on the Hill. We want to thank all the principals and assistant principals, plus special guests, who sacrificed time away from friends, family, and school to advocate for school leaders and students across the state.

Legislative actions continue. As this is being written, the deadline for policy bills to leave committees has arrived. The next cut-off is February 11 for all bills that have a fiscal or monetary impact – either positive or negative. The Legislature’s fiscal committees, Senate Ways and Means and House Finance and Appropriations will be very busy – possibly working this weekend (House Appropriations) and late into the evenings trying to hear all of the bills dropped into them by the policy committees.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss February as Future Educators Month, our “Give ‘Em Your Keys Campaign”, AWSP's third annual Future School Leaders Day, our Networked Community Improvement grant, Black History Month, our January Leadership and Advocacy weekend, the AWSP Day on the Hill, Senate Bill 6615, AWSL’s Middle-Level Regionals,  Summer Conference and a way to help fund your participation, and a reminder to nominate someone for Principal of the Year or Assistant Principal of the Year.

Groundhog Day.  We look for a sign: winter coming to a close or continuing for 6 more weeks!  Valentine’s Day. We share signs of love and appreciation. Presidents Day. We recognize our presidents, a sign of our democracy. And robins. Sure signs of spring. Let’s hope we see some soon!