AWSP News for February 23, 2020
Hello and welcome to another episode of AWSP News. I’m Roz Thompson, Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, here at AWSP.
We’re still in February, which means we’re still celebrating Future Educators Month. Have you tapped someone on the shoulder to send them to our Future School Leaders Day on February 26th? What about taking part in our “Give ‘em your keys” campaign? It’s not too late to plant the seed for a teacher or student that you think might make a great school leader one day, or for that matter, to register for Future School Leaders Day.
February is also Black History Month and we’ve got some great resources and links in this week’s Principal Matters newsletter for you.
We’re still accepting nominations for Principal and Assistant Principal of the Year, but our window is closing shortly. Check out our website to see all the deadlines. We really need some nominees for elementary APs, so if you’re fortunate to have one and you think they’re great, nominate them for Assistant Principal of the Year today.
The State Board of Education has a new survey out about graduation pathway options. It's an opportunity to make your voice heard and share your input on the new graduation pathway options for Washington students. The results of this survey will be used to improve the graduation pathway options. The survey is expected to close on March 8th. Find the link in Principal Matters.
Speaking of graduation pathways, do you know if high school students need to pass the state assessments to graduate? Or do you know if non-sequential CTE course work fulfills the CTE graduation pathway? Those are just a few of the questions we take on in our Fact or Fiction series. And if you’re looking for a quick discussion topic, why not use the videos in a staff meeting? Head to our YouTube channel to see more Fact or Fiction videos, and make sure to subscribe so you never miss a video.
If you’re looking for more graduation support, OSPI has a new graduation requirements workshop for all the changes brought on by HB 1599. It’s a one-day pre-conference session at the Washington School Counselor Association’s conference, and it’s designed for school administrators and counselors. There’s one more item to share from OSPI, and that’s a Coronavirus and schools webinar on February 25th. Look for both links in Principal Matters for registration information.
While you help students navigate graduation pathways and requirements, you can also help them navigate financial aid with Otterbot, a new texting service from the Washington Student Achievement Council. Designed to help high school seniors navigate financial aid for college and career education, students can access Otterbot via text message 24 hours a day, seven days a week by texting "Hi Otter" to 360-928-7281. After a student signs up for Otter, they will receive periodic messages with need-to-know financial aid information, resources, suggestions, dates, and deadlines. When a student gets a text from Otter, they may follow-up with questions by replying directly to the message. If Otter receives a question it cannot answer, it will send the message to a financial aid expert from the Washington Student Achievement Council.
2020 WA State Teacher of the Year Amy Campbell is a special education teacher in the Camas School District. She’s available to provide presentations and workshops about inclusionary practices to educators between now and June 2020. You’ll find information about her current offerings and interested parties can submit an online request. You know the drill by now. Find the link in our Principal Matters newsletter.
We’ll leave you with one more update, and that’s the arrival of the next issue of Washington Principal magazine. It’s on our website already and should hit your inbox any day now, if you don’t have it already. As always, it’s full of great articles for you, including an especially powerful article written by former principal and current principal mentor Alison Olzendam. She reached out to Moses Lake school shooter Barry Loukaitis, who shared his regrets, lessons, and advice for any student who might find themselves thinking about violence.
Along those same lines, the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools is holding an event on March 9th at the UW Tacoma branch. Connecting the Dots: Safety in Action is a collaborative learning opportunity focused on violence prevention, school and community safety, and long-term recovery. Bringing together school safety teams and stakeholders, members of threat assessment teams in K-12 and higher education, law enforcement and security personnel, emergency managers, mental health providers and other stakeholders, discussions will focus on information sharing and strategies in prevention and long-term resiliency building.
That’s it from us for another edition of AWSP News. Keep up the great work for kids. We’ll see you next time.