AWSP Blog

The responsibilities of being a school leader, principal, or assistant principal are varied and different, but all important, nonetheless. Not all that long ago, my assistant principal and I lamented that we spent too much time on school management matters and not enough time engaged in instructional leadership. We were bogged down with investigations, policies, protocols, etc. We realized we needed to know how much time in our workday was spent in each school leadership domain.

It was another busy week in the Legislature as the House and Senate Education Committees continued hearing a plethora of bills related to special education funding, new curriculum and graduation requirements, simple majority for bonds, and more. AWSP signed in support of the various bills that would increase funding in special education and update the health standards to include more information, resources, and instruction related to fentanyl. But, similar to the State Board of Education and the WEA, we shared the message that for the bills related to computer science, financial literacy, agricultural literacy, and Holocaust and genocide education, we would rather see a comprehensive look at the graduation requirements in order to strategically envision potential changes for future students.

The Session continues. Introductions of new bills and committee hearings continue as legislators work to deal with proposed bills. A reminder that if a companion bill appears to not be moving, that means the other bill will be the prime for action.

North Pines Middle School is a beautiful, state-of-the-art building located in the heart of Spokane Valley. When you enter the facilities, it seems like any middle school in Washington State. It is abuzz with students and typical boisterous middle school activity - staff greeting students at the door, students greeting one another, and staff urging students to get to class. Then, the bell and quiet set in, and the learning starts. There are so many layers to the work happening in our schools across the state to set the learning conditions for our students. North Pines is one of the most diverse schools in the Central Valley School district, and they have taken their job to provide equitable, rigorous learning opportunities for their students seriously.

The 2024 Legislative Session kicked off this week, and it will be a 60-day sprint to the finish. Hundreds of new bills were pre-filed, hundreds of bills are still in play from last year, and hundreds of new bills are being introduced, which makes for lots of reading and a massive bill tracking list. The first cut-off of the session is January 31, when bills must pass off the floor of their house of origin, so this list will be much shorter in just a few weeks. Whew.