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Jessica Buchan, assistant principal at Renton High School in the Renton School District, was named this year’s Washington State Secondary Assistant Principal of the Year. Buchan will also be recognized at the national level by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), where she will compete with winners from other states for the NASSP’s National Assistant Principal of the Year award, announced in early April.

Shannon Leatherwood, principal at Spanaway Middle School in the Bethel School District, was named this year’s Washington State Secondary Principal of the Year. Leatherwood will also be recognized at the national level by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). She will compete with winners from other states for the NASSP National Principal of the Year award.

Deborah Henderson, assistant principal at Frank Wagner Elementary School in the Monroe School District, was named the 2023 Washington State Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year. In addition, she will represent Washington as our state’s winner of the National Association of Elementary School Principals National (NAESP) Outstanding Assistant Principal award. The NAESP recognizes one winner from each state every year.

Buckle up, people! This year’s legislative session begins on Monday! This will be a long session lasting 105 days. It is the first year of a two-year biennium where a new operating budget for 2023-2025 and hundreds of bills will be passed. Of our 147 legislators, almost 30 of them are brand new to the Legislature.

It was budget week in the Legislature as both House and Senate Democrats released their supplemental operating budgets. Both budget bills had hearings within hours of their release on Monday, and both were amended within days of these hearings. Budget negotiators from both chambers will now seek to reconcile differences and come to a final budget before “sine die” (the last day of the session), scheduled for March 10.