The National Principals Conference hosted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals was held in Boston on July 18-20. ACSA is a state affiliate of NASSP and corresponding council presidents serve as state officers in NASSP.  This year, the ACSA delegation consisted of Crechéna Wise (Region 14), ACSA Secondary Education Council President; California NASSP State President Derrick Lawson (Region 19), ACSA NASSP Liaison; and California NASSP State Coordinator Mary Gomes, ACSA Middle Grades and Secondary Education Council Executive, representing California NASSP State Executive Director. Special national recognition was given at the conference for ACSA’s 2018 Secondary Principal of the Year Mark Anderson (Region 15), who was recognized as California’s 2019 NASSP State Principal of the Year. ACSA’s 2018 Secondary Co-Administrator of the Year Katie Salo (Region 18) was also recognized as California’s 2019 NASSP State Assistant Principal of the Year. The conference showcased numerous breakout sessions featuring site administrators sharing best practices and models of innovation. Each ACSA delegation member and honoree came back from the conference inspired with actions to implement for the upcoming school year. In addition to attending the conference, ACSA leaders were also active in enhancing leadership possibilities for principals across the country by serving as presenters and panelists.  ACSA Region 3 members Principal Lori Emmington and Assistant Principal Kimberly Moore from the Folsom Cordova Unified School District co-presented a standing-room-only session about equity entitled “Re-Thinking the School Day: Finding Time for Intervention and Support at the Secondary Level.” ACSA member and the 2014 NASSP Principal of the Year national finalist Eric Burmeister, who is now superintendent of Menlo Park City School District (Region 5), shared his insights as a distinguished panelist for the “State of American Education” session. Panelists shared “a-ha” moments that resonated with attendees. As panelist Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister stated: “Quit saying ‘What’s wrong with that kid?’ and replace it with ‘What happened to that kid?’ That will change our mindset and shape how we address and support them. We can’t be the last place that rejected them.”  California NASSP State Coordinator Derrick Lawson met with the leaders of NASSP Region 7 member states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington) to finalize remaining details of the Region 7 Fall Conference. It is California’s turn to host the conference, which will be in October 2019 at the ACSA offices in Sacramento. The conference theme is “Educate/Advocate/Motivate” with the goal of energizing Region 7 leaders to inspire, activate and expand service and support on behalf of secondary school principals and assistant principals. 

One of the key takeaways for the ACSA delegation and honorees was that the “principal voice” matters, and that it is not being exercised enough in advocacy at the local, state and federal levels. At the conference’s Connection Center, Lawson welcomed 11 California principals and assistant principals as new social media advocates, helping them learn how to use the NASSP Action Alert App to contact their federal legislators via email, Facebook and Twitter with a simple “one-stop shopping” format.