AWSP Blog

A thoughtful piece about accessing outdoors for all. James Edward Mills writes, "Gear catalogs, advertising campaigns, films, and articles in magazines like Outside typically presented the outdoors as a place for white people, most of them men. At the turn of the millennium, I decided to do something about this, pivoting from sales to journalism...."

Welcome to another episode of AWSP News, where we discuss our 2019 plans, upcoming workshops from Kids at Hope, our workshops in early January at ESD 123, the National Association of Elementary School Principals annual conference in Spokane this summer, key business partners like Capturing Kids Hearts and the Gates Foundation, the Governor's proposed budget, a possible innovation summit around the 24 credit graduation requirement, using student leaders to create a strong culture and foundation, and preview our partnership with world-renowned speaker Kevin Carroll.

AWSP is closed for the holidays. We hope you're able to rest, recharge, and recuperate too. If you need to reach us, we'll be periodically checking email at our webmaster account. We'll reopen on January 3rd. In the meantime, happy holidays.

Last week, Governor Inslee presented his budget for the next legislative session. We’re happy to see lots of support for education in the budget. Unfortunately, even though revenues are up, we don’t have enough to pay for the projected costs of current programs. We need additional revenue to pay for new programs we know our education system needs – like special education funding, additional nurses and counselors, and additional mental health supports. The Governor proposes an increase in several different taxes to pay for issues like education, mental health, and clean energy. Taxes and/or tax reform will be a hot topic in 2019.

Welcome to another episode of AWSP News, where we discuss sharing your daily realities, recognizing a deserving principal for Principal of the Year, the important role our PAC plays in supporting principals, the 2019–20 principal intern grant application, Kaiser Permanente’s $3,500 “Thriving Schools” grant, the benefits of a blood drive through Bloodworks Northwest, a national award for our own Marty Fortin, ASB and Booster Club video workshops by Marty and Greg Barker, and some cool ways to take your staff into break.

Welcome to another episode of AWSP News, where we list all the things we're thankful for, including Rainier View Elementary principal Anitra Pinchback-Jones and her Milken Award, our partnership with OSPI and Title II funds to support you better, new Fast Five videos and a new video highlighting Lopez Island's Farm Education program, Pacific Education Institute's vision for STEM and Field STEM and New York Times bestselling author Richard Louv's keynote, former Governor Christine Gregoire's visit to our studio and her support and leadership with our Chief Education Officer network that pairs principals and executives from Washington Roundtable and Challenge Seattle, the great professional learning networks across the state, the support we're getting from stakeholders and members on the principal pay gap, the questions we've received on Twitter with our #AskAWSP hashtag, our great support team we have at AWSP to answer your calls, and our awesome emeritus members and their willingness to step back and serve.

It is abundantly clear implementing PBIS with fidelity throughout all facets of the system (district office, schools, classrooms, transportation, food service etc.) results in unprecedented changes in the culture, systems and learning of any school-community. PBIS is a tool designed to create equity-centered proactive systems for monitoring and responding to the needs of students and, importantly, the needs of adults...and this is where the conversation tends to get tricky.

That’s the tag line from the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV). We know principals and assistant principals across the state are dealing with mental health and safety issues every day, and healthy relationships, whether for your staff or your students, can definitely fall into either of those categories.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our recent AWSP TV episode with former Governor Christine Gregoire about leadership and the role of the principal, how our Political Action Committee supports the candidates who support you and your students, our upcoming professional learning opportunities and Title II funding, a workshop to help you improve your public speaking, American Education Week, some great resources on the ASCD website, Ballard High School principal Keven Wynkoop’s Principal of the Year Award from the Washington Library Association, a student leadership question from Ryan Block for our #AskAWSP segment, the US Senate Youth Scholarship and how to get your students eligible, and a great podcast for some health and nutrition tips.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our principal pay survey, our board structure and upcoming meeting, our advocacy committee and PAC, our upcoming advocacy platform, our Clear Risk Solutions and Seattle Pacific University sponsorships, more great feedback from Principals Month, AWSL's Starting in the Middle publication and how it can help your middle school leadership programs, and preview our new studio and first talk show with Dr. Caprice Hollins and Jack Arend.