3/21/22 General Membership Meeting Recap

​​Last month Council held their 4th General Meeting of the 2021-2022 school year.

We appreciate all the local leaders from across the district as well as community and school partners who took the time to attend!

Continue reading below for a recap of this meeting.

Guest Presentation by Northshore School District Ethnic Studies Framework:  NSD Assistant Director of Equity and Pedagogy, Melissa Riley, and Northshore students shared a presentation on ethnic studies in the Northshore School District. This presentation answered the questions "What is ethnic studies, why is it important, and what will it look like for kids?" The curriculum will be for grades Pre K-12 and more information can be found here: https://bit.ly/pesbccdei.

Council Business: 
Approval of the January 20th, 2022 Meeting Minutes which were accepted with minor changes. Approval of the preliminary budget for the 2022-2023 school year.

Election of our 2022-2023 officers:
Thank you to our hardworking Nominating Committee, Diana Christiansen, Cherry Holmes, and Jasmine Lee Fry, for putting together the slate of candidates! Diana Christiansen read the Nominating Report. The self-nomination period was held in accordance with our e-voting policy with no others submitting their names for nomination. The election script was followed with a reading from the WSPTA bylaws. A motion was cast to accept the slate as presented, seconded, and approved by a voice vote.

Congratulations to our incoming 2022-2023 officers!!

• For the Office of Co President: Rachel Fitzgerald and Mary Khouzam
• For the Office of First Vice President: Grace Jurado
• For the Office of Secretary: Open*
• For the Office of Treasurer: Serena Xu
• For the Office of VP of Events: Open*
• For the Office of VP of Advocacy: Jennifer Drury
• For the Office of VP of Communications: Jennifer Snyder
• For the Office of VP of Elementary Support: Diana Christiansen
• For the Office of VP of Secondary Support: Brenae Brix

*Please be advised that by the time the self-nomination period closed, no candidate had come forth for either Secretary or VP of Events. Council will continue to seek volunteers for these positions with the goal of holding elections for them at a future General Membership Meeting. If interested in serving in either of these roles on an interim basis, please contact us at [email protected].

District Updates:

• NSD Partnerships & Volunteer Coordinator Marco Garcia informed us that everything related to becoming a Northshore volunteer or being a campus visitor can now be completed on the Safe Visitor website for volunteers. He also let us know that the vaccine requirement has not been lifted. Finally, Community Serve Day will be August 21st 2022 with more information to come. Learn more about becoming a NSD volunteer.

 

• NSD School Board Updates: Director Amy Cast reviewed the technology parameters with us, reviewed strategic goals and indicators of progress as it has been five years, and reviewed the use of the Levy money including safety grants, work towards more school mental health professionals, nurses, as well as fewer portables etc. Learn more about NSD's School Board.

 

• Northshore School's Foundation: Hanisha Bakshani/NSF Ambassador North Creek High School let us know that the NSF All in For Kids event is March 31st, 2022 at 4pm at the Evergreen Church. Learn more about the Northshore School's Foundation.

Council Reports: 

• Staff Appreciation: Rachel Fitzgerald informed us that we will have a virtual staff appreciation for district staff. Currently collecting thank you notes from the community to put together for the staff. There will be a different piece for the council to do as well. The deadline to collect notes  and gather all the information is April 22nd. Learn more...

 

• Council Recognition Awards: Mary Khouzam updated us on Council recognition awards. This year we have an online form for nominations again which can be found here. If you would like to help with the awards recognition, please contact Mary at [email protected].

 

• Speaker and Events Grants Program: Mary Khouzam let us know that grant program has closed for this year. Click here for Round 3 Recipients.

 

• Reflections: Jasmine Lee Fry updated us that we had 267 entries that were submitted to the council. 59 submissions were forwarded to the state. 4 entries won awards at the state level. Click here for judging results from both Council & WSPTA as well as a link to our Virtual Art Showcase. 

 

• Special Education: Laura Staneff let us know that Council will hold a series of 4 webinars scheduled for free through PAVE. The first one was about IEPS and took place on March 22nd. There will be three other webinars in April, May and June. Learn more...

 

• Mental Health Committee: Melissa Kline & Pauline Wray updated that the Mental Health Committee's Digital Safety Event with Jo Langford happened on March 14th and was well attended. Currently the committee is working on getting Mental Health resource posters up in secondary schools. Finally, an anti-bullying article is currently up on our website and ask that you please share it with your communities. 

 

• Membership: Hanisha Bakshani & Melissa Kline updated us that 21 PTAs are over their membership numbers from last year and we have a total of 5,337 members to date.   

We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on May 16th, 2022 @ 7pm. This meeting will also include our annual Spring Recognition Event!

​For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar.