I've heard of vaping, but "juuling" is new to me. If you're now sure what "juuling" is, it's basically a form of vaping often difficult to detect. We've heard from principals about the many challenges vaping presents in schools, one of the main ones being, you have no clue what's being vaporized and ingested.

For the third year in a row, TVW's Inside Olympia interviewed Washington's Teacher of the Year and one of our Principals of the Year. This year, the teacher also happened to be the National Teacher of the Year, Mandy Manning. Our Middle Level Principal of the Year, Marc Gallaway, represented principals.

Dear Principals, This year’s Basic Education Funding Bill has given your school an unprecedented opportunity to update a significant capital resource: your library. Substitute Senate Bill 6362designated for library materials in the Basic Education Funding bill created a $20/FTE line item for libraries.

Welcome to our last AWSP News for the 2017-18 school year, where we discuss feedback for the AWSP Leadership Framework rubric language, examining your cultural competence and racial identity to become the best leader you can be, updates from OSPI, the State Board of Education, and bills from this last session, mental health first responders, more high five goodness, updating your info with us, and Scott says thanks.

Our mission is to support principals and the principalship in the education of all students. Part of supporting the education of all students is our core responsibility as educators to fearlessly shield children from traumatic events, ensure their safety and advocate for the health and well-being of all children, particularly those most vulnerable. The statements below from the national associations were all issued before President Trump signed an executive order ending the forcible separation. Here's a good explainer from CNN on what the order actually does from CNN.

Fred Yancey, a retired principal and superintendent, represents AWSP on issues related to health care and retirement. Check out his summer conference update linked here with updates about the School Employee Benefit Board (SEBB), the Public Employee Benefit Board (PEBB), and pensions. Fred can be reached at fyancey@comcast.net if you have questions.

There are two ways to view jobs on AWSP now. If you’re a member, you have to log in. If you know your password, everything should be simple and straightforward. Sadly, our programmers are still trying to sort out some issues with our web platform and our member management database. More on this in a minute. If you’re not a member, you can sign up for one year of free access to view our job postings.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our new website, the Healthy Youth Survey, joining a Networked Improvement Community with a clip from Jason Smith, the Gender Odyssey Conference, cultural items for tribal students during graduation, a tip from Dr. Roz, UW's Leadership for Learning program, and high five and hug data.

In this episode of AWSP News, we're coming to you from our remodeled studio to discuss Principal Appreciation Night with the Tacoma Rainiers, two great new additions expanding our reach across the state, the Retreat at the Peak Summit at Chewelah Peak, the latest Golden Apple Moment from PEMCO, increasing student voice, our coaching and mentoring efforts, and the PESB's grants for micro credentialing.

We've done more than just slap a fresh coat of paint on our website; we've torn it down to the studs and built from the ground up. One of the easiest ways to make the most of the new site is to log in and fill out your profile. When you do that, you'll start to see blog posts and events on the homepage tailored just for you.

In an effort to provide all Bellingham School District high school students with opportunities for remediation, exploration, and acceleration within the school day, the district drastically changed the high school schedule for each comprehensive high school across the entire district. They even moved start times back based on current research. With students, teachers, and building- and district-level administrators all working together, they came up with a system they believe will provide a better experience for all their students.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss National Assistant Principals Week, FINAO's Educator Advisory Board, the Governor's Arts and Heritage Awards, a pair of equity conferences, the NASSP Digital Principal of the Year nominations, some tips from "Dr. Roz," and two great and inspirational ideas (one of them will make your eyes water from our favorite episode ever).

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.