Welcome to This Week in Olympia, your weekly briefing on what's happening under the dome and why it matters for Washington's public schools. I'm your host, Marissa Rathbone, and each week we'll break down the fast-moving action in Olympia. The hearings, the headlines, and the bills you'll want to keep an eye on. Whether you're a district leader, educator, or just policy curious, we're here to make the legislature feel a little more accessible and a lot easier to follow. Let's get into what moved this week and what's coming next. In Olympia, I'm Marissa Rathbone, a proud product of Washington Public Schools and your Assistant Executive Director of Government Relations with the Washington Association of School Administrators. Yesterday, I was joined at the Capitol by several of my colleagues from WASA, WASDA, and WASBO, along with superintendents, school business officers, school board members, and student board representatives from across the state. We came together for Public Education Advocacy Day. I'll tell you more about what we learned together here in a bit. But I also wanted to share that one of my WASA colleagues stuck around the Capitol a little bit longer than the rest of our team, as he often will do. He just wanted to soak in the scene. Ryan Hickerson always says yes to learning opportunities. He likes to lean in. And yesterday he explained to me why. While we were sitting in the new house building, it's the brand new building right by the Senate hearing space, we were hanging out and Ryan shared something with me that his dad passed along to him. His dad told him, if you want to make it in the world, hang out with people smarter than you. That's Ryan's dad dropping some knowledge on us, folks. Thanks for sharing that story and that wisdom, Ryan. And honestly, that's exactly what I get to do every day in my job, and especially yesterday, working alongside education leaders like all of you who showed up to share WASA, WASDA, and WASBO priorities with their legislators. Thank you to all of you who attended. your stories and data truly matter. That story reflects how we approach advocacy. Leaning into learning and surrounding ourselves with smart people, at WASA, we consistently elevate what we call the big three, MSOC, transportation and special education. These are the core cost drivers in district budgets, as you are well aware, and they are foundational to our advocacy during the legislative session and throughout the interim, especially. They ground our work year round and shape how we engage both funding and policy. This year we joined with WASDA and WASBO to identify where our organizational priorities overlap. Going into what we knew would be a challenging legislative session, we worked together before the session began to identify where there was the greatest opportunity for influence with this legislative session. That collaboration resulted in a focused set of legislative conference what we call hot topics, which you'll find as a supporting document alongside this podcast Those hot topics landed on three areas MSOC funding exempting school districts from sales tax on staffing services professional development and IT and stopping new un- or underfunded mandates. That alignment really mattered yesterday as our collective membership had conversations with our legislators, and it continues to guide our advocacy moving forward. So because we're just three short weeks into session, although they do feel long, I won't lie, All three hot topics have made progress. And so I want to share a little bit about how with you now. It doesn't necessarily mean the path has been easy or will be easy going forward, but it does mean that our advocacy is working, both a sample of that from our time with legislators yesterday and then also just in the hearings from this past week. Especially it's successful when legislators hear directly from you. And I know not all of you can make it to the Capitol for these types of in-person meetings. So I would again encourage you to reach out to them to either have a phone call or a Zoom meeting, just as a touch point now that we're approaching some pretty key dates. Again, I'll share those key dates with you here in a little bit. So MSOC has been a conversation that we've been having for multiple legislative sessions and was one of the key areas of focus yesterday during meetings with legislators. So I want to be transparent with you about where MSOC may or may not be going. It's a really tough push. In a budget year like this one, it's unlikely that we're going to make real progress on increasing MSOC funding, and that's the reality. MSOC is foundational to basic education, but big funding moves are just hard in a tight budget year. But it does not mean that advocacy is wasted. Every conversation builds the record of where the state is falling short, and that matters. Here's where we are right now. Senate Bill 5918 was already heard in a public hearing and is scheduled for an executive session next Tuesday in the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. That means the conversation is still going. So here's the ask. Please reach out to your legislators, especially those on Senate Early Learning and K-12, and urge them to pass the bill out of the committee in its current form. and contact members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee to ask them to schedule Senate Bill 5918 for a public hearing and an executive session before the February 9th fiscal cutoff. Is this a long shot? Yes, but we definitely don't get any of the things that we don't ask for. So here's a little contrast to that policy issue. We were told earlier in the session that there would be really no attempt to exempt school districts from sales tax. There might be some surgical attempts to help support relieving of the burden, but a full exemption was probably unlikely. This is the bill 5814 that passed in the 2025 legislative session that has caused some unintended consequences to your budget. The ask right now has been to exempt school districts from the impacts of that bill that would exempt you from sales tax on staffing services, professional development in IT. Things are kind of curious this week. We heard just yesterday and earlier in the week during a hearing that there are both Senate and House members that are considering what a full exemption might look like It still in play and whether it moves is yet to be determined The mechanisms could be in House Bill 2257 or Senate Bill 6113 or perhaps a separate mechanism altogether. Legislators on both sides of the aisle are still actively talking about what to do here. So that didn't happen by accident. It happened because of sustained pressure and real examples from districts. So while MSOC may be a long uphill push, this is a reminder that advocacy can still prevent harm and potentially create relief. Speaking of relief, another major focus this session for us has been on stopping new unfunded mandates, and we are seeing success from our efforts. Several bills already have been amended to move words like shall to may or required to optional or recommended. Of the mandates still on the table, however, the largest impact remains House Bill 2160 and Senate Bill 5883 on the expansion of SEB. It's a one-year look back. Our understanding is there may be an amendment to move to just the employer of record from the past year, so that would be just for you looking one year back at your substitutes as opposed to any employer, which is the current bill language. So it's an improvement, but we still recognize that there is significant cost to your district that the state will not cover. Please keep sharing your district level cost data. We have found that legislators have been surprised to learn that they're only paying for four days of substitutes, that sub is unfunded, or that many of your substitutes or other staff, part-time staff, are wanting to opt out of that benefit. So the underfunded substitute benefit costs are significant, and we are making our legislators aware of that. So the information you're providing is really making a difference. The biggest takeaway from Advocacy Day is really simple, and your voice matters. If you were there, please follow up and say thank you with all of your legislators in any way you can. If you weren't there, I would encourage you to schedule another meeting, either if you can make it here in person, or if you can schedule a Zoom or a phone call in the next week, if possible. These conversations still really matter as they're making key decisions and know that they're having behind-the-scenes conversation about their proposed budgets. Another important development this week was activity on House Bill 2593, the Minimum-Maximum Fund Balance Bill. The bill has already been scheduled for an executive session next week, so that means some form of it is going to move. We've also learned that one or more amendments are expected to come forward during that hearing, and we'll see it in advance to verify that perhaps the removal of the maximum and a softening of the minimum will be part of considerations. rather than penalizing districts we heard that legislators are interested in a minimum with that would act as sort of a trigger that would flag intervention supports more like a tier two intervention model in place of the current more punitive approach during the hearing this week our executive director jeff snell provided expert testimony alongside Rhonda Litzenberger from WASDA They provided really good information in their initial testimony but the excellent information was really provided in the Q They both responded to a very difficult line of questioning that needed to be balanced with diplomacy and honesty. Multiple committee members asked a lot of questions of them. In a later conversation in the week with Representative Santos, she noted that that conversation with our executive director in particular was very helpful to the conversation moving forward and the amendments that we'll see. So I think we'll anticipate a version of this bill move, but I think it will be different than what we saw earlier this week. That gives us some relief, but until we actually see the amendment language, I don't know that we can let up on sharing our concerns. The policy cutoff is Wednesday, February 4th. Bills must pass out of committee by then to continue moving. Fiscal bills then must be referred, heard in a public hearing, and voted out of committee in an executive session by February 9th in order to progress. You will also hear the term more and more NTIB necessary to implement the budget. There's no formal definition for NTIB. These are bills policy considerations that tend to pop up as session moves along. We will track and monitor them as they arise and keep our collective membership informed as those conversations develop. Stay diligent, education advocates. Before we close, I want to be very clear about where your engagement matters most right now. First, please keep the pedal to the metal on Senate Bill 5858. This bill would restore $13 million for transportation safety net funding for students who are special passengers. Ask the Senate Ways and Means Committee to hear the bill before the February 9th cutoff. Second, please ask House Appropriations to stop House Bill 2160, that's the SEB expansion for part-time employees, until it is fully funded by the state. And finally, please review House Bill 2691. This bill focuses on apportionment timing and shifts and how that timing affects district cash flow. We know that this is a problem. And while it's framed as a schedule adjustment, which may be good, it raises some important questions about whether the state payments align with when districts actually incur costs. And I will appreciate your feedback when you take a look at that. And lastly, please read TRIO when it hits your inbox on Monday morning. feel free to respond to what you learn in that by emailing me or sending feedback directly. All of your insight really matters because you're the smart people that I hang out with and that's what informs our advocacy. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for sharing your stories and thank you for keeping the pressure on. This work really does matter. Week four is coming and we'll be back next week. Same time. Grateful for all you do. We'll see you next time.
