It’s election season again and things are heating up. In our state, the race to lead the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is shaping up to be a tight one.

I woke up this morning so bummed to realize that my dream last night was not real. I have been trying unsuccessfully to land an interview with Pete Carroll about how his own leadership as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks might fit into the AWSP Leadership Framework. Last night in my dream, we finally connected! We were at the V-Mac on Lake Washington in the middle of the cavernous indoor field, right after a pre-season practice as players were heading to the locker room. The conversation was fantastic and went something like this…

Q. I found out recently the money raised from selling gold cards for the teams at our school go into booster clubs, and not ASB. I recall you saying gold card money should go into ASB and not a booster club. Can you could clarify the subject and why it should go into ASB and not booster?

Research suggests that school gardens help students get excited about school and do better on tests. John J. Pershing Elementary School is one of many schools in low-income neighborhoods in Texas that are partnering with REAL School Gardens, a program that helps schools plan and build their garden based on students’ designs.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals, with collaboration from the National Association of Elementary School Principals, sent out the following statement in support of ESEA Reauthorization. Washington’s senior Senator, Patty Murray, has played a big part in the negotiation and drafting of the new language.

Session may be over, but the intrigue around education funding has picked up once again. The Washington Supreme Court has thrown down the gavel and issued sanctions in the McCleary case. The sanctions, which are $100,000 per day, go into effect immediately as the State has not prepared a plan for how it will meet its constitutional duty to fully fund education by 2018. Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said:

Now that 363 bills have been signed into law after the 176 days of the one regular and three special sessions, what lies ahead for 2016? At least five topics will be in a part of the 2016 legislative session.

Many policy bills that have been proposed earlier in the Session failed to advance by the numerous Sine Die’s. Therefore, the legislative focus on these issues and resulting legislation has shifted and they appear to be “dead” or in a deep sleep until the start of the next shorter session in January 2016 where they may be revived and returned to their house of origin.

The operating budget refers specifically to principals five times in the 538 page document. Some of the topics addressed are:

Q. We are approaching ASB elections and it looks like all of our officer positions will be uncontested. In other words, there is only one person running for each position. Do we still need to have these students campaign, give speeches, and place their names on a ballot for students to vote on? There is nothing in our constitution that addresses the situation.

Session number one has ended, some would say, with a whimper. And now we must wait.

State Superintendent Randy Dorn released his grand plan to fully fund basic education Tuesday morning, saying he wanted to give the Legislature the first shot at meeting the McCleary decision

Q. We have a couple of teachers who want to chase down a grant. However, the grant requires us to have a 501c3 status. Is it legal for our teachers to work through our Booster Club to request those grants? The money would go to the Boosters and then they would write us a check or purchase the stuff we want. It feels like a loophole, but we want to make sure it’s legal.

There are over 500 pages in a proposed budget, and there are always details and provisos hidden within the budgets that may not be where they are expected. One such detail is the proviso about funding a consolidation of health care coverage. In addition, numerous proposed bills may or may not be ‘dead’. So all this means that tracking bills and updating status is like trying to describe a moving target, especially when the speed increases as the Legislature nears the April 15 deadline for moving bills out of their respective chambers. Then, hang on. The sprint begins to finish by April 26, the ‘last’ day of the session.