A Message from WSSDA President Derek Sarley:
It was a busy first week for the 2025 legislative session, with your WSSDA strategic advocacy and policy & legal teams deep in bill analysis, unpacking a pile of new proposals, and reviewing how our organization’s permanent and legislative positions should inform our responses to each new piece of legislation. A few thoughts on how school board members can most effectively advocate for our students during this long session:
Above all else, keep your focus on the Big Three priorities. Many, many, many other bills will be dropped that demand a response, but if we’re going to exit this session with the funding our students truly need, we must keep our attention and advocacy focused on our asks around Special Education, MSOCs, and transportation. We are stronger together. Remember what unites us.
We also need to help legislators understand how the investments we’re asking them to make will improve outcomes for our students. There are a lot of districts in financial difficulty right now. That weight falls directly on school board members, because we’re the ones who must make tough decisions when there’s not enough money to go around. But we can’t dwell on the negative. It’s our job to paint a positive vision for the future, powered by the state stepping up with the funding our students deserve.
So when you advocate on special education, mention the gaps you’re facing, but also gather information from your staff about how additional funding will help improve student services. Where you have positive stories to share, whether that’s expanding inclusionary practices or how you handle disciplinary issues, start there and then explain how fully funding this critically important component of basic education will help us meet our students’ true needs.
Finally, remember the human. You ran for your school board because you support public education and want to help make things better. Legislators run for the same kinds of reasons. They have ideas about policies that they think will help. Or they’ve heard from their constituents about their needs and desires from schools.
We may not agree with every policy they propose. But too often, we write them off right up front, and not always with a great deal of collegiality. In the long run, we will be more effective if we approach these conversations in a spirit of partnership. They want what’s best for kids too. We can help them understand how to connect their good intentions to workable implementations. If we do that, it also preserves our credibility for the times we really do need to say: “NO.”
This is a hugely important session for public education. As we push forward on the Big Three, every voice counts, every testimony makes a difference, and every email matters.
The more we engage, the better off our students will be.
Thank you for your advocacy!
Derek Sarley
WSSDA President
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