001Okay. Hello everyone. It is 12 o'clock on Thursday, January 30th. Welcome to this week's WASDA in session live legislative update. Um good to see you on screen and hope you all had a nice week. Um we're going to jump right in. Um we're going to just spend our time today um highlighting um some of what we heard at public education advocacy day um which we hosted in partnership with WASA and WBO yesterday. Um good to see some of you on this call with us in Olympia. Um we're going to talk through a couple of highlights um from things that we experienced this week. Um look ahead and tell you what we know about week four, remind you about our resources and close on out. All right. Um, and before we jump in, um, also just
002want to remind you all that the Q&A box, um, is the best place for you to drop any questions that you might have for Cynthia and I. U, we'll be monitoring that throughout the course of our webinar today. So, um, just please don't hesitate to use that if you want to jump in and ask a question at any time. Um you can see on the screen um that we had a number a few dozen school board members, superintendent, student reps uh and school district business managers joined us yesterday in Olympia at public education advocacy day. Um we are very appreciative um of those that could take time out of their day and week um to come down to Olympia to do some in-person advocacy with our legislators. Um that work matters. Um and it was
003just um from what we observed a very impactful day in terms of helping to get common messaging around our WA wasa WASDA Wasbo hot topics and priorities um into the minds and hands of more legislators. So just wanted to shout out um this day. Say thank you for those of you that contributed in person. um say thank you also to Wasa and WBO for partnering and co-hosting that event with us. And I think what I would also just add is that if you didn't have a chance to come to Olympia in person, that is totally okay. And you still have the opportunity to send an email or make a phone call uh or send a text message if that's your preference um to your legislator's offices encouraging them to advance our um priorities and hot
004topics. So, um, please don't feel like yesterday was the only day to contribute. Um, and also just we're appreciative of those who were able to take time out of their day and join us. Okay. Um, so we are going to jump in and highlight some of last week's or this week, excuse me, uh, this week's actions. Um, just a general comment. Um Cynthia and I were reflecting this morning um and shared that week three definitely felt like the busiest week so far of session and um the most intense in terms of public hearings and bills to be following, tracking and engaging on. So um safe to say there was a busy week for public education and others for sure. Um over the course of week three we signed in or testified on 15 bills. Um
005you can check out our in session written report that'll come out later this afternoon for a full list of that. But um just sort of wanted to highlight some of the conversation. Um we'll be doing that throughout this uh hour um on just a couple. Um the minimum maximum fund balance requirement bill was heard early on in this week. Um that's House Bill 2593. Um we um Rhonda Litenberger, a school director from Eatenville, testified on WASDA's behalf um in respectful opposition to that bill. We're going to dig into that here in a couple minutes. Additionally, Senate Bill 6247, which is the school district financial solveny bill from Senator Doure. Um this is um the bill that we spoke a little bit about last week that would essentially add some additional supportive uh rules for the
006ESDs over school districts as they um get closer to binding conditions and it also um would have created a separate but similar uh required training for schoolboard members around funding and finance. Um that school director training was uh the core of our testimony as other this week. And um we essentially reminded the Senate that they had already advanced a bill out of their committee that contained a separate but similar um schoolboard training requirement. The other bill that had advanced that Senate Bill 5860 um we've talked about that over the last couple of weeks. That is the schoolboard compensation and training bill. the training that was included in that bill um was funded by the state, meaning that school directors would uh be required to pay zero dollars to access that, whereas the training that currently
007sits in Senate Bill 6247 um would not be covered by the state in terms of cost. This bill also would have required an ongoing training requirement. So it would have required schoolboard members to take that training once per term as Senate Bill 5860 would have been a one-time requirement at the beginning of service. So our ask of the Senate was to align those training requirements and to move towards the one move towards the training requirements that were in the other bill they already passed due to the fact that it's a one-time requirement versus an ongoing requirement and due to the fact that schoolboard members would be able to access the training for free. Um we met with the bill sponsor ahead of the hearing and he agreed to the amendments. um they were not included
008during the public hearing this week, which is why we testified other um but we do anticipate uh that bill to be amended um by the time that it's scheduled for executive session next week. The last thing I'll highlight from week three uh in terms of specific bills is House Bill 2257. Um this is uh the House version of the bill that would essentially be a technical fix to the Senate Bill 5814 um tax that we inherited um last session around temporary staffing and live presentations. Um, we testified in writing as other essentially thanking the legislature for uh taking the time to reconsider some of the unintended consequences that came from passing that bill and to encourage uh we are still continuing to encourage and urge a K through2 exemption from sales tax on temporary staffing
009and live presentations. So, more to come on that. A couple other things I would share, just some general comments about this week, is that um the work to remove unfunded mandates um from bills is gaining traction. Um Cynthia and I were able to successfully work with a couple of bill sponsors this week alongside our education advocacy colleagues to uh identify and draft amendments that would essentially make some of these unfunded mandate requirements uh turn into optional requirements um with no funding. uh as long as there's no funding provided. So, we're happy to see some work being done there and expect some of those amendment proposals to come forward in the next week or so. And then finally, um we are getting ready for policy cutoff um next week on Wednesday. that's happening on February 4th,
010which means this week, I think we started to feel a larger sense of urgency um from our lawmakers and from our committees and from our advocates to either get bills moving or stop bills from moving. And what that policy cutoff means essentially is that any bills that the legislature can't tie directly to the budget would need to be passed out of their policy committee of origin by February 4th, which is next Wednesday. Um what that means for us and we'll get into this in a little bit as we think about week four is that about half of next week we have a good sense of what's going to happen and the second half of next week uh is still sort of to be determined um based on lots of energy being provided towards that February
0114th cutoff. It also means that the sheer number of bills that we're tracking and monitoring will reduce significantly um as every cutoff that happens throughout the legislative session essentially shortens the list of bills um that continue to have movement throughout the process. So wanted to make sure you knew about that. Um Cynthia, anything you want to add generally to any of these comments about this week? >> Yeah. Um, something I'll just throw out there. I'll go back to the unfunded mandates is legislators are really hearing us when we're like, we just need to put pause on um, unfunded mandates and are willing to make those amendments. And like Logan mentioned, we have been working with them. Um, and so I just want to say like thank you to all of you how who have been
012reaching out to your legislators, having those conversations um, because we are seeing it um, at the capital. Great. Thank you, Cynthia. And thank you, everyone. Um that we we definitely have work in front of us um as it relates to removing additional unfunded mandates and um we can only do that well with your help um and with you helping us to connect with your legislators um to share anticipated costs that come with those. So, you're right. Thank you, Cynthia. And thank you, everyone. Okay. Um we're going to highlight just a couple um of the bills that we talked about a little bit more deeply um in in session our written publication this week. Um you're going to see um some highlights around the minimum maximum fund balance bill um in particular um a panel of
013testifiers that included um a testifier representing the teachers unions um Rhonda Litenberger who represented WASDA and then Jeff Snell who's the executive director over at WA was um former Vancouver school district superintendent um it was just this really um beautiful panel that essentially represented did many different um perspectives in the K through2 education system and um the conversation actually was just really great. There were lots of questions from legislators of this panel um essentially inquiring about process and additional perspective and um just really want to appreciate Rhonda Litenburgger. I'm not sure if she's on here today. Um, but her testimony was very helpful. Um, and we heard afterwards from um, advocates in the room as well as legislators that man, they really really appreciated that panel that was up there. Um, I highlighted in quotes
014here um, one part of the testimony that Rhonda provided um, which essentially speaks to the position that we um, were engaging in on the bill. Um, as a reminder, we did testify con on that bill. Um, essentially reminding the legislature that while we absolutely support transparency and fiscal responsibility um, across the K through2 system and understand the goal that this bill uh, could be trying to work on to support school districts to have sustainable financial healthy systems. Um, and yet we still believe that local school districts are in the best position to determine um how fund balances work, whether or not there are specific minimums or maximum requirements um given the unique needs and circumstances um that you all as school board members um are best uh best set up to understand. As a result
015of that hearing, um that was House Bill 2593. By the way, I don't think I said that. That was on Tuesday morning. Um, as a result of those conversations, we are anticipating some amendments to the bill that would essentially remove the maximum fund balance requirement that's currently listed and then also make the minimum fund balance requirements to be non-penalizing for districts. So, um, that bill is scheduled um to move ahead of next week's deadline. Um I forget if it's on Monday or Tuesday when that bill is scheduled for executive session, but we are anticipating some amendments um to that bill. We have not seen those yet. Also um want to oopsie also um want to highlight um again around House Bill 2160. Um, we highlighted this one, I think last week in our in session
016written publication as well. Um, this is the bill that would, um, determine or update subeligibility for staff during their second year of employment. Um, this is a bill sponsored by Representative Burnbomb and a number of others. Um, the unfunded mandate that's included in this bill remains the largest that we've seen presented during this legislative session. And again, while we absolutely would want all of our school staff to have access to um all of the benefits, our our concern here is essentially around um the unfunded mandate in the bill. And our ask of you all is to please continue to share your budget assumptions um under this bill with your legislators. And also I think in terms of updates, what we want to say this week is that our colleagues from WA was and WBO uh
017met with Representative Burrquist this week who um I think is planning on proposing an amendment to refocus the employer language so that we're essentially focused on single employers, not multiple employers. Um, for context there, right now, the bill would essentially allow um this the um the hour threshold to carry over if I was subbing in the North Thirstston School District, I hit the threshold and next school year I want to move over to the Tomwater School District or the Olympia School District, that'd be able to follow me. And um what the amendment is going to focus on is essentially saying a single employer. Um, this bill is not currently scheduled to move, uh, we do anticipate that it will be. And because this is a budget bill in the budget committee, its deadline is not
018February 4th. However, it is February 9th. Um, unless it's deemed necessary to implement the budget. So, we do anticipate this bill continuing to move and we are working hard to, uh, work on the unfunded mandate pieces. and we're seeing and hearing about amendments such as the one we just talked about that will help to make the bill hopefully better and better. Okay, so we are going to switch topics and start thinking about week four. Um we like I said know some of what we're going to be doing next week and um we still don't know yet about others. So we'll get into that. Um, but in summary, what we want to share with you as a result of that policy cut off on February 4th, there are many bills that are scheduled for executive session
019in policy committees. Um, what this means is that these bills have had public hearings um either during weeks 1, 2, or three of the legislative session, and it's now the committee's time to essentially decide whether or not they're going to advance these bills to the next step in the process. Um that means that there will not be many public hearings next week, at least in the policy committees. Much of their time will be dedicated to making decisions about moving bills forward. Um we will be reviewing that list and essentially trying to figure out which of those bills still contain unfunded mandates. Uh we know there's been some amendments that we've been working on and that will be coming in the next couple of days. Um, and again working to get as many of those out
020as possible before they uh move out of their policy committees. That's sort of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in summary. And then as we move towards the end of the week, the fiscal and budget committees in both the House and Senate will hold longer public hearings on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during week four. Um, typically the fiscal committees hold their time from 4 to 6:00 p.m. um on a couple days of the week. Um, during this week, again, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, those meetings will be starting as early as 10:30 in the morning. Um, and likely still finishing by 6:00. Um, they might have to go longer depending on what they've got in front of them. Um because there will be a rush of bills coming out of policy committee this week. That essentially means that our fiscal
021and budget committees only have a couple of days to determine which bills they're going to hold public hearings on and which bills they're going to move into their executive sessions and decide what to move forward because the fiscal committee cutoff is Monday, February 9th. So much of the work in budget committees will be done towards the end of next week over the weekend as well as on Monday, February 9th. Um and many of the bills um that will advance um will sort of move over the course of next week and weekend. Um we will be engaging there. Right now, those Thursday, Friday, and Saturday budget hearings do not have schedules attached to them, meaning we aren't sure yet which bills will be scheduled for public hearing or executive session during those days. So, there is
022much uh much that is unknown at this time. Um, we will continue to keep you apprised um as we learn more about what will be happening next week. There is one bill. Um, so like I said, the policy committees are not doing much in terms of hearings next week, but there is one bill that we wanted to pull out and highlight for you, and that is Senate Bill 5849. Um, our position next week during the public hearing will be in opposition. Um, this and this bill um would make financial education a graduation requirement in school districts. Um, in summary, what this bill requires is a couple of things. Um, first, it would require all districts that operate high schools to provide financial education instruction beginning in the 2930 school year. Beyond that, it would also
023add the graduation requirement for financial education um for students beginning with the class of 2033. And um our read on this bill is that it does not ensure any funding for school districts to implement this new requirement. Um you all have adopted a number of positions that touch on graduation requirements that touch on unfunded mandates um as well as full and ample funding for those graduation requirements. um leading us to uh be planning to weigh in next week in an oppositional pos in an oppositional uh position on Senate Bill 5849. Um I will also note this bill is scheduled during Wednesday's Senate Education public hearing and Wednesday is the policy cutoff um February 4th um for bills to essentially have to move out of their policy committee um in order to remain in motion. So
024um it is very possible that this bill will not move forward this session. However, we um don't have a sense right now as to how or if this topic um could come up as it relates to budget conversations. So, we think it's important to go on record um to share some oppositional testimony at this point. Um so, wanted to make sure you were aware of that bill. And then as I mentioned previously, um we still do not know um what we what things will be looking like in the appropriations and ways and means committees next week. Those are the budget committees. Um our primary goal in navigating those couple of days um will be to continue to work to remove unfunded mandates for school districts from bills that move through. Um and you can check
025out our in session legislative update later today um for a full list of what we are tracking and anticipating at this time in this area. Um, the last thing we wanted to provide you before we close out is just a reminder of all of the wonderful resources that Cynthia walked through last week, um, that we continue to provide and update to support you, including our bill watch, contact information for legislators, um, committee testimony, etc., the cutoff calendar, our legislative planning action tool, and others. Um, I do see a question that just popped in. Um, how many financial literacy budget trainings are legislators required to take when beginning service in the legislature? Great question. Um, and the answer is zero. Um, we have continued to raise and make this point with legislators um, as they have
026continued to move these bills forward. Okay. A couple of other reminders for you before we close out is um that our advocacy skill building training uh around uh testimony prep will be happening as a part of our advocacy action network on February 10th at noon. Um if you are not already getting emails about our February 10th meeting and you'd like to um just let us know by sending us an email at strategicadvocacywazda.org. happy to include you. Okay. Um Cynthia, before we work to wrap up, um would love if there's uh just anything else that you want to add um at this time or any other questions. I should look to see if we have any other questions in Q&A. I do see one, but anything you want to add before we go to that, Cynthia?
027No, nothing to add. Um, I definitely recommend coming to the Advocacy Action Network for testimony prep. We did moved it move it up to um, a week before. Um, and so I know that is something that we've been getting a lots of questions on and we're more than happy to help on knowing how to prep. I know it could be very intimidating and so we want to give you the best tools um, for when you do go up on the stand or um, you testify virtually. Great. Thank you, Cynthia. Um, we do have one more question. Um, just wondering if there's any updates on Senate Bill 5918. That is the MSOC uh, material supplies and operating cost bill. Um, the update on that um, is that it has been scheduled for executive session um, out
028of the Senate Early Learning and K- through2 Education Committee for next week. Um, excuse me. However, um we are um hearing that it will be a challenge for that bill to get a hearing once it lands in the Senate Ways and Means Committee um which is where it would be going next. Um again based on um budget and revenue challenges of the legislature. So, um we'll be putting out some details in our in session written update there later um to encourage you all to ask for a hearing on that bill in the Ways and Means Committee um after we anticipate it moving out of the Senate Ed committee next week. Um I believe that's on Wednesday's list for um Senate Education. So, we'll be watching that closely. And in our conversations with the bill sponsor
029and committee chair, Senator Lisa Wellman this week, we do anticipate at minimum for that bill to pass out of the education committee as it's scheduled for next week. Okay. Um we are going to um move to close. Um we've got a shorter update for you this week. And what I want to close with, I know you saw this picture earlier, but I just want to put this picture back on the screen. Um because as I was sort of looking at it and reflecting on our day yesterday, um it just really makes me um proud to know that all of you are engaged in this work. Whether you're in person like many many were yesterday or you're advocating to your legislators virtually um via testimony, via email, via text message, phone call, etc. Gathering data, sending
030it to us, sending it to your legislators. um this really is um a collective effort and um just feeling really proud that so many of you are here um and contributing in other ways. So just want to say thank you um to all of you for helping us um to best represent our conversations and your needs with legislators this session. Um week three has been tough and um I'm going to continue to push us to engage um and stay connected as we move into week four and beyond. So, with that, um, we hope you all have a lovely weekend. Um, take care of yourselves and, uh, we will see you all here next week at noon.