Announcement, Webinar coming on release of stimulus funds
Tomorrow (Friday) morning, the U.S. Department of Education will be announcing the launch of more than $9 billion in new stimulus grants to states and school districts. Details will be available at 7:00 a.m. PDT at www.ed.gov/recovery. In addition, school directors, superintendents and other education leaders are encouraged to sign up for a free Education Department Webinar that will be offered next Monday to provide additional information on the various grant programs. Click here to register. (Participants may also join a Q&A session following the presentation by calling 888.995.9724 and entering the passcode Recovery.)

State Board positions open for election, appointment
Candidate filings are now being accepted for two State Board of Education positions up for election this fall—one from east side of the state and the other from western Washington. In addition, the State Board is taking applications from those who are interested in being appointed to fill a vacancy in one of the other elected positions from the west side. To learn more about becoming a candidate in this year’s SBE elections, click here. For additional information on the appointment process, click here.

Video of school board candidate workshop now available online
Many thanks to the folks at the public affairs network TVW for taping WSSDA’s recent school board candidate workshop in Olympia. The workshop has been airing on television channels around the state for the past few weeks, and is now available as streaming video from the TVW Web site. For those who are unable to make it to one of our remaining in-person workshops, we encourage you to go online and view this informative 90-minute session on the roles and responsibilities of school board service.

State grant allows WSSDA to proceed with ‘Lighthouse’ project
WSSDA is delighted to report it has secured a $92,000 grant from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to move ahead with "Lighthouse" training in Washington state. The grant will build association expertise in offering training developed through the Iowa Lighthouse Project, a multi-state research project geared toward strengthening the effectiveness of school boards in improving student learning. See the full article on the WSSDA Web site…

WSSDA board approves voluntary standards for school boards, directors
The WSSDA Board of Directors has approved a comprehensive set of voluntary standards for school boards and school directors in Washington state. Developed over the past year by the WSSDA Board Standards Task Force, they address board and director leadership roles in governing their districts to improve learning for all students. Learn more here…

WSSDA Workshop: ‘Board/Superintendent Leadership for Student Achievement’
Sign up now for a great one-day workshop on "Board/Superintendent Leadership for Student Achievement." The workshop is being offered in two locations: Seattle (Aug. 8) and Yakima (Aug. 15). Details and online registration are available at www.wssda.org/workshops.