AWSP Blog

Each year, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation awards two high school juniors or seniors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with an all-expense-paid, week-long tour of Washington, DC, and a $10,000 scholarship as part of the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP). In Washington state, AWSP administers the program in conjunction with AWSL. Please encourage students to apply if they are qualified to submit an application!

School employees that are mentally healthy are our most valuable resource for creating safe and supportive learning environments. Creating a culture of health and well-being is critical at this time.

Happy New School Year, friends!! I have been honored over the last several months to have met so many principals throughout our country. To those of you joining this newsletter after the NASSP #Ignite Conference in Denver--Welcome!!! If you are a regular subscriber, thank you for continuing to be a part of my work!! Most of us are just beginning our school year this August, and it is my hope you will find this School Celebration Newsletter Edition helpful as you begin to plan. I have included a list of some of my favorite August days along with simple suggestions for celebrations that you can EASILY incorporate into the beginning of the school year. I wish you a successful start this new year. Be well, and as always, let me know how I can support your educational journey. Cindy

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.

The Association of Washington School Principals is honored to present AWSP member and friend Carlos Gonzalez as the second-ever Annalee Braley Membership Award winner. Carlos is the principal at McFarland Middle School in the Othello School District. The Annalee Braley Membership Award was created in 2022 to honor the memory of former AWSP Membership Coordinator Annalee Braley, who passed away tragically and unexpectedly in September 2021. Annalee started at AWSP when she was just 19 years old and was about to cross over to 32 years of service at AWSP in various roles. Annalee was one of the biggest reasons AWSP has the strongest membership in the country year after year.

Each year, AWSP’s Advocacy Advisory Council has the opportunity to select a state-level public servant who has demonstrated support of principals and the principalship in the education of all students. For 2023, the Council selected Representative Monica Stonier as AWSP’s Torch of Leadership Award winner. Representative Stonier currently serves as the House Majority Floor Leader and leads her caucus on several key issues like labor and workers’ rights, public education, health care access for children, financial literacy education, and portable benefits for Washington workers of our future. She serves on the House Appropriations, Education, Health Care & Wellness, and Rules Committees and is the first person of color to serve in 17th and the 49th legislative districts in Clark County.

Each year, the AWSP Board President selects someone to receive the AWSP President’s Award. The award goes to someone who is a relentless advocate for principals and assistant principals, and the principalship, in the education of each and every student (our AWSP mission). This year, 2022-23 AWSP Board President Brent Osborn, principal at Lakeside High School in the Nine Mile Falls School District, selected Ann Gray. She is the Associate Director of Educator Effectiveness in the Educator Growth and Development division at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has released a revised edition of the Washington Children and Youth Activities Guide for Air Quality. For more than six months, DOH has worked alongside stakeholders to create improved guidance that will benefit children when air quality is compromised. The revised guide is now available on DOH’s Smoke from Fires Took Kit Page.

We know, we know…hundreds of you just completed a survey this winter for us about your job satisfaction and working conditions. Why are we back again with another one? We’ve partnered with Strategies 360, one of the west coast’s leading government relations and communications firms, to help us grow, support, and sustain the principalship. This survey will help us understand what our members need from us, and prioritize the most impactful policies to pursue. The questions align with the Wallace Foundation's Principal Pipeline Sustainability Guide. ​​​​​This guide explains what it takes to sustain an effective principal pipeline and provides tools to help school district teams keep the pipeline going.

Session has concluded, and the Governor has acted. Below is a brief summary of pension, health care, and other benefit legislation that will impact school districts, present and future retirees. The work continues...