AWSP Blog

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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!

The big push has begun as bills will be moving out of their house of origin in order to clear the policy and fiscal deadlines and move toward adoption by the chambers. Some bills have yet, if ever, to be scheduled, and are not reported here yet, they may not be dead. Remember that bills dealing with dollars, (think COLA or SEBB), will stay ‘alive’ until SINE DIE as they fall into the ‘necessary to implement the budget’ category. These have been mentioned in previous reports. All of that and a SEBB meeting update.

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.

Summary.