At the risk of repetition, the legislative session and Governor’s actions have concluded. This was a session that was akin to a sprint to the finish line with the Democrat majorities in both houses pushing many pieces of legislation that had stalled in previous sessions. There were 1,425 new bills introduced and 310 passed during this 60-day session. In 2017, for comparison, for the 193 days of regular and special sessions, 377 bills passed. So, what happened regarding pensions, health care, financials and other issues?

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss the student walkouts and empowering student voice, the Washington State Mental Health Summit, a great way to show staff appreciation shared with us by Jostens, the recent David Brooks Op-Ed in the New York Times about the integral role of the principal in strong schools, a meeting with Washington Roundtable and Challenge Seattle, the importance of a professional learning network (PLN), and one principal’s equity journey as a result of a strong PLN.

The PEB Board held its monthly meeting March 21, 2018. A short summary follows. A briefing book offers more details. This report primarily focuses on issues related to retirees, both those who are pre-Medicare eligible and those that are Medicare eligible and choose PEBB insurance as their supplemental health policy.

The SEBB held an all-day meeting on 3/15/18 that covered a great deal of information including preliminary impacts on the state and local school districts. The caveat is that David Iseminger, the Director of the Employee and Retiree Benefit Division (ERB) stated, “Because this change is new, we are not going to get everything right.” At this point, without enrollment figures, claims history, etc. ERB is involved in making educated guesses with assumptions that may come to be or not.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss how to handle student walkouts in response to the Florida shooting, the 3rd annual Equity Conference on May 23rd, a great definition of cultural competence, OSPI’s ESSA Implementation 101 webinars and new approach to school improvement, participating in the Washington State Leadership Academy, the Coble Scholarship for under-represented educational leaders, WASA’s new executive director, how to showcase your leadership in your evaluation, how Thrive Washington suports kids and families from birth to five, and our 3rd annual principal appreciation night with the Tacoma Rainiers.

Do you know how to spot the time thieves in your life? Shane Parrish over at Farnam Street has a great series on focus. His latest installment discusses the Eisehnhower Matrix, a four-part filter you can use to determine what tasks keep you on target.

We’ve all been there. We’ve all sat in professional learning settings where the audience is completely disengaged, clearing emails and/or surfing the web. In fact, we’ve all developed coping and exit strategies for painful adult learning settings. And, you can’t tell me you haven’t faked an important phone call and walked out of some sort of profession learning setting.

Ensure your social studies curriculum includes tribal experiences and perspectives of Native American students with this OSPI-sponsored one-day workshop.

Q. Can we temporarily store money that belongs to the Boosters in the school safe?

This week’s report is particularly difficult. There are major pieces of legislation that have only recently been introduced and have very complex elements. They all deal with the McCleary decision and meeting the directives of the Supreme Court.