August 21st Edition

AWSA Update

Recent Updates from DPI:

DPI Announces Guaranteed Admissions Waiver Pathway (Act 95): On August 19th, the DPI announced that it will welcome waiver requests to assist school districts resolve several common issues districts are running into. Read more here.
New Options for 2025-26 Local Educator Effectiveness Management: Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, school districts will have the option to contract with a vendor of their choice to support educator effectiveness. Read more here.
2024-25 School Year Educator Effectiveness Resources for State Model Districts: DPI created resources for teachers and for administrators in the state model for educator effectiveness to support the transition to the 2022 Danielson Framework for Teaching (FfT) this school year. Read more here.

Administrative Assistants Network: Encourage Your Assistants to Join Today

School administrative assistants now have the opportunity to join a statewide network to connect and learn throughout the year. Click here for registration information for the WI School Administrative Assistants’ Network. Assistants joining now will get access to the August newsletter and the September webinar on Google Sheets: Streamlining School Operations for Success. The webinar is the first in a series of Tech Tip webinars that will be offered this year based on Network member priorities.

Recognizing our 2024 Class of Retirees

We are grateful for our members who retired this past school year. THANK YOU for your many years of dedicated service. May the coming weeks and months open an invigorating and more leisurely chapter of your lives and provide time to recall many fond memories of countless students and families well served: Class of 2024 Retirees- 2nd Edition.

Principal Leadership Award Nominations Are Now Open

Nominations of Wisconsin PK-12 principals can now be submitted online at KohlEducation.org for the 2025 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Principal Leadership awards. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, October 3, 2024 at 5 p.m. central time. Awards are $6,000, with an additional $6,000 grant going to the school of each selected principal. Click here to learn more.

Elementary Principals’ Convention- Register Today!

Join your peers from throughout the state at the Elementary Principals’ Convention in Elkhart Lake October 9-11. The Convention will feature sessions by Douglas Reeves, Josh Varner, WI school exemplars, and AWSA thought leaders. Register today!

August 7th Edition

AWSA Update

Be Well. Lead Well.

An increasing body of evidence in the leadership and well-being research supports the idea that principals and educational leaders need to prioritize their well-being. Simply put, leaders need to Be Well to Lead Well. Fortunately, the field of positive psychology offers frameworks and strategies that can do just that–improve well-being and strengthen a leader’s capacity to serve others. This article provides a practical lens of what that looks like in action. Read more here.

Continue Moratorium on DPI’s 2023 Changes to Guidance and Training on Mandatory Reporting

In mid-August, 2023, DPI issued revised guidance for school staff as mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect and revised its Mandatory Child Abuse and Neglect Training Module. This guidance reflected a major shift in philosophy and practice and raised numerous questions about practical implementation at the school level. Although urged by many stake holders (including AWSA, WASDA and the WSAA) to change its training, to date, DPI has not done so. Therefore, we continue to advise our members NOT TO USE THE 2023 TRAINING, but to lean back to the DPI training from 2021. Read more here.

Kohl Education Foundation Expanding Support for Principal Recognition

Historically, one elementary and one secondary principal have been selected among the Kohl Leadership Award winners to serve as Wisconsin’s Elementary and Secondary Principals for the Year. Beginning this year, the Kohl Foundation will support recognizing a leader at each level: Elementary, Middle, and High School. President & CEO, Herb Kohl Philanthropies, JoAnne Anton stated that “the quality of school leaders is one of the most important variables in the success of our schools. We are excited to expand this award to ensure that principals and associate principals at both the middle and high school levels are recognized.” Read more.