AWSP Blog

These emails are sent out weekly to leaders in special education and Section 504. Each email contains tips and resources on a variety of topics that are meant to keep you informed and up-to-date.

AWSP has always advocated strongly for principals, but we've turned up the efforts to 11. For the past four years, principals and assistant principals across the state have seen workloads go up and pay gaps (aka wage compression) shrink. Some of your principals and APs reading this probably make less money per year than some of the teachers in your building. Even more of you might make less on a per diem basis. Between this narrowing pay gap, the massive amounts of additional responsibilities, and the 60-hour, 6-day work week (the statewide averages in our past survey) the system is out of balance. Good principals are leaving and future leaders are wondering if the sacrifices are worth it. We addressed these out-of-balance expectations and disappearing pay gaps with the document linked at the end of this blog post; it's our letter and proposal to the K-12 Basic Education Compensation Advisory Committee.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss the AWSP/WASA Summer Conference, Outdoor Schools WA, the Where’s My Data Webinar, this year’s Equity Conference, out of balance expectations and disappearing pay gaps, a summary of what happened in the 2022 Legislative session, our recent Spring Board Leadership Weekend, AWSL Summer Programs, and updating us on your professional status.

Curious what changes are coming via legislation for the next school year? Here's my summary of the bills that may impact you the most next school year, which started at 10 but ballooned a little more (like your workloads). For the full text of the actual legislation, the link for the bolded bill number will take you to the actual legislation. The linked text will take you to the bill report, which summarizes the bill in a much easier to read and understand format. Hopefully, you know WHO in your district is responsible for these programs (it might be you?) and HOW you can help influence them. Please send questions if you have them. Thank you!

Many people around the country think of Washington as rainy. They may also think of earthquakes. And the beautiful Palouse.  Many people often do not realize that Washington is also the home of five active volcanoes: Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, and Mount Adams. The U.S. Geological Survey tells us that the volcanoes of the Cascade Range are some of the most hazardous in the United States. (USGS)