001Happy December 16th everyone. Welcome to the last Ledger Network meeting of the calendar year. We are coming up closely on holiday break um for school districts and uh well pretty much immediately after that the legislative session. Um so thanks for bearing with me and being sick last week and for um taking time to join today. I know our participation will be a little bit less in the actual live Zoom today. Um just sort of given my last minute need to reschedule. Um so we should have uh quite a few more folks watching the recording um over the next week or so. Um you know who Cynthia and I are um I won't go through and introduce ourselves, but Cynthia and I are here to support you. Um Cynthia is out this week, so it's just
002me with you today. And what we've got um ready for you all today um is just a couple of updates um on committee days uh which is basically like the first day of school um pre-legislative session gathering that happened uh about a week and a half ago. I want to talk about legislative conference. I'm going to give you some more sort of session contextual updates and then um we will just sort of move into some discussion and get ready for session in all the ways. um wanted to share with you that during the first week of December, many of you know um the legislature was together. They do this every year. Um they come together for something called committee days. And during this time, essentially, um everyone's on campus in Olympia. It feels like the
003legislative session, but it's not yet. And um many advocates have in-person meetings with lawmakers. And then the primary sort of purpose that people are together um is to conduct committee work sessions. So, every committee of the legislature met in some way, shape or form um to talk about things that were education related and not. Um I pulled out just a couple of highlights um as to how Cynthia and I spent our time. Um the two education committees met and had some interesting work sessions around um career and technical education CTE in the House and then um AL alternative learning combined with uh some artificial intelligence um work in the Senate education um committee hearing. Um the House Finance Committee was together to talk about a myriad of things um but one related to a lot
004of the conversations we've been having um and that is the impacts on school districts um from last year's um Senate Bill 5814. Uh that's the temporary staffing sales tax impact. Um, Superintendent Ron Banner, I'll get into this later, but Superintendent Ron Banner from Clover Park was sort of the K12 voice um, in that work session and um, was happy to um, hear some of his comments. I think he did a really great job at talking about sort of the impacts um, connected from school districts to legislators and he's just speaking really for one district. So, thought that was good. Um the House Capital Budget Committee came together to talk about school construction assistance program SCAP and some ideas that they have for sort of revisioning the funding formula there in the future, not a 2026
005legislative session issue. Um and then the budget committees came together to talk about the budget. Um we also met with a number of legislators during those couple of days um just to have some sort of presession meetings to talk about the WADA platform. So just wanted to give you all a heads up on that before we dive in. Um also wanted to take a minute to remind you about our legislative conference um that we're doing jointly with WASA and WSBO. Um that conference is coming up in just about threeish weeks. um Friday, January 9th and Saturday, January 10th. That's the weekend immediately prior to the legislative session. Um during that time, um we will spend um quite a bit of time talking about some hot topics um to which we're sort of working on right
006now. We will also have um some legislative guests present. Um Lieutenant Governor Denny Hec will join us along with Representative Mia Gregerson from the 33rd. um she is the vice chair of House Appropriations, kind of the education budget um lead in the House and then um also Representative Skyler RDE um from the Walaw Wala area. The two of them will join us together um during that time. The other um thing that I'm really excited about is we're going to be pulling together representatives from each of the three um education funding sort of work groups that have met over the last interim and beyond. Um that's the OSPI work group that WASDA was a part of. Um the University of Washington um soups group that's been talking about and funding and then also um Representative Santos's
007um big idea work group. We're going to be pulling together members from all three of those um and sort of having a panel discussion on the main stage during the legislative conference. Um and then we'll also have um a student panel um during the final general session. So just wanted to share some updates with you around that and um hope to see many of you there with us on the 9th and 10th of January. >> Okay. Um any questions about um any of those updates before we dive in and talk a little bit about session? >> Okay, >> so um you've seen this slide a number of times and the number of days just keeps getting shorter. Um when I went in this morning to change it from however many days it was last week
008to this week, I was like, "Oh yeah, okay, we're in the 20s." Um just 27 days left until the start of the legislative session. Um we have been hearing a lot more updates um given what we sort of just experienced with committee days. Um none of this information is necessarily new to you, but just felt it was important to put back in front of us in terms of the context that we'll be walking into. Um we know that we are um walking into a significant budget shortfall this upcoming session um with uh they're currently projecting $4.3 billion deficit over the next four years. Um we are generally seeing growing cost pressures. Um thinking about a lot of the maintenance level costs that our budget um has to sort of maintain, thinking about case loads, inflation,
009etc. um and how those numbers are continuing to rise. Um we also are seeing um just a continued structural sort of imbalance um thinking about how our past legislative budgets have relied on either one-time funding or some optimistic revenue options. And so we're continuing to see costs exceed revenue. Um and then our sort of message that we're continuing to push is that K12 stability just has to remain um and continue amidst um this challenging budget time. Um really just saying that if you have any sort of ideas or solutions that are coming forward without funding um those are no good and we need to not create any more uncertainties for school districts K12. Couple of other updates we've heard over the last couple of weeks. Um, Governor Ferguson announced his um proposed operating budget would
010be cuts only. Uh, meaning that the governor is not necessarily going to include any new revenue proposals within his budget. Um, we also know that while the legislature is in session, there will be another um revenue forecast and case load forecast that will come out in February. Um those will be sort of the final numbers that the legislature will use to adopt their 2026 supplemental budget that they'll be working on this session. Um every sector, not just education of course, but every sector um will be sort of in a self-preservation mode. Um for example, just don't cut. Um every sector is showing up that way. that was really clearly um heard from just talking with colleagues and advocates from other sectors during committee days. Um we also know just going into the next year um
011that all of the House and half of the Senate will be up for reelection um next year. That's some good context just to know as it relates to how legislators will show up this session. Um and then also just an interesting fact um that I heard from one of my colleagues that I think um was just interesting to point out given the context around revenue is that um no new member of the legislature has lost a race um over a tax vote since 2020. Um we have heard, we don't know exactly what, but we have heard that um Democrats in the House and Senate are sort of weighing what their revenue proposals might be for 2026. We know that the governor's budget will sort of come in um revenue neutral. Um it'll be cuts only.
012We are anticipating that budget should be released early next week. Um it is possible that the that the gov's budget will come out on Friday, but what we're hearing more likely is next week, Monday or Tuesday. Um so as soon as that comes out, um we'll definitely sort of put together an education summary and figure out how we're going to distribute that out to you. So um that's some of the context that we're hearing. I'm sure there's a lot more out there. conversations will continue over the coming weeks and talking with legislators um during committee days and also I've had a couple of Zoom meetings with legislators in the last um few days um folks are definitely ready to enjoy holidays with their families and with the budget coming um the the work is the
013work is really starting to ramp up um for our lawmakers and their staff getting ready for this session. Also just wanted to sort of flash um this uh visual again on your screen. Um just to remind you that um WASDA did release our legislative priorities a couple of months ago. Um you have seen them a number of times. Um so we won't necessarily revisit all of them today. Um but I do have a couple of areas that um we sort of gotten some clarity on and heard some updates on. So, we're going to dive in to there. Um, the first um being around enrollment decline. One of the actually the very first um listed item on WASDAS's platform is essentially saying that we would like to see the legislature reinvest any dollars um that could
014be lost as it relates to enrollment decline equitably back into the K through2 system. So, um what we are hearing right now from um OFM is the acronym on your screen. Um it's the office of financial management. It's essentially the state agency that helps um the governor and the state sort of handle the budget. Um we are um seeing and hearing given the sort of case load forecast etc that general enrollment is um lower than what was assumed in the budget. Um I think that is not a surprise. We've talked about that for a couple of months. Um right now that's looking to be around 8,000 fewer students in K through 12. Um, so that would essentially mean there's an opportunity for quote unquote savings of about $80 million per year. Um, however, in the
015midst of that sort of let's put that over here and then a pocket on the other side. Um we have seen some increases in some other areas of sort of case load forecast um including special education enrollment um special education safety net costs and then also um higher poverty percentages with driveoutlap funding. Um those sort of increases alone will essentially cost another about $180 million. And then also um we're seeing increase um that relates to IPD um that's sort of an inflationary factor um more costs coming in from SEB and running start and so as sort of the budget is looking at enrollment will there be a decline will there not where does that funding go um we're generally hearing our OFM say that it's sort of a wash right now and that while general
016enrollment is down given the increases in some of these other areas is um there isn't necessarily a quote unquote savings um that they'll experience to reinvest after they are sort of paying for these maintenance level increases around particularly special education. So wanted to share that with you all this afternoon. [snorts] Additionally, um just sort of wanted to emphasize around um taxing on um staffing services for school districts. This is the Senate Bill 5814 tax um that we were speaking about earlier. Um we are hearing loud and clear that there are a lot of implementation questions that still remain and a lot of work to be done. There are going to be a number of bills that attempt to address um this issue um for school districts and other sectors this legislative session. I want to
017say I've already counted three or four that have been pre-filed um on the legislative list. Um we are also expecting sort of a clarification bill from uh requested by the department of revenue and then we're also expecting a bill from finance chair April Berg. Um and I'm sure there are others. There's going to be quite a few bills is really one I wanted to let you know today. Um, our legislators are hearing hearing us and um are sort of continuing to be reminded about uh the conversations last year that many advocates had, not myself because I was not in this role um but that advocates had with legislators around really making sure that school districts were not included. And that is what everyone was told last session. Um, and legislators are acknowledging that they did
018not intend to burden K12 with this tax. Um, so we will sort of see what happens in that regard, but I think the fact that there are so many different proposals coming out is a clear signal to me that our legislators are hearing us um and are committed to working to address this issue. Um, one link that I'm going to send you as a part of the followup um, from today's meeting is um, uh, a link to the work session that I mentioned earlier in the House Finance Committee a couple of weeks ago. Um, they essentially had a stakeholder panel just speaking to the impacts um, of the taxes included in 5814. Um, Superintendent Ron Banner of Clover Park was sort of the K12 um, speaker um, in that uh, panel and um, his remarks
019were um, just really solid um, in terms of communicating um, the need, the burden and then also the why. Um, and he also, I'm not going to quote the numbers because I didn't write them down ahead of this meeting, but he did essentially speak to, you know, hey legislature, you um, increased special education funding last year. We got this amount. Great. And we also are now having to expend this other amount as it relates to taxes around 5814. And so, um, just did a really great job at sort of sharing the the balance that school districts are facing right now. um would encourage you all to take a look at that panel link. I'll include that recording when we uh follow up from this meeting. One more piece of session context that I would share
020is that um pre-filed bills are now a thing. Um legislators had the ability to start pre-filing legislation on December 1st. Um there are many more than just the list that's on here. I just tried to pull out a couple that we've already talked about in this group. Um, plus a couple of others that we know are coming and a couple of others that we know are sort of returning or continuing from 2025. Um so just running through this list really quickly. Um returning from last year we do know very early in the session that um the first three bills on that list isolation and restraint mental and behavioral health and the agency separation bill um that sort of separates um OSPI and the many sort of smaller agencies that are sort of legally under OSPI
021right now. Um we have heard uh that all three of those bills will receive work sessions andor public hearings within uh the early parts of the legislative session. So just sort of flagging that for you. Um additionally some bills that we've already seen filed um on topics that we've talked about in this group. Um we did see the MSOC bill come out. Um that's House Bill 2147 for the upcoming session. Um, Representative Gregerson, the education budget um, lead vice chair of appropriations is the lead sponsor on that bill. Um, seconded by Representative Santos. We have also seen one of the bills around school director compensation and required training drop. Um, that's Senate Bill 5860. Um, that's a Senator Cortez bill. Um, as far as I know, Representative Callen is also planning to introduce that bill
022in the House. Um, so stay tuned for that. And then also, um, Representative Burquist, uh, dropped his levy equalization LEA bill. Um, that's House Bill 2116. Um, a couple of other bills that I just wanted to make sure were on your radar that we, um, have heard are coming. We just haven't seen them yet. Um, OSPI is drafting a bill um that would sort of dictate minimum and maximum fund balances um for school districts. Um, we have not seen a draft of that legislation yet at this time. Um, but wanted to let you know we we anticipate that filed. Um, Senator Wellman um is also likely to file a salary allocation model bill. Um what we've heard from her is that her vision on that is much larger than anything that our uh legislature will
023be able to take on this session. Um it is more sort of filed to initiate some conversation um amongst advocates and legislators. Um so just wanted to let you know that that bill has sort of evolved over the course of the summer and fall. And so we'll see what that looks like. And then also um the exemption for services tax, the other sort of 5814 related bill from Representative Berg um we are also anticipating to be dropped soon. Um, on that note, um, given the large number of bills that are sort of coming out on that topic, um, I'm going to be digging in with some of, um, my advocacy colleagues here at the state level to try to figure out which which of those bills might um, actually sort of have traction. Um, I
024think it it's a good signal when we see a lot of legislators dropping bills on one topic because we know they're hearing us. And I think it'll be important for us to get a sense for which bill or bills will, you know, actually have some political traction um so that we can figure out right like where where specifically we want to work and what we want to elevate from each of the each of the different bills that are out there. So, we'll be doing a deep dive into that um over the course of the next week or so. Um and my goal is to put together a side byside document for you that sort of breaks down section by section um each of the bills on that topic that that we're sort of seeing political
025traction gain on. So, okay, I did say one more, but I've got really one more um session context related item for you. And that is just making sure that this is um clear and on your calendar, Thursday, January 29th. Um this is um as a part of our partnership with WASA and WSBO. Um the date for our um education advocacy day. Um, we will be together in Olympia. Um, and districts that want to join us should absolutely feel free to do so. Um, during this day, we will not be scheduling meetings with individual legislators. We're sort of going to leave that task to school districts that uh that join. Um, but what we are going to be putting together that day, um, is we have sort of a a welcome kickoff event that we'll be
026doing on the Capitol steps, um, where Marissa Wthbone of Wasa and myself will speak. Um, and we're also hoping to tap some lawmakers um, particularly thinking about some of the sponsors of some of our bills um, that will be collectively watching to come join us and speak at the capital steps that morning. that'll be happening right around the 8:30 mark. So, as you're thinking about um when you might want to arrive, if that's something you want to join in on, please do. Um that morning, um multiple education committees will have their sort of regularly scheduled um public hearings. So, during the morning on the 29th, um the House Education Committee will meet um as well as the Senate Early Learning and K through2 Education Committee. given where we'll be in terms of the legislative session,
027it is possible that they won't necessarily be hearing bills during that time and that that may be sort of a day for executive action for those committees. Um so there may not necessarily be the opportunity to provide public testimony. Um but still a good opportunity to sort of get in the committee rooms and um be a part of some of the executive action that we would anticipate um they would be doing during that day. Um also during that day um we are going to be working on gatherings of sort of house um education and budget leaders as well as sort of the same concept in the Senate pulling together members from education committees and budget committees alike to share some big picture updates, take questions um from folks that are with us. Um and then
028also the budget committees will be meeting um later that day during the 4 to 6:00 window. um we don't necessarily know what they'll be talking about um on that day yet. We will find out the week prior. Um but wanted to let you know that there generally will be a full day of um opportunities um for you both sort of scheduled and hosted by WASA and WASA um and then also um legislator meetings that you all might choose to take on and schedule um on behalf of your own districts. um we will have sort of a homebased room um that we have reserved on campus that day. So if you're finding and sort of planning for that day and you've got some downtime or maybe want to find a space to take your lunch that's
029inside and you don't want to go to a restaurant, um we will have um a homebased room uh in the insurance building that day. More details will come out on that soon, but um mainly wanted to make sure you got that date, January 29th on your calendar should you be able to join us. Okay. Um just a couple of WASDA resources um before we move into some group discussion. Um I just wanted to put this in front of you. I don't think we've visited um this sort of um values list in a while as this group. And so um as an advocacy team, um Cynthia and I and our contractors that represent us um are absolutely invested in making sure that the advocacy work that we do is member-driven, student centered, nonpartisan, inclusive, engaging, responsive,
030and credible. Um this is a values list um that we established and sort of continue to operate and live by every day that we do this work. But as we're sort of preparing for the legislative session, just sort of wanted to put this in front of you and remind you of the values um that Cynthia and I and um all of us doing advocacy work here at WASDA are sort of carrying with us. Additionally, some resources that I wanted to put in front of you. Um, many of you have heard me talk about this for a while. Um, but we will continue the in session live um, weekly webinar during the legislative session. We are working on our sign up link for that. So, you'll get that pretty soon. Um, the new update for you
031this year is that we'll be holding in session live on Fridays at noon. Um, previously we've been holding those on Thursdays at noon. um we will just sort of know more and have a better sort of understanding of what's coming on Fridays than we will on Thursdays. So um we'll be hosting those every Friday during the session at noon. Um additionally um in session the written publication will continue um those publications will come to your email boxes on Friday afternoons. Um if any of you have not signed up for that yet um this is what the sign up page looks like. And I am dropping that link to you in the chat right now. Um would encourage you to uh sign up um for in session. U and then I'm going to stop sharing my
032PowerPoint for just a second and I'm going to pull up the WASDA website because another resource that I think will be important for you all to see and know about is our WASDA bill watch. Um you have seen a number of iterations of this um over the years and um what we have in front of us this year um is something that I think we've heard some a number of requests on for the last couple of years. So let me pull that up. Okay. Can you see my web page? Okay, Lindsay, I see your face. Can I get a thumbs up from you that it's on? Okay, great. All right. So, when you go to um our website, um all things related to advocacy will be listed under the advocacy tab. Um for now, I'm
033just going to go to the bottom and click advocacy. And what I'm going to do is pop to legislative updates. Um and I'm going to scroll down to the bill watch. The bill launch page for 2026 will be um more interactive than it has been um for the last year. And essentially what this will allow you to do is um see all the bills that we're tracking first and foremost. Um the bills on this list right now are real bills um that are live and filed for the 2026 legislative session. This list is continuing to grow um every single day. We are continuing to populate this list um based on the pre-file um list on the legislative website. And um what you should know about this is that you can sort of use all of
034these top columns to filter um our bill watch. So, for example, we don't have any of our positions in here yet, but if you wanted to see which bills Bazda is pro on, you could click this and if there was anything in here, it would sort of sort and you'd be able to see all of that. Um, we have categories that we'll be using to sort all of the different bills that we're watching this year. So, you can go to this drop-own list. Um, and there is more than this. These are just the only ones that have been tapped. so far. But if you wanted to see all the bills that we are watching on learning instruction and curriculum, for example, you could click that and you'd be able to see um and if you
035want to click off, you can just go back into that category box, click on all categories, and it brings everything back. So, um just wanted to let you know that this resource is out here. Um we are continuing to expand the number of bills on the list. um and would encourage you all to uh follow that uh list over the course of session. I had just dropped the bill watch link into the chat. Um the easiest thing for you to do if you can do that right now is just to uh sort of click that link, add it to your favorites bar and hopefully that means that you will have easy access um to the education bills um over the course of session. One more resource that I want to show you. This is not
036a WASDA resource um but one that I think could be beneficial. Um this is a data dashboard resource that comes from um our colleagues at the Association of Educational Service Districts um that essentially pulls together um statewide, county, and school district data around MSOC, special education, and transportation. Um, let's just click into one. Um, for example, we can click in here to MSOC and I see Lindsay. Sorry that you're the only one that I see right now, Lindsay, but um I'm going to scroll to Lake Washington um just to give us an example. Um and this will essentially show us costs versus um revenue um around MSOC. You can see this also for special education, transportation, substitutes. Um there's a ton of information that's in here. So, um just sort of wanted to share this
037with you so that you know it is out there and available. Um, I just dropped the link or I'm dropping the link for that in the chat right now. For any of you that might want to sort of go through um in a deeper dive um and or might want to share this link with um any of your district staff, please feel free to do that. Um the one sort of caveat um that our colleagues are sharing is that um this is currently based off of 2425 school year budgeted data. um OSBI I think in the last couple of days has published actual data for 2024 25 and so um this data dashboard will be updated um over the course of the coming weeks but we hope this will be a good tool um for
038you to use um we are definitely thinking this will be a good tool to use to help our advocacy with legislators um and particularly those who really want to see the numbers um behind some of uh what we're talking about. So, wanted to put that in front of you. Okay, we are about to pop into discussion rooms um for a bit. We're right on time, which is great. Um I threw out a couple different questions for you on a couple of different topics um just because that's what I was feeling like today. Um so, feel free to sort of take um what you like if you have time. um would love for you to go through all of them. If you don't, maybe your group just wants to sort of pick um pick one or
039two. Um I will let you sort of pick a pick on there. Um but what I want to propose that you all sort of chat about today is just in general what lessons from last session you think should inform our approach to advocacy this year. Um many of you on this call are um advocacy veterans. you've been doing this for a while and so um I imagine there are some lessons learned that we all sort of have. I would love to hear from you if there's any in particular that stand out that you'd like to make sure we're continuing to elevate and focus this year. Um would love to encourage you to think about what you as led repres um can do to sort of best translate district realities to lawmakers. So thinking about, you
040know, what sort of tools and resources would be helpful for you, maybe like that data dashboard that we just looked at and then sort of how WASDA can support you all to best do that work. Um, and then one, this is just a fun prompt that I would love actually to hear from you on. Um, if you had 30 seconds with a legislator, what's the one message you'd like for them to remember? Um, I would love if you could think about that in the context of sort of the WASDA priorities that we've been talking about in this group. Um, and then just more of a general question. Um, what else do you feel like you need from WASDA in order to be fully prepared, um, and fully active during the 2026 legislative session? I am
041stopping screen share and I'm going to drop those questions in the chat because if I remember right those follow you. Those are there. Um and then any questions about any of that before we move into breakout rooms. We'll put you in there for it's 12:35. We'll go for about 12 minutes. Okay, good at this. Okay. Um, welcome back from your breakout groups. Um, I'll just go through each of you. We have, um, just under 10 minutes. Um, and there are five groups. So, if you could think about maybe 90 seconds, um, or so to share an update, that'd be lovely. You can talk about um, whatever things you'd like that sort of resonate for you from your discussion. I'm going to go to group one first. Um, you don't know who that is, but I
042do. Um, that's Christina and Lori. Um, if one of you might be willing to share some of what you talked about. >> I I will let Lori uh [laughter] I had to get all my uh things clicked here, the video and the audio. Um, you know, we had it was just really a great opportunity to uh hear what's going on in Christina's Mercer Island School District. So, we shared a lot about that. Some things that we're definitely thankful for um that we have going for us in our school districts, our our parent groups, um you know, things like that that really help make the school district strong. I think um we're both concerned about, you know, making the budget work and kind of what's happening with the student population who's going away from public school.
043Um so we talked a little bit about that and uh what else am I missing? uh the weather [laughter] and how how these schools that are getting flooded are now going to be in a situation where they're going to need more money um to build back up and get their schools in good shape. So, that's a concern. Um, and we both use the, uh, bill watch and the legislative updates, um, throughout the year to follow bills, see where they're going. Um, and I use it especially to comment >> um, to get me to the right page where I can comment quickly with an up, down, thumbs up, thumbs down, and then just a quick, you know, two sentence how this would or would not affect my district. That's a really great tool and I'm grateful
044to have that. >> Great. I'm so glad it's helpful. Thank you. Thank you, Lori and Christina. Appreciate those highlights. Um, let's go to group two that had David and Karen. Hello. So, uh, one of the things that we liked was the the new look of the bill tracking page. So, I'm excited to see how that works out for us. Um, we talked about uh the importance of both the story that our students can tell to legislators uh that we can tell to legislators and then to have our superintendent follow up with some of the bigger picture numbers on things, you know, that we can we can give the legislators maybe that personal anecdote that'll stick with them um and then have our superintendent follow up with um the the bigger numbers that might matter to
045them. Um really again talking about funding, you know, funding can't guarantee things, but the lack of funding absolutely um hurts us. >> Um so to to be able to explain again that the MSOC costs really um do matter and without fully funding them, then that hurts us in in so many other areas because we're we're having to rob from other programs to to keep the lights on. Um and those things just don't work. One more one more thing we talked about pushing for I would like to see at least a half a day session at WASDA dedicated to funding especially with not you know you know people don't so understand right lottery money well I thought lottery was fully was educ funding education so we don't understand we pe general public some of our legislators
046don't understand and majority school board directors don't even understand funding Yeah, the the funding process for our schools certainly is is complex and for those of us who have legislators who aren't on uh educational committees and tend to um respond to to us with, you know, if it comes up for a vote, then I'll start to pay attention to it kinds of answers. That that really isn't isn't uh a satisfactory answer to hear. um a lot of them still are on financial committees and and they ought to hear they ought to be concerned about these things earlier and to make sure that um we we keep on them about that um it's going to benefit us in the long term. >> Great. Thank you both. Um, I also just added into my notes um to
047at minimum incorporate some conversation around funding into the strategic advoc advocacy academy uh that I'll be hosting at the next uh at the next annual conference. It'll be one of our pre-conference options. Um so I'll make a note at minimum to throw some stuff in there and um bring that back to our planning committee. Thank you both. Okay. Um, let's move to the next room that had Liza, TJ, and Larry. >> Okay. Uh, one of the things we talked about was uh, uh, if you had 30 seconds to talk to the legislator, what would you tell him? I just said fully fund education. You know, do that and then that takes care of a lot of the problems that we have. You know, uh, they just need to fully fund it. And then I I
048test also touched on uh impact aid for us for our school districts like ours [clears throat] on reservations where we haven't seen an increase in in in funding there and uh and basically over the last three years and the whole program's not been fully funded since ' 69. So you know we're taking a loss and on from both sides but the federal side and the state side. So uh yeah it's it's just I'm between the rock and the hard spot. What do I do? >> Thank Thank you, Larry and group. Um really appreciate the the simple talking point for legislators. Um okay, let's go to room four. Um Marica and Sarah. >> Okay, Sarah and I had a really um good conversation starting off. We talked about uh lessons from the session to inform our
049approach. We said that, you know, all the education organizations coalesing on the big three was a real positive. Um, kind of a negative was, uh, the whole Senate Bill 5814. Um, how legislators had great intentions, but due to a lack of really good analysis, um, the whole thing kind of fell apart and did just did not work for us. Um, Sarah, do you want to go on and talk about how can ledger repubs translate district realities? Uh sure. >> Okay. Um >> we were talking a bit about uh how we can communicate the choices we have to make when there's the ongoing increasing costs that are out of our control and what are the kind of reductions that we have to make locally when that happens. So like for Shoreline, the staffing reductions we've had
050to make over the past couple of years have been almost entirely our support layer in our buildings and really highlighting like that that is honestly also the equity layer in our buildings that is providing the supports needed and really helping them understand that the mandated model is really, you know, just like the baseline and that that's not truly meeting student needs. and helping them understand those choices with dollars um is has been really effective especially when we're talking about things like utilities and insurance and helping them understand how does that end up and then um Marica had a great point about um curriculum so I'm going to throw it back to you. Okay, we talked about um things that messages to give our legislators are um sometimes, you know, if they're asking, hey, why are
051your assessments so low? Uh you know, your student assessments, why should we put more money into education? And it's because sometimes our curriculum, our curricula are so outdated. um you know we can't afford or we make decisions you know to put in student supports um maybe instead of updating you know science curricula that's uh 8 years old or you know other CTE curricula that has been even older that I've seen like up to 20 years old for marketing you know curriculum which is just crazy in my mind but um you know things like that and and that is a reason our students are doing the best they can but you know it's not, you know, they can't compete if they're using really old, you know, curricula and other students, you know, have more updated stuff
052and are testing to uh, you know, to things. You know, the the students with newer curricula obviously have an advantage to students, you know, despite good teachers um doing the best they can. You know, if our curricula is too old, we just can't make the strides uh that are for our students that they deserve. Thank you both very much. Very powerful. Um, okay, we are at one o'clock, but I want to give the last group. Um, that's River, Lindsay, and David. If you could maybe just share in like one or two sentences. Um, any highlights? Sorry that we're out of time. >> Wow. What's equitable in that? >> I know. Sorry. [laughter] No, we we concur with Marissa that lessons learned was it was nice to have Wasa, Wasbo and Wdall at the same one,
053but Senator Wellman and Representative Santos both said we hear you and then they went back and did nothing u for the most part. Uh so our school districts are still supremely underfunded. um 30 seconds. Um our 30 second um comment was um no unfunded mandates, which also lends to what Marissa said years ago. We said no unfunded mandates, but that could also be no unintended consequences. What what like what happened with this new tax? Um so that's to about that. And then also how to translate our our situations is have positive working relationships with your local legislators and then know who's on the various committees. So like who's on the state uh house um education committee, who's on the Senate Education Committee, and try and get introductions to them. Like my state senator locally is
054on the education committee and um uh Lindsay's is also on the education committee. So that's helpful um to know who your folks are so that you can have a positive relationship and tell them what your district is most need. So that's it. >> That's lovely. Thank you, David. I appreciate that. That was perfect. Okay, we are um over time. Um but I have one graphic that I want to show you. We talked for um the last couple of meetings about rebranding this space. Um, and so you see a beautiful new graphic on the screen. Shout out Robbie cuz I think you're here still. Um, we will be u moving forward with um continuing these meetings of course into 2026 um under a new name and a new brand. Um we will be calling this the
055advocacy action network moving forward. um really just trying to emphasize um that this group is open for any advocacy interest interested school director, not just legislative representatives. Um so really excited about um our rebrand. We'll talk more about that in the new year. Um but what I want you to know for now is just thank you. Uh my contact information as well as Cynthia's is on the screen for you in case you don't have it. The first meeting of the Advocacy Action Network is not on your calendars yet. Um, but we'll be holding that on Tuesday, January 20th at noon. Um, I will populate your calendars with all occurrences for 2026 of that group. Um, we also will have a sign up form similar to the way that you sign up for in session, for
056example. Um, if there are other directors that you know that you don't see here, um, that you think might like to be invited to the space, please share the sign up form with them. Um, like I said, any district director is, um, absolutely able to join this space. Um, as long as y'all are following OPMA rules and, you know, not bringing a quorum of your board in here, for example. But other than that, we will take anyone um, who's interested. Um, thank you so much for joining today and hope you have um a happy holidays and we'll see you all in the new year.