WSPA this Week, September 22-26, 2025

Darrell Heisler • September 22, 2025

SUPPORT, ADVOCACY, AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING FOR THE K-12 HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSIONAL

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MESSAGE

Good morning everyone!  As you are starting off another new school year, we at WSPA (Jane Stencel) are busy planning HR professional development for the year.  If you take a look at our Upcoming Events page you will see just a glimpse of what we have planned for the first few months.   


BREAKING NEWS: Registration is still open for the Law Conference (10/13-14/25) and the workshop the day before at the same location regarding Discipline and Investigations (10/12/25) by Garrett Williams of Stevens Clay.  Registration for the Fall S-275 Reporting Workshop (October 29, 2025) training that we partner with WASBO to offer online is currently open.  This training focuses on Salary Placement, Certificated Staff Reporting, Compliance Checks, and the Impact of these reports on district funding and staff ratios.  Registration is OPEN.


TITLE IX INVESTIGATING TRAINING:

WSPA has partnered with ATIXA (Association of Title IX Administrators) for a professional development for Title IX officers and others to receive training on Title IX investigations on November 21, 2025 in Renton  that will certify the attendees for two years once completed.  Please stay tuned for more information on this important Title IX offering (Registration coming SOON).


What's Happening Now:


WSPA Membership: As of today, we are up to 651 members, If you want to get a discount on any of the trainings we offer please join.  Please reach out to Kaley VonVolkli (kvonvolkli@wasa-oly.org) to make that happen.  Here is a reminder that we are contracting with WASA again to manage our membership roster and payments.  Membership for 2025 (September 1, 2025 - August 31, 2026) will begin July 1, 2025 when renewal notices will be sent to you and/or your District.


2025-26 Membership Renewals: 

Thank you for renewing your WSPA membership for 2025-26! We start the year with over 665 members and look forward to serving each and every one of you.


We would also like to extend a sincere welcome to our 90 new members this year—thank you for joining WSPA!


As of September 15, invoices have been sent out to all members. Please be on the lookout in the mail for your invoice and let us know if you have not received it by the end of the month.


Retiring this year? Make sure to sign up for WSPA Retiree Membership so you can stay in touch with the personnel community for a small fee of $100/year. If you’ve been a member for 5 or more years, we extend the offer of complimentary membership your first year as a retiree.


To learn more, please visit our website. For questions about membership, membership updates, and billing questions, please contact Kaley VonVolkli.


Thank you for your service to public education. We look forward to continuing our journey together!


WSPA's Address:

WSPA

PO BOX 14459

TUMWATER, WA 98511


WSPA Leadership 2025-26

Melissa Kreuder, Director of HR, ESD 112-Vancouver, WSPA President: melissa.kreuder@esd112.org

Keri Hutchins, Director of HR, Mead SD, WSPA President Elect: keri.hutchins@mead354.org

Jennifer Koskovich, Director of HR, Federal Way Public Schools, WSPA Past President: jkoskovich@fwps.org

Jane Stencel, Executive Director of HR, East Valley SD (Spokane); WSPA HELP and PD Coordinator: stencelj@evsd.org 

Meredith Marlow, HR Information Manager, Puyallup School District, WSPA Treasurer: MarloMH@puyallupsd.org

Traci Cox, HR Coordinator, West Valley (Yakima) School District, WSPA Secretary: coxt@wvsd208.org

Darrell Heisler, Executive Director of WSPA: dheisler@wspa.net


Member Requests this week: none

 

Funny of the week:  I was excited to hear Apple might start selling its own cars until I learned they wouldn’t support windows.



SAVE THE DATES!  THE TIME TO REGISTER IS NOW FOR THESE TRAININGS/EVENTS.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 30, 2025 Smarter and More Efficient HR with AI (FZW)

October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 2025 ABCs of Human Resources (ZW)

October 12, 2025 Discipline and Investigations (IP)

October 13-14, 2025 School Law Conference (IP)

October 27, 2025 Central Office Evaluations (IP)

October 29, 2025 S-275 Reporting Workshop (ZW)


Darrell Heisler

WSPA Executive Director



Thank you to our generous Website Sponsors!

WSPA News to Know

WSPA Membership

                                                                               651+ members and counting...

Total Number of WSPA Members

651

Number of Entities Represented

274

Individual Memberships

360

District Memberships (10+ members)

20

REGION ESD'S NUMBER OF MEMBERS WELCOME to WSPA
1 Inland Empire ESD 101 48
2 Ipanco ESD 105, 123 &171 95
3 Lower Columbia River ESD 112 60
4 Puget Sound ESD 113 & 121 307
5 Olympic ESD 114 57
6 Northern Puget Sound ESD 189 77

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Member Requests

Sample Contracts & Salaries

A district is looking for sample contracts & salaries for the following positions:

  • Superintendent
  • Assistant Superintendent
  • Executive Director
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Business Manager with CPA
  • Human Resources Director

Procurement Specialist


A colleague is wondering if anyone employs a procurement specialist, and if so, would you please share the job description, salary, and whether or not it is a represented position.

IEP Days

Substitute Resources

A district is wondering how other districts handle IEP days.  Does the teacher get a substitute for IEP preparation, meetings, etc., or do they get paid for an additional day for these activities?

A district is wondering if any other districts have a resource for Substitute Guidelines. 

  • Do they get paid for a certain number of hours?
  • Can they cover a class if they are willing rather than getting paid?
  • How long can you use a long-term substitute?

Partner News to Know

American Association of School Personnel Administrators

Unemployment Insurance: Sign up now for upcoming SOC code webinars

Learn more about Standard Occupational Classification codes on May 20 or June 3

Do you have questions about Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes? Sign up for one of our upcoming webinars!

All employers will be required to report SOC codes when they submit their quarterly tax reports starting with their fourth quarter 2022 report. At that time, you could get a penalty for incorrect SOC reporting. Reporting SOC codes is currently optional and is available only to single filers.

Upcoming webinars

If you have questions or want to learn more about using SOC codes, register for one of our free webinars.

  • Friday, May 20, at 11 to 11:45 a.m. - Register
  • Friday, June 3, at 11 to 11:45 a.m. - Register

During these webinars, we’ll talk about:

  • What are SOC codes?
  • When are SOC codes mandatory?
  • How to look up SOC codes.
  • How to add SOC codes with keyed or imported wage data.

Note: We will provide the same information in both webinars. However, questions could vary in each webinar, so you are welcome to sign up for both.

What is SOC?

SOC is a federal coding system that helps government agencies and private businesses compare occupational data.

In 2019, the Washington State Legislature passed a law requiring employers to report SOC codes in their quarterly reports for unemployment insurance.

Other resources on SOC

  • Watch this short video.
  • Try out the SOC code search tool. Under “Occupation Keyword Search” you can search by keyword, SOC code or industry.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

2022 Legislative Report

Dan Steele, WASA Assistant Executive Director, Government Relations and WSPA Legislative Liaison has completed a 2022 End of Session Report and you can find it here.

 

The End of Session Reports includes full details of the 2022 Supplemental Operating Budget and the 2022 Supplemental Capital Budget, along with a comprehensive review of the many education-related bills the Legislature addressed this session.