I love APRIL. Springtime brings crazy schedules for the Cromwell family. However, I am determined to enjoy these precious moments with my family along with the later sunsets, the blooming flowers, the birds chirping in the morning, and evenings on the back deck. All of these beautiful signs of spring make me smile. This month of April you need not to feel guilty about shutting down your phone for an evening or weekend. Go for a walk, turn the music up a bit louder on your drive to and from work, get a massage, AND treat yourself to some me time. April is when we are starting to see the finish line for this school year, so fill YOUR bucket. I know you will find this edition of the School Celebration Newsletter helpful to bring laughter, joy, and appreciation to your work

Last week, I had the honor of representing our state and AWSP members at the NAESP National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. While there, I was able to hear from both candidates running for NAESP Vice-President. Both candidates were able to answer the questions put before them, though Ann-Marie Gleason articulated her thoughts and personalized her stories. Whoever wins the election will be representing our voice through discussions with leaders and legislators across our states and in our country’s capital

I’ve realized that in the world of leadership, the path less traveled is often paved with tough decisions and unwavering values. It's not about being everyone's favorite, and being kind doesn’t make you weak. Leadership is about making decisions that, while they may not please everyone, are in the best interest of students, staff, community, and the mission at hand.

I recently attended the second of three convenings at the Gates Foundation with educational partners from every sector you can imagine. From early learning to higher education, various perspectives, organizations, community partners, and agencies were in the room—including students. Why are we meeting? To urgently address our state’s low FAFSA completion rates, decreasing number of students pursuing post-secondary educational opportunities, and how these trend data compare to our state’s current and future job market. We are not moving in the right direction as a system. Something must be done, and soon.

Principals carry this burden of school-wide hope, but if they are lucky, they are not alone. While principals set the tone for the entire school, there is another group who are quite often working on hope from a completely different angle—our assistant principals. These unsung heroes are a direct line of hope to some of our most hopeless students. Our assistant principals have the opportunity to reach many of our students who don’t feel loved (at school or at home), who don’t have any sense of belonging in their lives, and far too often lack any vision of life in the future, yet alone where they might get their next meal.

As we move from winter winds down and we can see spring just around the corner, we just want to remind principals and assistant principals that your own evaluation must be wrapped up on or before June 1 of each school year. This includes them having a summative conference, scoring, final eval, etc. This is the first year this date has been REQUIRED, per the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 392–191A–190(8) (see the WAC text below).

Yesterday, the Legislature adjourned “Sine Die”. Over the past few days, decisions were solidified about final supplemental budgets and final bill language. Here is my description about this year’s legislative session based on the book Fortunately that I used to read to my own kids.

Before working in education, I worked in the private sector as an HR manager for aerospace manufacturing firms in Los Angeles. My time on the other side of the wall (the office versus the shop) gave me plenty of time to evaluate the efficient operations of machines, people, and processes. It was the latter that I find most interesting now.

OSPI is seeking your feedback on model student handbook language that school districts will be required to use to notify students, families, and employees about important rights, complaint options, and contacts.

Good news, everyone! The long-awaited asynchronous Government-to-Government training is here. House Bill 1426 passed in 2021 and it requires that administrators who renew their administrator certificate on or after July 1, 2023 must complete a five-hour Government-to-Government Relationships Training. Administrators also need to complete 10 clock hours related to leadership standards and 10 clock hours related to equity before renewing their certificates.

Today, March 1, is the last day to consider (or pass) opposite house bills (except initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets, differences between the houses, and matters incident to the interim and closing of the session). March 7 is scheduled to be “Sine Die” – the last day of the legislative session. Work goes on behind the scenes to reconcile the two different budgets from the House and the Senate.

Action has centered around floor debate and voting on proposed bills from the opposite house. As explained previously in the TWIO, if any bill is changed/amended by action in the opposite chamber, the ‘reconciliation’ process must take place. The “*” before a bill below indicates that reconciliation will need to occur. If no changes take place and the proposed bill is adopted by the opposite house, the bill is signed and then sent to the Governor for his response.

There are so many reasons to embrace this month. However, it can be one of the toughest months for our staffs. March lends itself naturally to great opportunities of celebration to love on your staff between college basketball March Madness (Go Zags!), St. Patrick's Day or a few other exciting days I have included in this newsletter. I hope you can find one or two ideas to implement and utilize with your team. Please know I love seeing your creativity and appreciate when you tag me in your celebrations on twitter @sholtys. March is going to be an AWESOME month. Have fun and remember to take care of you. Peace and love, Cindy

Now that spring training is kicking off, and there’s a renewed sense of hope for baseball fans across the country, allow me to use a baseball analogy to highlight a possible new tool in your school leadership toolbelt; if you haven’t already, I suggest that busy building leaders call in a “pinch hitter. ” Or, in this case, a substitute administrator to support them. Let me talk through some common baseball strategies connected to what principals can do to ensure they have support in their buildings.

A collective “ugh” was felt by the education community this week at the Capitol as the House and Senate released their supplemental budgets. Education advocates remain concerned by inadequate funding and we are using several talking points from OSPI to help explain why districts are facing shortages.

Both the Senate and the House have been busy with committee hearings as the Feb. 21st deadline for policy bills to be released from committees and the Feb. 26th deadline for fiscal bills approaches. There has been little floor action. Next week debate and floor passage will begin anew and at a rapid pace given the March 1 deadline for bills to clear their respective houses. Little has changed since last week’s report. An up-to-date summary will come next week after the deadline dust has settled.

Members at all levels across the state continue to report that responding to student behavior is the number one issue impacting their own mental health, well-being, job satisfaction, and frankly, willingness to stay in the profession. Living in a constant reactive state to the unknown behaviors that surface daily is draining both emotionally and physically. It’s a pace that is not sustainable or realistic. Something must be done.

Since covering pension/retirement/health insurance issues on behalf of WASA and AWSP, there are a few important points we have learned. This is just a brief summary of selected retirement related topics. However, the importance of advance planning cannot be overstated. These are not issues to put off until the last month of either one’s impending retirement or approaching Medicare eligible age. It’s best to complete your retirement application 30–90 days before you plan to retire.

Legislators grinded through some long hours to meet their deadline of February 13 when bills had to pass off the floor of the House or the Senate to stay alive. Some bills that made it all the way to the floor calendars for a vote died because legislators ran out of time or the bills weren’t prioritized. Now the bills that passed move to the other side and the process repeats. The next cut-off date is February 21 when bills must pass out of policy committees to keep moving.

Key deadlines have passed, and all action now moves to committee hearings as opposite house bills are discussed and acted upon. Overlaying all of these will be the upcoming proposed budgets whose hearings are scheduled for the upcoming week. The status of bills continues to change constantly as committees often re-work bills. The summaries below are just as they were when this report was written. Some bills have shown no movement since the last report, but they are related to the budget. Often called ‘trailer bills’ because the budget pulls them toward passage. In addition, bills can be ruled as ‘necessary to implement the budget’. They can then be revived under that justification which can be arbitrary at times.