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For many of our students, the realities are that many adults listen to them but do not hear them. Their perspectives, words, hopes, fears, and concerns often get chalked up as "kids being kids." As adults and people with positional power, we can foster and create spaces where students can be heard. It begins with the belief that their perspectives and stories matter. It's about moving beyond performative student engagement, where we ask questions but disregard their responses. It is about us as adults sitting in potential discomfort and recognizing students' agency and value speaking up and out.

In this episode of 51������ News, we discuss our “How To Be “ALL IN” As an Inclusive Leader" webinar series, AWSL's Fall Conference where over 4000 students and school leaders have already registered, creating a Principal’s Advisory Council to build relationships with kids, our Cispus Forever Campaign, our former Learning Center Director Marty Fortin and his recognition by National FFA, Dr. Michelle Fox recognized for the 2020 Bell National Outstanding School Leadership Award, engaging with us in sharing the reality of your work in our weekly Principals Month Question challenge on Facebook, and a special message.

Rolling up in front of Liberty High School in Spangle, Washington was not like the traditional experience of which I was accustomed. For decades, if you pulled into any typical high school parking lot, you’d find cars parked everywhere and a busy scene filled with students moving about socializing in small groups. Not today. It was eerily quiet. Instead I found a half-full parking lot, void of typical activity. What I knew however was that Liberty High School opened in a hybrid model and that students were definitely on campus, but only half of them. I also knew that Principal Aaron Fletcher, a 12 year veteran principal (22 years in district), was somewhere inside principaling. What I didn’t know exactly was what “principaling” meant in our current COVID reality.

Every now and then, a conversation with a student becomes profound and life-changing. A conversation where you leave the conversation a different person than when you entered. Where students teach you a lesson that you never knew you needed to hear. That sums up a conversation I had with a student this week.

We are clearly in some of the most challenging times of our careers. And, quite frankly, you probably never envisioned leading your school in and through these circumstances. We hear you. 51������ has been supporting school leaders since 1972 and continues to make the necessary changes to provide the relevant, timely, and personalized support you need. Just as COVID has impacted members like you, COVID has impacted 51������ in many ways. At our recent annual September 51������ and Foundation Board meeting, the board made a difficult decision to terminate our Chewelah Peak Learning Center contract with the Department of Natural Resources and ESD 101. This was by no means an easy decision. Word is spreading quickly about both the action related to Chewelah Peak and the precarious position of our Cispus Learning Center because we officially launched our “Cispus Forever” Campaign this week. This state (and national) campaign is focused on both the short-term survivability of Cispus (in response to COVID) and the establishment of an endowment to forever secure the future of Cispus. We have to start somewhere while we work to build an endowment that will help us weather future storms like COVID.