001Um, welcome to um our first edition of 2026 in session live. Um, thanks for your patience um in navigating uh last week with me. Um was going through a bit of a um family emergency last Friday. Um so I appreciate your patience in waiting until this week. um we do have a bit of information to catch up on. Um and hope that you'll find uh this information helpful and valuable. Um this is in session live. We're going to jump right in um and make good use of our time. Um but before we do, um just want to remind you to please use the Q&A question and answer box um should any questions pop up. Um we'd appreciate that. Okay, just a bit of an overview about how we're going to spend our time together today.
002Um, we are going to share some information. Um, just generally focus on what we know so far about the tone of the legislative session. Um, we're going to highlight uh what we've been doing for the past two weeks. Um, we will never have enough time for a full uh update on every single bill um that's been introduced or heard. Um, but we've got a nice summary ready for you. We've got a couple bills that we're going to share that we think is important for you to be looking at and unpacking um with your district uh teams and colleagues um as we think about what's coming up next week. Um Cynthia will share a little bit about some of the resources um that we have to support you and then um we'll just run through sort
003of an action items list um before we wrap up. um want to start with just a quick um introduction to who was advocacy team is. Um for those of you that this is your first um advocacy update that you're tuning into this year, um we do have a new team um which uh we love, we're very excited about. Um I think many of you know me, but if you don't, I'm Logan Noel Andreas. I'm your director of strategic advocacy. Um recycled WA was employee. been back in the job for I don't know maybe eight or nine months now. I came back last spring. Um Cynthia, you want to introduce yourself to the team? >> Yes. Hello everyone. Cynthia Tamayo. I am the new legislative policy specialist. I've been with WASDA for now almost 5 months.
004Um before this I've had experience in state government work. I've done higher ed. I've worked for the Commission on Hispanic Affairs doing operations and policy. Um so really excited to be here. Great. Thanks. And Daniel, you want to jump in on behalf of you and Kyla? >> Yes. Hi everyone. I am one half of your strategic advocacy consultants. So, we are your contract lobbyists and help Logan and Cynthia with all things here at the state legislature. And I'm in my car, but I promise I'm not driving, just here. Thanks, Daniel. Just wanted to make sure that you all know um who is representing WA's advocacy with legislators. Um, in addition to the four pictures that you see on the screen here, um, we also get, um, a ton of backend, um, data and analysis help
005from Daniel Longher, who many of you know on WASDA staff. Um, he is a beautiful support to all of our work. Um, along with Shawn Duke and Robbie Mlen on our communications team. Uh, they help to make us look really good. So, um, we are appreciative of them. um as well as all of the members of the WASDA legislative committee um that we are talking to every single week during the session to get perspective um on a number of bills. Uh so anyway, just want you all to know that there's a team of folks representing and we are all here to be a resource to you as you are navigating the session as you have questions uh about bills or about what this thing might do or that thing might do. Please don't hesitate to
006reach out to us. Um we are absolutely available for any kind of one-on-one um support, questions, coaching um that might be helpful to you. Um in particular, you'll see um mine and Cynthia's email addresses and phone numbers on the screen. Um feel free to take those down. Um those are also cell phone numbers. Um so don't hesitate to send us a text, too, if that's easier for you. Um, if you ever need to get a hold of us in a pinch, a text message is probably the best way to do that. Okay. Um, just a little bit of context um as to um what it's looking and feeling like right now in Olympia. Um uh the session started last Monday, January 12th. And this is a short session, meaning that we um will be active
007for 60 days, um with an end scheduled for March 12th. Um I do like that we're on the 12th of both months. Makes it easy to remember. And um there are a number a large number of bills that have been uh coming out in the education space. Um, as of now, we're tracking over 120 new bills. Um, that means bills that have just been introduced in 2026. Um, that number does not include all of the bills that did not pass but may have been introduced last session that technically can still be tapped into at any time. Um, so that is to say, we are tracking a lot. And the other thing that I would emphasize in sharing that number is that we're also tracking a pretty significant number of unfunded mandates. Um what that means
008uh is uh those are bills that would not in not be included uh with funding um to come with those requirements to support you all. Um we are tracking and weighing in on those um accordingly. Generally, I can also say um as I think you've heard um our association say for a while, budget issues are dominating everything um in the state legislature this session. We know that our legislators are in a really hard place in terms of navigating a significant budget deficit and uh they will be doing uh they'll be proposing lots of different ideas in terms of how to fill that to include um a budget that we've already seen from Governor Ferguson that includes some proposed cuts um as well as um we are also anticipating multiple options uh presented on the table
009later this session in terms of revenue proposals um as it relates to the beginning of session, one of sort of the pomp and circumstance um activities that happens um the governor hosts a state of the state um basically his uh general update to kick off the legislative session and you can see what some of his priorities were during that speech um to include transportation, housing, and early learning. Um I shared that um just to sort of emphasize that um public education, K through2 education um were not listed um there as a priority for the governor's office. Uh just signaling that our sector um and pretty much every other sector um has a pretty um a pretty tough road ahead of us this session in terms of um achieving any of our offensive outcomes. Um Daniel,
010I would ask um you and Cynthia as well if there's any other just general context that you think would be helpful uh for our members to know based on your perspectives. >> Yeah, happy to add one thing, Logan. I was meeting with a a senator today from the majority party in the Senate or the Democratic Party and he made it clear that while we are facing budget issues right now and budget constraints that these will not end in 2 years. This is going to be uh quite a uh a long road of budget issues. So four, six years depending on revenue, depending on cuts, depending on all things taxes. But I just want to kind of paint that as this is one step towards solving the budget hole. Last year was the first step, this
011is the second step, but there'll be additional steps in the next couple of years. So um we are definitely not out of the woods yet. So, uh, wish I could be bringing happy things, but that is unfortunately what I'm hearing from folks in the Senate. >> Thanks, Daniel. Cynthia, anything else that you'd add based on our first couple weeks. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, wanted to also just remind you that WASDA has a couple of anchoring and supporting documents that are really foundational to the work that we are prioritizing this session. Um first and foremost um is definitely our WADA legislative priorities. You have seen those in a number of settings at this point. Um generally focused on advocacy to ensure that school districts can fulfill their legal and moral obligations. Uh advocacy around
012relief and flexibility for school districts. Really really really trying to make sure that there's solid messaging being sent to our legislators to say we cannot pass any more unfunded mandates. Um, and we're looking for flexibility around existing mandates, especially while basic education uh remains underfunded across our state. And then finally, we've got a section of work around the capital budget and uh helping to advance funding for safe, healthy, and contemporary school facilities. Um, the capital budget is not necessarily in uh or facing the same revenue constraints that the operating budget is facing. Um what that means is that as we think about some of our facilities and capital related priorities, um those are areas where we're absolutely anticipating investments being made by the legislature. We'll get into that um talking about the governor's budgets here
013in a bit. Um, additionally, uh, many of you attended the legislative conference the weekend prior to the start of session, um, that we host in partnership with WASA, the superintendent association, and WASBO, the school business officials association. Um, our three organizations have collectively identified three hot topics. Um, all of which are directly connected to our WASDA legislative priorities. Um, so we're sort of using that advocacy to guide our work. And then additionally, WASDA is one uh one member of what's called the school funding coalition uh which is comprised of eight statewide education associations uh that's really working to ensure that our K- through2 funding formula has what it needs to fund student needs um across our state. So um each of those three documents are um guiding for us as we are doing our work
014this session. Um, check out our in session written update coming later today for links um, if you need to refresh yourself on everything that these documents say. But just wanted to sort of start with that grounding. Okay, some highlevel points um, as to what we've been navigating in the first couple of weeks. Um, not on the slide but um, just I think really important to emphasize the education sector um, has a lot of bills. Um and I think that there are more K through2 bills um that would specifically impact school districts um than there are in any other sectors right now. So the sheer volume um of in of bills that are being introduced um and getting public hearings um is just really really really intense right now. Um again with a num a number
015of those bills um not including funding to support any additional requirements. Um just a couple of areas that I think we want to highlight. Um first and foremost um during the first week of the legislative session um the governor's proposed budgets um had public hearings. Um again he has an operating budget. That's where we're seeing a lot of the revenue issues and then also a capital budget. And on the operating budget you can see the bill numbers um on the screen here 22.89 and 598. Um, Wazda weighed in in opposition to the operating budget, specifically calling attention to the fact that none of our K- through2 education priorities received funding there and calling out a couple of particular um budget cuts that have been 25% uh enrollment cut to transition to kindergarten programming. um as
016well as cuts to local effort assistance. On the capital budget side, we did see funding included for the small school modernization grant program. We're particularly grateful for that. Uh we saw $74 million included there to include full funding for all of the proposed planning grants um that have been submitted and I believe it's the first 12 uh project grants um that are on that list. So, um we were glad to see funding for that program and others related to school facilities. Um additionally, a number of our priority bills um were heard um specifically in the Senate. Um during the first week of session, um the transportation safety net bill um was heard. That's Senate Bill 5858. Um that bill would reinstate the transportation safety net program um that was cut during the last legislative session
017um to include funding to be used to support districts in uh transporting special populations to include students in special education, students in foster care, and students experiencing homelessness. Um additionally, um the MSOC bill was heard um I want to say that was just yesterday or the day before, maybe it was Wednesday. Uh that's the material supplies and operating costs bill, Senate Bill 5918. Um that was heard in the Senate Education Committee. We had a large showing of school districts, advocates, and others um really really there to support that bill. Um and we're very appreciative of that. Um we also saw many of you in the signin list um signing in to support that bill. So um we appreciate that advocacy there. Um, also again just want to emphasize uh the large number of unfunded mandates
018that have been proposed. Um, our list as of now has 20 plus bills that have been introduced across the House and Senate. Um, we need your help um to share costs and administrative burdens with your legislators. If you uh read in session the written update that'll be coming out this afternoon, um we'll be happy to share that list as we have it at this point in time. Um so that you can see those bills and really begin to unpack them and start gathering some of those fiscal and budget uh uh calculations with your school districts. Um finally, I would just emphasize um that a number of school director related bills have been heard in the past couple of weeks. Um Senate Bill 5860 in particular um is a bill that touches on schoolboard compensation um
019and required training. Um these bills would increase the cap by which schoolboard compensation sits right now um for $50 a day to $100 a day and then it would impact that annual cap uh currently sits at $4,800 a year and it would bump that up to $13,750 a year. um that cap um it's not required. Schoolboard members would not be required to be compensated. Um but there is no state funding included with that proposal. Um it would all have to be funded by local school districts. Um, additionally, that bill would add a training requirement to school directors around funding and finance um to include um essentially a one-time training um that school board members would have to take within their first year um elected to the school board. Um Wazda's position on that bill has
020been other um also um in the House and Senate um there have been um companion bills that were heard um in both committees this last week around uh requiring school district school director election districts um essentially uh requiring school districts with 3,000 or more students to um not have um all of their school directors elected in an atlarge manner. Um uh we can break the bill down for you in in session um the written update later today. Um but it essentially requires some of our smaller to medium-sized school districts to have at least three members elected by director district and for uh some of our larger school districts at least four of their school directors elected by district. Um so just wanted to let you know there are bills moving through the legislative process that
021directly impact you all as school directors. Um none of these bills have been um exempt from their policy committee yet with the exception of Senate Bill 5860. Um that is the compensation and training bill um that was passed out of the Senate Education Committee earlier this week. All right. Um we are going to pull out just a couple of highlights in terms of what we can anticipate for week three. Uh just checking the Q&A box. Remember, if you have questions for us, um please don't hesitate to drop those in. Um we'll be happy to answer anything that you might need to know. So, as we look ahead to next week, um we have uh at least 10 right now public hearings um that we will be attending um to track and engage on education bills.
022Those are sort of scattered throughout the week. Um there are sort of a flurry of bills um that we'll be looking at at the beginning of the week on Monday and Tuesday in particular. Um we're going to get into some of those here in a minute. Um also next week on Thursday, January 29th, um as an extension of our legislative conference, we'll be working with WASA and WSBO to host our public education advocacy day. Um that's next Thursday, January 29th. We will pop in um and show you what we're thinking that day will look like here in a bit. And then also I'm just flagging that our federal relations network is getting ready for a DC advocacy trip. Um and uh there are a number of folks representing um the WASDA board and a couple
023staff members um as well as uh a number of school districts from around the state that will be traveling out to DC. Um folks will be leaving next weekend. So just wanted to sort of share that as a summary. And um we're going to move into just a couple of bills um that we think you should be aware of. Um the first one is House Bill 2551 and this is about maning district financial solveny and this is a representative Jake Fay um bill out of the 27th legislative district that's Tacoma. Um I'm not sure exactly what our position will be on that yet. Um but based on feedback that we've received from the legislative committee um it is possible that we will oppose this bill. Um what it does, it would essentially allow school districts
024with an estimated fund balance of 3% or less um based on their total revenues from that fiscal year to request to sell property to alleviate financial burden. Um those requests would have to be sent through OSPI and the bill indicates a number of expectations as to um sort of what would allow OSPI to say yes or no um to said request and it would also clarify expectations as to what some of those fund balance resources may be able to be spent on. It would also add monthly reporting requirements for school districts um to include a requirement for you all to report on a monthly basis um your district's expenditures, revenue, cash balances, and loan activity. Um what we heard from members of the legislative committee last night um is definitely some concerns around the administrative
025aspects to the monthly reporting that would be included here. um as well as a general sentiment saying, you know, we appreciate a path forward towards the opportunity to uh review and reallocate funds as school districts are um experiencing low fund balances and um don't know that we want to set the precedent of selling property as a way to be able to fix that. Instead, the answer is let's fully fund public education um and fix the prototypical school model. Um, if you all have thoughts or feedback on that bill, um, would absolutely appreciate you, um, submitting that and submitting any questions that you might have into the Q&A. Um, as well as reaching out to us, uh, via email, um, if there's any additional things you'd like us to consider there. Um, would encourage you to
026take a look at this bill with your school district team. Um, this one has a hearing on Monday afternoon at 1:30 next week in the House Education Committee. Additionally, next week, House Bill 2593 um has a hearing. This is in the same Monday at 1:30 time slot in the House Education Committee. And this is a bill that would add minimum and maximum fund balance requirements to school districts. Um this bill is sponsored by Representative RDE and Kalen um and uh requested formally by OSPI. Um our position we would be to oppose this bill. Um this bill would require minimum and maximum fund balance for school districts to essentially say no less than 6% and no more than 12% for any school district with more than 2,000 students and no less than 8% and no more
027than 34% for school districts with 2,000 or less students. Similar to the last bill, um there's also some clarifications included here as to how school districts um can spend their fund balance resources. So, oops, sorry about that. Uh so, we are absolutely opposing this bill. Um we have heard from school districts that would not be able to um reach the minimum threshold in some cases. Um as well as been hearing from school districts that may have more than the maximum. Um, so we're hearing from folks on both sides. Um, this bill very clearly and directly would remove local flexibility um that you all need to be able to determine your own budgets. Um, so we will be um testifying in opposition to that bill next week. Going to ask Daniel to jump in um and
028talk a little bit about House Bill 1960. >> Great. Um, let me make sure I'm on camera. Okay, good. Okay, great. Um, House Bill 1960 is rep, uh, Representative Alex Raml, who represents the 40th district, which includes parts of Scadget, uh, Watcom counties, and then all of San Juan counties as well. So what the bill would do and it's pretty different than last year. There's been multiple iterations is for new qualified renewable energy projects facilities. So wind farms, solar farms, um biomass facilities, there would be essentially no property tax on um the things that they're building. So the wind turbines, um the solar panels, and instead there would be a specific excise tax that would be replaced that in theory is meant to replace the property tax that both the state, the county, and all
029junior taxing districts such as school districts would receive from the fund. It would uh be distributed as as local taxes are. I think the thing here that I want to highlight is um there is uh two areas of impact that we're tracking closely. One is on levies. So because this is new projects moving forward uh we do not expect and it's written in such a way it should not affect current levy amounts. Those should all be the same. However, there is the potential for impacts on new levies for folks that are going after property tax levies upcoming because it would be decreasing the amount of property tax that could potentially be in a district to be taxed. There is some language in one of the versions of the bills to make essentially junior taxing districts
030like school districts whole. So there could be additional funds if you were to raise your property tax you would get additional excise tax. However, there's been a lot of negotiations around that. So we're looking into that closely. The other area that's really interesting for this bill is on LEA uh funding because LEA is calculated based on property tax. Exempting some of these projects from that would allow for certain school districts that could have gotten bumped down or bumped out of LEA to maintain LEA funding, which would be uh fantastic. I think the the thing here to note is that these are for only specific projects. So uh I live in Olympia. If I put solar panels on my home, it would not affect the Olympia school district. this would only apply to new um large-scale
031projects. So, this is something that we are uh tracking closely. It's a pretty complicated tax bill and there's also some potential positives and some potential drawbacks. So, we are still working on that and uh I will pass it over to Logan to talk about other things from there. >> Thanks, Daniel. I appreciate it. Um if you are a school district, um we are anticipating um most specifically that this will impact central and eastern Washington. Um, if you think a bill like this could impact your school district either positively or negatively, we would really appreciate hearing from you um, in terms of what that looks like. Um, and in terms of if you think this bill is a good idea or not. Um, we don't have enough information at this point to have a specific position
032on this bill. Um, and we really need to hear from school districts as to what the impacts will be. So, please read in session this afternoon um for additional information um on this bill. And again, would really appreciate um hearing from you all. As it relates to unfunded mandates, um there are a number of bills um that have hearings this upcoming week um that include um that would be included on this list. Um, we're not going to walk through every single one of them, but did want to sort of get this list in front of you. Um, I will just add a caveat that this is potentially non-exhaustive um, as bills may be added to public hearing schedules throughout the week. Um, this is just what we are tracking as of right now. And you
033can see at the end of each bill line um, what day um, each of these bills um, has a public hearing. So, we've got a couple on Tuesday um talking about voter registration day and online records for special education complaint decisions. Um on Wednesday, we've got a bill requiring cardiac emergency response plans in schools. And on Thursday, we've got a couple bills um about cursive signature education and instruction intervention in reading and math. Um again um by listing these out here um uh this is no comment necessarily in terms of the specific merit of any of these ideas. Um this is purely just a list of things that we've seen um that do not include funding along with the requirements in them. So wanted to flag that for you. um again for you to take
034back to your district and um try to think about what costs or administrative uh activities you all will have to navigate um with these bills without additional funding. Okay, one more thing for me I think as it relates to next week. Um just want to dive in and highlight our plans for public education advocacy day. Um we really hope a number of you are planning to join us um next Thursday in Olympia. So um just a quick overview, we are planning to kick off um the day with a rally um on the capital steps that morning um between 8:30 and 9:30 and then essentially during the morning time of the 29th um there are a number of optional activities that you might or might not choose to engage in. Um, we recommend using the morning
035hours for any individual meetings that you might be planning with your legislators. Um, and again, that is on each individual school district to sort of organize and make those happen. Um, additionally, um, if you have time in between, um, or aren't able to get meetings on the calendar with your legislators during those times, um, both of the education committees in the House and Senate are meeting that day. Um from 8 to 10 the House Education Committee is meeting and then from 10:30 to 12:30 the Senate Early Learning and K through2 Education Committee is meeting. So um some opportunities there um for you all to get into some public hearings. Um and we know that both of those um scheduled time frames do have public hearings um on bills. Um so there's some opportunities there. Um,
036additionally, other things you can do on campus, um, you can walk up at the beginning of every hour, um, to the information desk inside the Capitol building and get a Capitol tour. Um, you also might spot Cynthia and I or Daniel, um, just around campus that day. Um, so we are all absolutely around to help you navigate in any way that you need. Um, some of the activities that we will be hosting um, will be will be focused in the afternoon. Um from 2 to 2:45 we'll be hosting a sort of session where all the folks that are there um can come together for connections and learning um essentially sharing and debriefing um what you all may have heard from your legislators that morning and having the opportunity to connect with school districts. And then
037from 3 to 3:45 um we'll have a number of legislators uh that will come join us um to do some Q&A. Um during this whole entire day we have um the a room it's in the new house building room 140 um that we have a sort of our home base for the day. So if you need a place to come hang out and sit down um or just a quiet space to work and think or talk with your colleagues um we have that space for the day. Um that is also the same room that we'll be hosting the 2 and 3:00 sessions. Um, finally, if any of you are going to be evening people on Capitol campus that day, um, both of the budget committees um, have public hearings um, that afternoon from 4 to
0386:00 p.m. It's the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Um, again, both of those spaces will have public hearings. Um, so opportunities to um, take a look at their schedule. Um, I don't know off the top of my head if either of those committees will hear education bills this week, but um, we'll be happy to include information on that in in session later today. Cynthia, you want to jump in and talk about some resources? >> Yeah, thanks Logan. Um, I'm going to share my screen and go over some of the resources. Um, so let me go ahead and just do that. Let me know if you can see my screen here. >> We can see it. >> Perfect. Um, so a couple things I'll go through is our bill watch. Um,
039so if you go to our WAZA website and advocacy and click on bill watch, you'll be able to see um, what bills we are tracking for this session. Um, and as Logan mentioned, there is many dropping every week, and we are both going in and adding them to this list. Um, and so you'll have the bill number, the last time it's been updated, the status of the bill. So, we see some are already on their way to the Ways and Means Committee, um, the positions, um, and as you'll see, some are blank. We are still in the works to adding positions to bills. Um, you'll also see the sponsors. Um, and there is a new column that has categories. Um, so these categories, if you click on this drop- down button, um, it'll be able
040to tell you like, for example, um, facilities and construction, funding and finance. If you're like, there's so many bills on this list, I just want to see funding and finance, you can click on that category and those will pop up for you. Um, we also have um a short description, so one to two sentences about what the bill is about. Um, so if you have time, I highly recommend going through and just looking through and and seeing um which bills are standing out to you. Um, and like I mentioned, these are always getting updated every week or even every day as bills are getting dropped. Um the other thing that I'll just talk about is um the advocacy calendar that we have. Um so as you can see we're you know coming up on week
041three here. Um and so if you're going through this this is this is just a great um sheet to go through. Um, so as we enter week three, you'll see joining WA uh, WASA, WADAN, WASPO, and Olympia, continue to monitor committee hearings, signing in, emailing, um, your written testimony or testifying either in person or virtual. Um, and so this is just a great like cheat sheet where you could go through and check things off for the week. Um this will also get be sent in um through the in session um later today. Um the other thing to also talk about um is the um session dates. Um so these are our cutoff calendar dates. Um so as you can see we are also going to be approaching um policy committee cutoff on February 4th. since
042it since it's a shorter session um it it's going to be moving very quickly and so we have February 9th will also be fiscal committee cuto off um so I would just take a peek at each of these calendar dates and just see like what you'll need to do beforehand um and also notice like what bills have been um passing through or which ones have already died. So, um, when you get a chance, I would I would look through these, um, dates. Um, we also have, let me just make sure there's no questions. Okay. Um, TVW. So, TVW is so great because if you are not in Olympia, um, TVW will al always have, um, live committee hearings about what's going on, um, at the capital. Um, you'll also be able to see the schedule.
043Um, so if you're like, "Oh, next week this, um, looks like this hearing is going to happen in the House Education." Um, you can see when it's scheduled for. Um, and you can always pop on. Um, so TVW is a great tool. Um, and then the last thing I'll just touch on real quick is, um, the ledge.wall.gov website. Right. So, this is just a great link to always have on. Um, let me ledge. So, I'm just going to start from the beginning. Um, so as you go through this website, you're going to be able to see what bill you want to find. So, I was on 2007. Um, and this will give you just um you'll be able to see the title, the sponsors, the companion bill number. Um, this also gives you the road
044map of where the bill is going to be, if it's moving in committee, if it's on the floor calendar. Um, but I wanted to show this website to some folks who are wanting to testify. Um, so on the right hand side, you'll be able to send a comment to your legislators or sign up to testify. Um, so I'm just going to click on this. Um, you'll just want to make sure that you're clicking on the right one. um you'll want to select like how you would like to testify, if um you'd like to send in a written testimony or if you will be there in person or if this will be virtual. Um and so this is just a great way to go in and register to testify. Um and so if you keep scrolling
045down, it'll also give you information about your Zoom link, all the additional information. Um, and so I just wanted to go through because I know there's been some questions about how to testify. And again, Logan and I are always here to help if you um, need some help with navigating the lives.Wall.gov website. And I'll pass it to Logan. >> Thanks, Cynthia. That was uh, lovely. Um and hopefully for um all of you helpful um in terms of seeing some additional resources um again wanting to make sure that um you have everything you need to um access and participate in the legislative process. Okay. Um we are going to pop back to our slide deck and um just have a couple more things to share before we wrap up today. Um there we are. um wanted
046to flag um for you um to know for yourself and to share with fellow board members um that we have launched the advocacy action network um this month at WASDA. And for those of you that have been around for a while, this is essentially a revamp uh and a little bit of a rebranding from the legislative representative network. really wanting to make clear that uh we are absolutely here and willing to support any legislatively interested school directors with skill building and connections. Um so if this sounds like something that is interesting to you um this group does meet on a monthly basis on Zoom. We are continuing to meet during the legislative session. Um you can sign up to get that Zoom link by sending us an email at strategic advocacywazda.org. And uh just want
047to highlight on that note that our next meeting is February 10th in just a couple short weeks at noon. And during that hour will be focused specifically on testimony preparation training. Um we heard from the advocacy action network this month. Um the testimony can be um an intimidating process. Um Cynthia and I would agree with you and um we uh heard that we need to spend some time just thinking through how we can best help you to prepare for testimony. Um what kinds of data and talking points could be the most helpful? What are sort of the rules of the road in terms of process and procedure um of testimony? So we will be spending some time digging into that during our next network meeting on February 10th. So hope to see many of you
048there. And in closing, um, just want to highlight a couple of action items for you, um, as you think about the week ahead. Um, you've heard us say it a number of times, but please be sure to check out Wazda in session, um, that'll be coming out this afternoon. We'll be providing links and some additional resources and information um, based on everything that we've talked about here today. Um, just in another version, um, you can share that around. Um, additionally, please be thinking about um the number of unfunded mandates um that are being proposed and heard throughout the legislative session. Um, we will include that list in in session um coming out later today. Um, and just really important to think about what some of those financial impacts will be in your districts and then
049actually share those with your legislators. And then finally, um, just consider attending and scheduling meetings with your legislators, um, our WASDASA and WASBO advocacy day this next Thursday. Okay, before we wrap, I'm just going to revisit the Q&A box. Um, I see a question. Um, if a bill has been introduced but no hearing has been scheduled, do you judge its viability based on the number of sponsors or is it probably dead for this session? Um, really good question. Um, I think at this point, um, the closer we get to our policy cuto off date, um, the closer the better it is to assume that that bill will not get a hearing. Um, I think the number of legislators that have sponsored is definitely a good indicator um to sort of have a sense of like
050do we think that bill will get a hearing or not. Um, but it's hard to know at this point. Um what I can say is the schedule for the following week of legislative session comes out every Wednesday evening. So um we will know in just a couple days um next Wednesday um essentially everything that'll be on the public hearing calendar through that February 4th cutoff. And again, um, that February 4th cutoff is a self-imposed deadline by the legislature, basically saying any bill that has not received a public hearing in its initial policy committee and been passed out of that committee, um, it would be dead. Um, as of February 4th, that's about a week and a half from now. Um, I see some other questions. How can we find the bill tracker on WASDA website?
051Um you can essentially go to our advocacy um tab um at the top of just wazda.org and you'll find a page called legislative resources or legislative updates. Um the bill tracker is listed there. Cynthia also might be sharing the link directly with you as well. I see you're typing some. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Um what time is the advocacy action network meeting? Is it recorded? Um thanks for making us go back to that. Um, that meeting will be from 12 to 100 p.m. on February 10th and that meeting is recorded. Um, we record and send those out to our network distribution list every single month. Um, and again, if you want to get on that list, please send us an email strategic advocacy.org. We'll be happy to add you. And last question we have is
052what's the best way to advocate against cuts in the governor's budget? Um, at this point in time, um, I would say it's really important to, um, try to find some specific numbers and data as to how some of those cuts might impact your district. Um, for example, um, the 25% enrollment cut to transition to kindergartens being proposed by the governor, what would that mean for your district? Um, both sort of numbers and data wise, as well as sort of community impact and story-wise. Um, so start gathering that information around some of the cuts that are included and then I think it's good to send that information to your legislature. Um, as well as members of the appropriations committee and the ways and means committee of the legislature. Um, we do maintain an email distribution list
053of legislators across the state. Um and that list also includes um some of the specific committees broken out um to include both the appropriations and ways and means committee. So if something like that would be helpful for you to receive um again please send us an email strategic advocacywazda.org and we'll be happy to share that data with you. Cynthia I think we've made our way through the questions. If you have any others um please don't hesitate to contact us. Uh just sort of want to end with a quote. Um, a good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. We have some really tough work ahead of us this session and um really appreciate you for continuing to show up and engage um and elevate the needs of your district and your community
054um because we got a lot of work ahead of us. Um so thank you for being here today. Um hope you have a great rest of your Friday and a great weekend. Cynthia and I are here to help in any way that you need and we'll see you next Friday. Thanks everyone.