001hello greetings School directors and Friends of public education thanks for joining us for today's in session live it is Thursday March 13th we acknowledge that our public schools and Facilities operate on the traditional lands of indigenous peoples as we engage in the 2025 legislative session we remember that the lands of our state capital were cared for by the people of the squaxin and the squali tribes we make these acknowledgements to open a space of recognition inclusion and respect for our Sovereign tribal partners and all indigenous students family staff legislators and board members in our communities yesterday was the um uh end of the House of origin cut off which means that all house bills had to make it out of the house and all Senate bills had to make it out of the senate in
002order for them to progress uh so today is the first day of the opposite uh chamber process so basically we're on repeat from where we started at the very beginning of session just we'll see Senate bills in the house and house bills in the Senate um there's one exception to that rule perhaps you've heard of the acronym Niti uh necessary to implement me the budget has no official definition in State Statute or on the legislative website uh but if you ask generative AI they have a pretty good answer and it's essentially that um really it's any bill that's deemed necessary to implement the budget makes sense right based on the acronym itself uh essentially what that means is that there will be bills that did not progress past their house of origin floor debate however
003if they are determined necessary in order to pass a budget which is the only thing that the legislature has to do in order to end the legislative session they could bring a bill back or parts of a bill back in order to ensure that passing a budget was possible uh as you see there from generative generative AI this label is used liberally uh to prevent legislation from dying um most specifically in order to pass the budget so I'm going to talk more about some of those bills that maybe dead maybe not in my section but before um I give you sort of an update on what's going on generally about the 2025 legislative session I am pleased to be able to introduce or reintroduce to you Randy Spalding Who is the executive director of the
004State Board of Education uh the state board have has been doing a really wonderful job of keeping the community uh washingtonians public education Advocates uh employees and other um staff informed about the work they are doing called future ready around graduation requirements vision for the future uh there was earlier this week a public meeting that anybody could listen in on uh but knowing knowing that many of you have busy professional and personal lives may not have been able to attend so we invited Randy here today to speak a little bit uh broadly to the work of the State Board of Education as it relates uh to their vision for graduation as well as give us an update on how some of the bills that might impact graduation requirements around financial literacy and computer science in
005particular uh are being considered as a part of that planning process so thank you Randy for your leadership and your friendship and for being here with us today for in session I'm going to take my screen off and let you take it from here thank you so much appreciate the opportunity to be here and I think I clicked on something wrong so it might take me just a moment to get reoriented here um but let me go ahead and share this and then um okay now I'm back can you see the uh slides we sure can they look great excellent okay uh well thank you for the opportunity to be here uh good afternoon I'm happy to share about the board's Future Ready initiative I'm Randy Spalding executive director uh for the State Board of
006Education uh as you all know the State Board of Education is a 16 member board made up of elected and appointed officials uh two uh of them are current high school students and five members of course are elected by local school board members the board provides oversight and advocates for our system of Education in Washington um and uh the board recently adopted our 24 through 28 strategic plan which articulates our mission to cultivate an equitable and inclusive K12 education system that fulfills the board's vision of every student being empowered with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a changing world uh and we do this work uh through uh uh engaging with our communities and this is um the Strategic plan this time around is a little bit different than a traditional plan
007in that it really is emphasizing uh more heavily our approach than uh a specific set of initiatives or outcomes that we are hoping to achieve uh at least in specific policies uh so it's it's it's much broader it's about a process and that those broader outcomes are the kinds of things I just mentioned through the the mission and vision statement um and and doing this work through authentic engagement with our communities and so this is really changing how we approach uh our work uh and so to go a little bit deeper on that uh we um are the Future Ready initiative I'm going to talk more about but it's it's really uh an example of how we're trying to bring together uh our community members in a way that helps work with the board in
008the development of our strategies and and uh to help us move forward on that and that is really uh a response to the board's own work in kind of reflecting on on how we best serve the community but also is consistent with executive orders and statutory language that really is pushing for that broader uh sense of Engagement with those that we serve and uh as I noted uh the board has responsibility for the graduation requirements specifically the board establishes the requirements but also is asked in statute to periodically reevaluate the requirements and propose changes to the requirements and so Future Ready is our strategy uh is outlined as one of the key elements of our strategic plan and it's really intended to take a comprehensive uh view of um potential changes to the graduation requirements
009and this is in recognition uh of the fact that we've seen over time a number of incremental changes we continue to see proposals for additional changes and and our our stance on this has been we need to slow down and take a step back and look at the Hole uh and really understand better what we're asking of our students of our schools uh to really ensure that we're meeting um the the goals that we have established for students when they leave our system um and so um one thing just important to note is and I think this is probably already Apparent from some of my comments but uh we are not at this moment proposing changes uh we are talking about a process uh to review uh and make recommendations for changes in the future
010so this is this is not uh there's not a specific change uh that we're pushing at the moment um and this chart is something that we've uh introduced into our uh policy thinking and find it to be very uh helpful it's called the vent diagram and I have to credit Jay Le for bringing this to the agency JY Schultz um and it's it's intended to express um two seemingly contradictory items that are both true at the same time and so this is this not enough and too much with regard to the graduation requirements so some specific examples that we are hearing from folks is that on the one hand students are asking for more opportunities develop critical skills in areas that maybe aren't addressed currently in the requirements and at the same time they're expressing
011uh that the current requirements are uh overly complex too much maybe not flexible enough those kinds of things and so um that's we we recognize that both of these things can be true at the same time and this is really what's uh a big part of uh the work that we're uh moving forward on um and so just to go a little deeper again into the objectives for the Future Ready initiative um we have adopted also in our strategic plan a profile of a graduate this is a state level uh articulation of what students uh uh this those cross cutting skills students should be developing while they're in school it really is uh bringing together um the goals of basic education and the um and the um the um outcomes of the high school diploma
012what the high school diploma would signal but then also identifying that set of uh crosscutting skills you might think of them some of them would be reflected in things like 21st century skills or some of these other uh uh skills uh discussions that folks are having uh around but it's really that what do we want students to know and be able to do and be working on or towards as they leave our [Music] system and then and and again uh looking at uh how we are balancing core and elective courses what are the essential skills you know disciplinary learning opportunities for that um and um host of other elements so this is this is again guiding kind of what the what the scope of the work for the future ready uh task force is and
013and what we are hoping to achieve uh we have designed uh this work to be iterative over time time um and so we have uh a task force uh that is meeting every other month and you'll see here in a moment it's also it's um uh in a Cadence that allows the board to have discussions in between those but we also uh have uh Community lisons who are compensated uh for their time and effort uh both on the task force and reaching out to community to gather information and bring that back to the task Force meetings and then we will be starting subcommittees to dive into specific issues uh that are um uh coming up through this work and so that may be uh a deeper dive into a subject area but it may be
014issues like how do we implement this with Fidelity in a way that um you know creates um best opportunities for students and and gives districts the resources and time they need in order to to do the implementation on this um the task force is made up of a broad range of folks we've really been intentional we're trying to keep this to a reasonable size so that it's manageable and they can get actual work done but also has broad representation and so to do that we went out to Partners we asked them to help us identify uh folks who could sit on this task force who met some a few different criteria one is we really hoping to bring people in at War multip hats we're also uh wanting to bring people in who have connections
015with a variety of communities and can do Outreach in between to connect with those and again bring feedback back to the table uh so that's been our approach on this um we have about 35 folks on the task force uh and so that's going forward now I kind of covered this but just to reiterate we have our task force we have Community lons who are those those specific task for me Force members who are reaching out to uh Community groups um and then we also will be implementing subcommittees so the the the specifics of the subcommittees will emerge from the work and so we don't have a list of subcommittees right now but as I mentioned probably deeper dives into some subject areas um as well as uh uh issues around implementation and there may
016be a few other things that come out of our work the timeline on this uh we are currently in the first phase of a three-phase project uh and we're kind of on the uh second half of phase one and we'll the next meeting uh which is coming up in uh um actually week and a half I think uh we'll be talking about visioning and we'll take that conversation back to the board and then we will go back to the to the work group to uh move towards our next steps from that um in phase two is when we would start beginning to develop recommendations and then and then finally uh this will uh end in uh recommendations or a legislative proposal uh in the third phase of the work that would be in early 26
017um and so you can see on here the task force meets every other month the board meetings between the board meetings essentially so we're creating this conversation between the board and the task force and we do have board members serving on the task force as well uh again another note uh I I noted at the top we don't have a specific recommendation when we do make recommendations we're also mindful that uh those have to be phased in over a period of time generally speaking any new requirements uh can only be implemented with an entering freshman class that would make uh class of 2031 about the earliest we could see any new requirements uh and some things may take longer to phase in depending on the nature of the recommendations uh and that was true the
018last time we had a major change in the grad requirements as well where some things took longer than others to to bring into the system um so uh Marissa mentioned uh legislative activity uh there are uh not as many bills this year as last year but a couple of bills that are are really addressing areas that would touch on graduation requirements uh and the two that um seem to be uh moving the most we have uh the um 1285 which is the financial education bill from the house and that has passed the house and has now been referred to Early Learning uh K12 in the Senate uh I checked last night and it it hadn't been scheduled yet but it's very early for that so not uh I'm sure that will come soon um and
019that that bill would require that students um demonstrate that they meet the financial education standards as a condition for graduation by the class of 20 uh excuse me class of 31 and high schools uh would have to offer the opportunity to meet the standards uh by the 2728 school year so uh this particular bill um the timeline is consistent with future ready and there's some other language in there that kind of creates that consistency but but um the the key caveat is it does presume uh that there would be a requirement so uh the uh approach we're taking in the initiative is we're trying not to presume what new requirements might uh come out and this this bill does kind of Advance uh a specific requirement it leaves open however how that might be implemented
020so uh unlike some legislation you've seen in the past it doesn't require specific course or anything like that uh but it does require that students meet the standards um 5327 is actually a little bit more uh open and less pres prescriptive in that same sense uh where in that case uh it is requiring the board to consider uh an approach and a timeline to ensure students have adequate opportunity to demonstrate fundamental skills in this case both in computer science and in financial literacy um and uh that one is um uh so it's a little bit more open in terms of how and when exactly that would get implemented uh again it is consistent with the timeline in future ready so we really appreciated the sponsors on both of these bills being sensitive to that work
021that the the board is engaged in and willing to uh make those adjustments in their bills um the uh 5327 has been scheduled for a public hearing on the 18th uh in the house uh so that one is um we do know when that one's coming up so I talked really fast but that is the last of my content slides and I we do have some resources in the slides as well and I assume this deck is going to go out to folks so uh if you want to sign up for updates or see uh some of uh additional information on this uh we can certainly accommodate that so thank you so much Randy yeah for the benefit of the of the whole the in session live agenda does have a presentation link and this
022presentation is therefore available to our audience um a couple questions thank you so much that was a great overview um I am curious about um and maybe this is an OPI question as much as is a question for you about learning standards um familiar with OSI doing some updates to math and English language arts how does that impact the Future Ready planning or does it at all are they their um processes um operating sort of simultaneously but can be paired just curious about how they interplay yeah those uh we haven't brought those two conversations together I think where it would potentially be an issue is if we saw something that that might change the course requirements so the board's work is at that sort of course level and learning standards are are a little more
023specific but if if uh we saw something that kind of changed the nature of the math sequence for example then that that might be a time where we'd have to bring that conversation in a little bit more explicitly nice that's helpful um how has uh either intentionally or accidentally um School Board level perspective already been included sort of in your process to date or could be in the future um where might where might our members have a chance to to provide any feedback uh yeah that's that's a good question and um the um um uh excuse me I was looking for my list but uh yeah the the um opportunities so first off that the the problem statement that we're addressing really comes out of a lot of listening the board has done both at
024you know visiting with school board members but also Educators students others so over the last several years the has been getting this same feedback uh about uh there's too much on the plate it's not flexible enough and we want students to be able to learn these things that they maybe haven't had an opportunity to learn yet um and so really trying to reconcile all that uh so that problem statement comes absolutely out of that in terms of the work going forward um the um that Outreach that we're doing as part of the Future Ready I would say they should sign up for our future ready announcements so the meetings are all open meetings um and then at the board meetings of course public comment is available but I we can be available as well to
025to connect with folks um and I'll be uh doing as many of the um uh Regional visits as possible as well this year so uh so and so will members so there's there's those kinds of connections um that I think would be the the best way to do that yeah so just for the benefit again of the audience if folks had questions or comments that they wanted to share there are a couple mechanisms that they could do it um they could attend one of the public meetings that you're uh advertising and they would learn about that from signing up for the Future Ready announcements anybody can do that um they could also just email me um because I have a close working relationship with you and Jay Lee we can make connections there so I'll
026just keep that door open and then of course you always are so um generous with your time during our spring re Regional meetings by attending as many of those as possible so our members who attend the regional meetings might get a chance to meet you live in person um and ask you questions there so all of those are great opportunities to engage in the process um one one last question I know the answer to this I think the answer is no but I want you to verify is was there any funding um has there been any funding disc discussion um around the two bills in play right now for financial literacy or computer science my my understanding is the answer is no because the Assumption by our legislators is that it would be no additional
027cost to districts because they are embedding existing learning standards into current courses is that your understanding as well yeah I'd have to I I didn't refresh my memory of the fiscal note before this call but but the other element at least on the um uh because the the how is not defined yet and on the in the case of the Senate bill um there's not actually requirement imposed yet so that th those would also impact that um inability to have a a fiscal impact shown yeah the Senate bill is more of a um integrating into the system that you're describing so that there's some conversation and embedding of the learning standards there whereas house bill is specifically about financial education being a graduation requirement but existing within um however districts are currently offering graduation requirements
028the learning standards could be let's call it sprinkled or embedded in all of the existing courses um that they're currently offering is that your understanding yes yes that's that's right yeah because it doesn't specify like a like with Civics we have a standard load course requirement that's not what we're seeing on the finan SL side great um and then one more question um if there are any vacancies on the task force that you currently have how might um someone Express an interest or be identified to fill that vacancy we uh we are not adding members at this point in time however as I mentioned the meetings are open if you sign up we can get you there and you can attend those meetings okay great um and then Jackie pointed out she thinks um one
029of those bills uh includes a null and void Clause so um would not go into effect unless funded I'm not sure if that's still true Jackie so um uh I think that's in the in the house bill there is a null and void in it um but but I'm not you'd have to look at the fiscal note to see what funded means yeah exactly yeah yeah it's not going to increase your mck allocation or your prototypical school funding model uh by any means of the imagination so um so yeah what null and void means um it directly relates to the fiscal note with which may or may not accurately reflect what your District would need to make changes in this regard there is some level of assumption by legislators that more than half of the
030school districts are already providing at least some if not all of the learning standards for financial literacy something you wanted to add to that Randy yeah actually it's standards so that's that's also affecting that um they don't so the other thing I would say is that there's also work assigned at three so state board education public private partnership and work on that bill and so that's probably the funding in that land just I was having a little trouble hearing you you sounded kind of garby sorry um yeah let me say it again so there three agencies that are identified in that will with work so private partnership so that's that's I most that funding FC note to the other thing I was saying is that that um you're right to say there's already law that
031says District learning standards and computer science actually as well and so I think that also is affecting the analysis of the cost on some of that okay thank you yeah your um your audio is coming across as a little garbally but I think what I got in a nutshell is that the the funding is largely for the um systems development for the Senate bill and um and also for the house bill and there's some assumption already that school many school districts are already doing this cool well I might I might have to say goodbye to you because I don't know if we could hear you even if we asked a question or not I can hear you it just does sound like you're um scuba diving which sounds more fun than a legislative session to
032be honest so but I hope it wasn't that way throughout is it no it wasn't nope and now you're good yep let me see um now it sounds like you're fine so let me see if there's uh uh there's a question about um any interplay between the federal government and the state of Washington um she said something about proequity and anti-racism I'm not sure that those are embedded into um financial literacy learning standards but um anything you would offer there oh yeah I think uh probably referring to one of the slides in my deck on pair which is so uh that's comes out of executive directive and the the governor's office of equity um and so that's directive at the state level to agencies uh to uh address Equity issues in particular ours our work
033in that area is focused on community engagement and Outreach uh and that work is absolutely going to continue yeah and and EST State directed which is the law at present so we're operating under those uh guideline not just guidelines but laws so thank you Randy appreciate your time and attention and for all the work that you're doing to do this um deliberately and intentionally um so thank you so much appreciate it thanks Randy great all right thank you everybody great questions um and appreciate your attention to that um I really like when we get to talk about student- centered approaches to um the work that we're doing oftentimes we're we've got lots of other things in play um although focusing on school funding obviously is very student- centered um but obviously that's not the first
034thing that comes out of our mouth all the time right now so um we got to keep that fully present I am going to return back to our agenda as sort of a guide for what we'll be talking about next wanted to give you a little bit of update on how things are going screen sharing pause now it's ready um one thing I just wanted to let you know I mentioned earlier that last night was the end of the Chamber of origin um process so house bills out of the house senate bills out of the house uh that ended in the Senate around 5:15 the very last bill was Senate Bill 5263 and uh they just went a little over time last night I think they ended at about 5:20 or so uh but there's
035about oh 30 minutes I would say a very um compelling and beautiful student student centered student forward um education focused um floor speeches from Republicans and Democrats alike on the Senate side I provided a hyperlink to that segment of yesterday's very long floor speech segments I would highly encourage you to watch Andor listen to that by clicking on that link um it it might be around 35 minutes in total it was so heartening for me to hear that last night um at a time over the last couple weeks when we've seen some of our uh very favorite special education and Material supplies operating cost bills get diminished in terms of their total funding loation amounts and we also saw Transportation bills not progress any further onto the floor it was really um like I said
036I can't I can't think of a better word than heartening at a time when many of us have been feeling like you know we had a lot of the momentum around our member adopted priorities particularly special education MSO and transportation um felt like we'd been backsliding a little bit over the last couple weeks but these floor speeches really helped a lot of us who were watching last night feel like there is still a commitment to this not just basic education requirement but to this moral ethical um uh and legal obligation to support and serve students with disabilities across the board so um not saying it's going to be easy or the one billion that they're talking about will be fully allocated at the end of the day but I will tell you it's clear from
037listening to the Senators both uh Republicans and Democrats that they understand the need and their responsibility there um this bill will now progress over to house appropriation so it's been referred to House Appropriations and I do anticipate we'll hear it over there at some point uh whether or not it stays at the same funding level as it's currently set remains to be seen uh especially since on the house side they uh did not progress 1310 which was representative Pet's full funding of special education um they instead progressed Monica stoner's 1357 which was an increase to the multiplier no no addressing of the cap and um some advancement on inclusionary practices that bill did not progress out of the house either so 5263 is our special education vehicle and it was looking pretty darn good as
038of last night just a reminder that if you have a question please type it in the Q&A and I'll get to it as soon as possible um then I also want to talk a little bit about what's happening next week uh I'm going to actually pull up a slide deck here in a moment just to keep us on track as it relates to that before I move over there though I wanted to remind you that there will be an opportunity for you over the course of the next couple days most of you will have legislators at least one if not um all three or more who are delivering Town Hall presentations possibly in person maybe virtually on Saturday this weekend the full schedules here for House and Senate are provided at these hyperlinks you might
039have to do a little bit of digging to find your uh individual legislators and when they're offering a lot of times they're coming together to do those together not always but sometimes uh so would just check those out and if you have any availability to attend or tune in there's a lot that you'll be able to learn from them about how they're thinking about some of the policies we care most about and what some of the um uh other issue areas that are taking their time and attention will be so I'm going to pull up the slide deck and that will get us back on track here I was just so excited about last night's floor speeches I just really wanted to start with that um as a reminder that um they're they are still
040paying attention so just a little just a little overview and update um as it relates to the 105 day session that we are currently in uh there are 60 days behind us and 45 days remaining in the regular session um there is still some rumor and will remain to be a rumor until um a fact whether or not we will signy die or end the legislative session on April 27th or if there will be a special session uh that will depend on a lot of variables most specifically as you are well aware that we have a significant budget shortfall in our state that will be the primary focus has been the primary focus of our legislature and will continue to be their focus moving into the end of session they have to determine which Cuts
041they're going to make what Revenue they're going to pass and how they can at least level things out and respond to the shortfall um and then if they have any additional policies that they're adding like special education funding how are they going to pay for that is that additional Cuts or is that additional revenue or taxes that they will need to address it's quite The Balancing Act and we're just one sector of a very comprehensive State system that they'll have to address as they um continue to balance the budget uh I've said this many times House of origin ended yesterday we'll see a revenue forecast come out next week that will uh inevitably influence how they're thinking about that cuts and revenue balance and which policies they need to uh support then we will also
042see um policies continue to drop off uh the process at the next cut off which happens April 2nd just right around the corner so that means that any bills that made it out of the house that ref referred to Senate Early Learning in K12 as an example will have to be passed out of that committee by April 2nd and then pass passed out of the fiscal committee Senate Ways and Means by April 8th and then debated on the floor for passage before siny die so we've seen a lot of bills more bills drop off of our bill list than remain um however there are still some in play and that's why we will be having more hearings starting um starting today House Education and Senate Early Learning in K12 met today for the first time
043in several weeks to start addressing some of the bills that are still in play um I gave a little bit of an overview as it relates to this but this gives you sort of a full picture uh of wasda legislative priorities and bills that match those priorities in these key categories sped MSO transportation and Staffing um you'll see the word dead on most of these and that is true um uh the special education bill as I referenced passed last night so we'll see that progress over to the house the Material supplies and operating cost Bill the vehicle that progresses is 5192 has already been scheduled in House Appropriations uh next Wednesday at 400 p.m. uh I have provided on the agenda a direct link for where you can go to provide your signin uh I
044would assume of support um it is not at the level that we would want it to be this this bill in particular doesn't get us to the full met met need uh but it is our best vehicle at present and the legislature will continue to dial these numbers back and forth as these bills progressed and as conversations are happen opening behind closed doors about how they balance that budget I say um dead bills are dead recognizing that any any bill as it relates to the budget could be uh resurrected or come back uh as it might be deemed necessary to implement the budget and also a reminder that any of these bills that say dead beside them are still in play for the 2026 legislative session so they they die for this session but they
045are all um they all return as Al live for next session and just we'll have to go through the process in order to stay alive going to check out um some of the questions here as they may be relevant how can you tell if a bill is uh necessary to implement the budget or dead um well you you can't until the budget's passed so I guess what I would tell you is that um for the most part with all of these bills we assume that any numbers are in play until we see some of the drafts of the budget we will likely see like with this Transportation budget 5187 did not progress to the senate floor however we have heard that the Senate is committed to having some element of funding for special passengers in
046their proposed budget which we will see in the next week or two I won't I won't be surprised to see some funding alloc ated for special passengers specifically um uh students experiencing homelessness I doubt we'll see that in the house version of the budget because the house did not progress a transportation budget and therein lies one of the thousands of places the house and the Senate will be in negotiation before we see a final version of the budget I know that's kind of a non-answer but that's the best answer I can give given the realities of the legislative session um yes I will upload this into the chat for you all okay um progressing towards some of the um in in this PowerPoint presentation there's an overview here of where the current versions of mck
047and sped are I would tell you don't get too excited or too depressed about any one of these numbers because all of this is subject to change I will note though that the trajectory of of both the MSO and sped bills has been on a downward slide so they started higher and we've seen them gradually reducing uh the allocation amounts in all areas um so that probably is the more likely Direction I think our best hope is that they are maintained at this level um and that we encourage our legislators to hold firm at these levels assuming that they uh won't bring them back up if there is any way you are able to communicate to your legislators this is where our MSO and our special education Gap is or um need is this is
048where these two bills would fund us is down here so invariably you'll have the number in between that identifies the gap between actual need and what these bills would fund because that number in between is that is what we'll be coming back for next year to ask for so um they they should be aware that this is a conversation we're going to continue uh until our schools are adequately funded for basic education there have been lots of other policy issues we've talked about throughout the session many of them have fallen off the bill watch list again they'll they could be back next year but I wanted to let you know that the simple majority Bill did not progress to the senate floor um some people are saying there might be a remaining opportunity for it
049to continue into the conversation at the end of the budget negotiation this would be a stretch to say that it's necessary to implement the budget um however if there's a tie um to some kind of negotiation where there's a cost savings uh in support of simple majority perhaps they'd be able to tie it like this bill did with impact fees but uh we may not see this bill progress this session I think that's probably a more likely outcome but we are still working behind the scenes to keep it alive in the case that there's still an opportunity transition to kindergarten neither the house or the Senate Bill progressed uh the house bill did not make it pass Appropriations uh the Senate Bill did make it passed uh ways and means but was not debated on
050the senate floor however I do think we're going to see this issue addressed in both the house and the Senate proposed budgets because there is a consideration that either by maintaining the current level which is what the Senate version would have done or reducing the current level which is what the house version would have done that there would either be a current cost savings or a projected cost savings because it wouldn't um uh if if we went with the if they went with the Senate bill it would just hold the enrollment at what it currently is as opposed to um having to fund for the future this is not basic education protected therefore those are the areas where the legislature is looking to try to identify potential Cuts they may refer to them as savings
051so that they can fund other obligations or other policies that they intend to pass uh depreciation for Ev buses this is a bill that's being heard today electric vehicle sorry that's what EV stands for we are trying to get clarity on whether or not that in uh includes electric vehicle buses that you have already received or if this would be for bills that you receive in the I'm sorry buses you receive in the future so we're still working out the Kinks on this one uh but we are concerned that if you already accepted a grant where an electric vehicle was granted to you that you should not be on the hook to reimburse the state for depreciation on those buses and then last but not least on this slide uh in a bill hearing today
052um uh wasda board president Derek slyy will be representing wasda in opposition to this bill this essentially reduces doesn't fully cut the national board certified teacher program um you could call them bonuses but they are commitments from our legislature for over 20 years uh and our um highly qualified teachers have come to expect these as part of their salary this isn't protected in basic education as part part of the prototypical school funding model therefore it's another one that's at risk of being cut um I think probably we'll see a reduction to the amount the substitute bill that will be heard in committee today reduces the current uh commitment um to a lower number than is um currently expected but it doesn't eliminate it entirely if you remember at the beginning of session Governor ensley's proposed
053operating budget would have eliminated this program entirely so this bill is better than that but it's not what we want then couple other policies just want to keep you aware of unemployment insurance for striking workers Wasa and wasda drafted a joint letter that was shared with the entire Senate last week before it came to a floor vote we understood that it had strong majority support um there were two dissenting votes on the Democrat side um and Senator Wellman was one of them although she has been informed that it won't affect school districts because School District employees are not legally allowed to strike um we all understand the reality of that and therefore understand that this could be what we would consider an unfunded mandate and undo burden to our school districts so we will continue
054to fight it on the house side um it is being heard in committee next week and has already been scheduled for an executive SE session which means there is strong support even stronger support on the house side than the Senate side for this bill to pass we will continue to represent membership in concern about this bill um and I'm afraid there's a sort of universal support for it uh amongst Democrats the the majority on both the House and Senate side this session a couple more bills just to note uh Senate bill 5772 would require that any school district whose student enrollment exceeds 33% of Al so if more than 33% of your student enrollment are Al students uh then that would reduce your local effort assistance allocation um that bill did not progress to the
055senate floor but because it is one of those considerations for areas of cut outside of basic education which is protected we may see this as necessary to implement the budget you heard from Randy about 1285 it has been referred to Senate Early Learning so I imagine we'll see that in committee over there and then we have discussed this bill previously uh Senate bill 5179 which creates a local complaint process when a School director or superintendent is deemed as woefully disobeying the law that there is a process in place that the school board must host public comment opportunities to address those concerns and complaints and gives OPI the opportunity to intervene and redirect up to 20% of your state apportionment to correct the wrongdoing um until the wrongdoing is corrected something to keep an eye on
056that's all for my slides I will share that in the chat I'm going to stop my share I see that there are quite a few questions here and I'm going to get to those hold tight I was in the office yesterday and the wonderful chryst L who is our it and tech support did lots of things to fix my computer but it is still giv me fits I think it's tired I think it's because you know it's day 60 of the legislative session it's like what the heck um uh question about House Bill 1296 um this was a bill that was actually the last bill on the house floor last night debated extensively until 2:30 in the morning uh wasda has weighed in with the bill sponsor to express concerns about the um withholding of
057State apportionment in response to local complaints for woeful Disobedience of the law very similar to the concerns we've exp expressed on Senate bill 5179 um so we remain focused on that element of the bill from the perspective of um cost to districts local control uh creating um really burdensome processes for the Local District when there are already processes in place um wasda has no uh clear positions as it relates to um uh some of the other bills in play that are highly controversial um that are most specifically around gender inclusivity and gender expansive schools uh that language is not currently in any of our member adopted positions uh we do have positions around comprehensive school and student safety um from that perspective uh members could be considering how they might support those bills or Express
058their concerns which is why we have encouraged school districts to weigh in individually on how those individual bills would impact them uh let's see I am going to clarify the difference between categories on Slide Five I'm going to pull that back in a second um question about 5041 uh is there any funding for unemployment insurance uh not directly as a part of the um fiscal note no um so that would be our main concern is that it would create financial hardship for districts um procedural question about 5737 uh Niti sorry I don't have all the bills memorized um so a procedural question about nib so again going back to the original definition of Niti um there's really no definition of what nib is and if a legislature or group of legislators determine that a bill
059is necessary to implement the budget they can bring it back regardless if it progressed through the standard process um so uh often times those are fiscal related bills so bills that have some kind of fiscal implication um that they could deem again I keep having to say necessary to implement the budget it really is that's that's what they will determine in order to bring it back so there is no clear definition and even if a bill didn't progress through the process on its House of origin side um necessary to implement the budget could still apply so that's why I recommend uh you don't let any bill um off your radar because say uh it potentially will come back we'll be able to tell you when we take a look at both the Draft House and
060the draft Senate budgets over the course of the next two weeks once they come out our understanding is the house gets to go first this year and then we'll see a senate version quickly after there will be really smart people who understand budget things who will do side by side for education and what the key differences are between those two and and that's where we'll see which bills they may be determining are necessary to implement the budget for instance if we see that there's a line item reducing the current uh allocation for national board certified teachers um well actually that bill is currently in play let me think of a better example um 5772 is the AL um an Lea bill which did not progress through the Senate we may see uh some kind of
061reduction and allocation for Lea for particular school districts whose student enrollment exceeds 33% of their total enrollment that would be a what we understand a $1 13 million cost savings to the state so we'll see that potentially in the Senate version of the budget which would mean that bill was determined necessary to implement the budget but we won't know until we see the drafts of those budgets hope that ansed your question again it's kind of a non-answer because it's very it's very confusing um any idea what the impact of 1531 again I don't have numbers completely memorized so let me go ahead and pull up the slideshow because there was a question about the difference in categories between some things on Slide Five [Music] I'm looking at it it's uh the slide in reference is
062the slide on 5263 um I'm not seeing anything as it relates to categories so maybe if the person who asked that question can just uh reach out to me directly we can handle that together um and 5131 let me take a look at that I'm going to pull up this week's Bill schedule ual and Bill watch list and this is how I navigate this which you can download from the wasda website under the legislative updates page looking for the bill ah sorry I inverted the numbers 1531 also don't see that bill on the bill watch so I can go to the Washington State Legislature online website or we can handle it individually let me just make sure I'm looking at all the questions here oh I see Jackie thank you so Jackie's asking questions about
063the um funding amounts for mck let me go ahead and pull the slide up thanks for your patience folks so Jackie I believe your question is what's the difference between the um the categories here so this is your base this is the base level the 1656 and again this is the current version of the bill so again don't get too um locked into dollars and cents here um this would be most likely the minimum number that they would fund so this would be the base and then you're looking at a n9th and 12th grade enhancement here and then um additional allocations for Moc K12 across the board and 912 I don't know if that makes sense to you um so you've got the total sum then you've got specific enhancements uh based on these categories
064here there was also a really great side by-side document that we provided an in session last week that might sort of illuminate this question a little bit more helpfully that's going to be tough for me to call out uh here in the next two minutes so I would recommend going to the wasda website pulling up last week's in session and going to the Moc sidebyside document that'll give you another way of looking at that that's not in a slide that might be a little bit more helpful okay we're about out of time um still have a question about 1531 and um I will look into that I don't know it off the top of my head because I don't have that one uh memorized um but Peggy if you want to reach out to me
065directly we can figure that that out together otherwise I would say to all of you please continue fighting and I don't mean fighting like with fists and mean words I mean fighting with hearts um and data and stories by communicating directly with your legislators again what your need is what you're able to do when dollars are allocated for student centered approaches to learning and service and in the absence of filling that Gap where you are now so where you are now what you need um and where they are trying to move the needle what that will get you and what you could get if the full Gap was closed keep using and relying on your business officers your superintendent uh the people who are boots on the ground to communicate the message including your students
066a great opportunity to have your voice heard and then my last uh ask would please do make sure that you sign in for 5192 to be heard next Wednesday in House Appropriations fill that signin sheet with um an indication of your need and support okay thank you so much talk to you soon