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Posted by Jerry Bender
Week in Review for February 9–13
House Education
Monday, the House Education Committee held a public hearing on two bills of importance to principals state wide.
changes the definition of a “school day” to be at least five hours of contact time with students. 51¸£ÀûÉç opposed the bill, noting that principals are calling for additional professional learning and collaboration time between principals and teachers. Until that additional flexible time is provided for all schools, early release and late arrival time is often all that’s available for implementing the initiatives the Legislature has called for (TPEP, STEM, CCSS, and NGSS).
task OSPI with developing a comprehensive career and college readiness model and administering the Jobs for Washington Graduates program to promote high school graduation. OSPI requested the legislation.
Tuesday, the Committee held a public hearing on five bills impacting principals:
implements strategies to close the educational opportunity gap and is based on the recommendation of the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC). 51¸£ÀûÉç spoke in support of the intent of the bill, but recommended seven amendments () to strengthen the it.
attempts to clarify that individuals who are not nurses are unqualified to make nursing judgments and assessments. It does not prohibit a non-nurse from supervising a licensed nurse on matters other than the practice of nursing. It also requires a school to provide clinical supervision for a licensed nurse working in a school setting. 51¸£ÀûÉç raised two questions regarding the bill:
- in districts where is there is only one nurse who will provide the clinical supervision, and
- is there a clearer definition of the “practice of nursing?”
51¸£ÀûÉç is working with proponents of the bill to address the two issues.
waives local graduation requirements for students who have attended three or more high schools but have met the state requirements. 51¸£ÀûÉç signed in support of the bill.
defines the role of the school counselor, social worker, and psychologist. It says the primary role of the groups is to focus on student mental health, work with at-risk and marginalized students, perform risk assessments, and collaborate with mental health professionals. 51¸£ÀûÉç signed in opposed to the bill. An amended version of the bill is being drafted that includes language stipulating these roles should also promote student achievement.
requires that schools provide visual screening for both distance and near visual acuity. Current rules do not require screening for near visual acuity. 51¸£ÀûÉç signed in support of the bill.
Wednesday, the Committee held a public hearing on three bills of interest to principals.
adds homeless student education liaisons to the minimum staffing allocation for district-wide support services of .233 per 1,000 FTE students in K–12. It creates a grant program of up to $500,00 for up to 15 schools or school districts that partner with eligible organizations.
requires OSPI to convene a work group to develop and recommend social emotional learning (SEL) benchmarks. The workgroup will include a K–12 administrator. The report is due October 1, 2016.
creates a K–12 dual language expansion grant program.
Senate Early Learning and K–12 Education
Monday, the Senate Early Learning & K–12 Education held a public hearing on one bill that would impact at the building level:
sets forth a performance-based framework for RIFs due to enrollment decline or revenue loss. Past performance evaluations are the basis for determining the order in which contracts of certificated staff with each particular certification or endorsement area are non-renewed. Every school board policy and locally bargained agreement adopted after the effective date must contain a provision that a teacher may be assigned to a particular school only with the mutual agreement of the hiring principal and the teacher. This policy of hiring through mutual agreement is referred to as school-based hiring.
Tuesday, the Committee held a public hearing on three bills that could impact a principal’s work:
would require student results from relevant statewide assessments to be used as one of the multiple measures of student growth in teacher performance evaluations. In addition, it would be delayed from the 2015–16 school year to the 2016–17 school year. Finally, a required report from OSPI on district implementation would be delayed until December 2018.
Specifies that student growth data elements used in teacher and principal evaluations include state-based tools and delays the use of the evaluation results in making human resources and personnel decisions until the 2016–17 school year.
Statewide dispute resolution organizations are added to the list of developers of the volunteer-based conflict resolution and mediation program. The program must use lawyers or certified mediators to train students.
Wednesday, a public hearing involved two bills impacting schools:
removes the requirement that OSPI approve any community-based organization or local agency before LAP funds can be expended. Instead, each school and school district receiving LAP funds to partner with community-based organizations, educational service districts, and other local agencies to deliver academic and non-academic supports must develop an annual school-community LAP action plan.
The Washington Community Learning Centers Program is refocused to target communities of color, and rural and low-income communities; and to provide smaller after-school programs greater opportunity to access grant funds to support community learning center programs.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a 40 minute work session on levies. Committee staff briefed the Committee, helping them better understand Washington’s property tax system. For example, one chart shows M&O levy revenues have grown as a portion of total district revenues since the early 1980s.
Watch the work session on .
House
Schools, disaster recovery
College in the high school
Financial education
Breakfast after the bell
Senate
Homeless students
Dual credit education
Career & tech ed/elem school
Sudden cardiac arrest
School district dissolutions
Students/military families
Paraeducators
Financial education partnership
Technology literacy
School safety, security
School library & tech programs
Washington AIM program
Educator retooling/program
Identifiable student info
Quality education council
Tribal history, culture
Breakfast after the bell
Teacher certification
Professional educator standards board
Sexual abuse/children, peers