Northshore Council PTSA 6.10
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Membership Spotlight: Growth Awards

11/18/2022

 
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Northshore PTAs have been growing! We want to recognize all the hard work each PTA has done to grow its membership this year. We have reached 99.9% of our membership from last year across Northshore PTAs. We have 5,464 members as of November 17, 2022. You all have been doing awesome! 

To highlight the importance of membership growth, Washington State PTA recognizes local PTAs for enrolling more members than they did in the previous year. As PTAs achieve incremental increases in membership growth, they are recognized for each milestone they reach. Below is the list of Northshore PTAs that have received a growth membership award as of October 31, 2022.

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5,464 members as of 11.17.22
PLATINUM
Bothell High PTSA
Cottage Lake PTA
Frank Love PTA
Kenmore Middle PTSA
Shelton View PTA
Timbercrest Middle School PTSA
Woodinville High School PTSA
​GOLD
Sorenson PTA
SILVER
Maywood Hills PTSA 
North Creek High School PTSA
Woodmoor PTSA ​
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​Membership Growth Awards
Membership Growth Awards are calculated monthly (no application needed) and announced via the WSPTA website and social media outlets. PTAs that reach each level receive a digital publicity kit containing graphics and ideas for sharing their achievement.
  • Bronze Award: recognizes local PTAs, in good standing, for enrolling at least one more member than their previous year’s total membership.
  • Silver Award: recognizes local PTAs, in good standing, for enrolling PTA members equaling at least 105% of their previous year’s total membership.
  • Gold Award: recognizes local PTAs, in good standing, for enrolling PTA members equaling at least 110% of their previous year’s total membership.
  • ​Platinum Award: recognizes local PTAs, in good standing, for enrolling PTA members equaling at least 120% of their previous year’s total membership.
More Membership resources can be found on WSPTA's website.

Questions? Contact Council's Co-VP of Membership, Kim Ortiz.
Northshore Council Membership Page ​

Celebrating Local PTA 2022 Awardees!

6/7/2022

 
2021-2022 Local PTA/PTSA Award Winners
Awards are a great way for PTAs to show their community how much they appreciate them and to celebrate the dedication of those who support your PTA's mission and goals!

Many PTA's do this through WSPTA's formal volunteer award recognition program which allows for local PTAs to award for outstanding educator, advocate, student advocate, and volunteer (Golden Acorn), as well as the honorary life membership award.

Because volunteers are at the heart of everything PTA, Council is excited to share in the celebration of our local Northshore PTA Award Winners!

Please note, we know this is a busy time of year and many PTAs have not yet had the chance to submit their award winners to us for recognition. If you would like to add to our list, email communications@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

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Canyon Creek Elementary PTA
  • Golden Acorn: Foram Shah
  • Golden Acorn: Nancy Tangen
  • ​Honorary Life Membership: Bruce Denton
  • Outstanding Advocate: Christy Deer
  • Outstanding Educator: Maddy Rodgers
  • Outstanding Educator: Deanna Roland

Canyon Park Middle School PTSA
  • Golden Acorn: Popcorn Friday Volunteers 
(Michelle Falsis, Nikki & Ray Gagner, Carmel Percy)
  • Outstanding Advocate: Julie Brock
  • Outstanding Educator: Cheryl Klemz
  • Outstanding Educator: Colin White

Cottage Lake Elementary PTA
  • Golden Acorn: Venece Lyman
  • Golden Sailboat: Audrey Wilde

Leota Middle School PTSA
  • Golden Acorn: Carol Dillingham
  • Outstanding Advocate: Matthew Warhol
  • Outstanding Student Advocate: Liam Vanderkolk
  • Outstanding Educator: Tianna Flowers
  • Outstanding Educator: Tracy Westberg

Innovation Lab High School PTSA
  • Golden Acorn: Cathy Jones
  • Outstanding Educator: Dr. Stacey Hutchison
North Creek High School PTSA
  • Golden Acorn: Hanisha Bakshani
  • Outstanding Advocate: Dr. Gregory Cox
  • Outstanding Educator: Melanie Damson
  • Outstanding Educator: Christopher Estefani

Shelton View Elementary PTA
  • Golden Acorn: Allison Anderson
  • Golden Acorn: Cheryl Stanford
  • Golden Apple: Lynn Dunne
  • ​Golden Apple: Amber Purvis
​
Skyview Middle School PTSA
  • Golden Acorn: Bushra Yassir
  • Outstanding Advocate: Jennifer Celms
  • Outstanding Educator: Jeremiah Campbell
  • Outstanding Educator: Tanya Subcleff

Woodin Elementary PTA
  • Golden Acorn: Antonio Gordivas 
  • Golden Acorn: Victoria Kramer
  • Honorary Life Membership: Deb Murphy
  • Honorary Life Membership: Jenny Peterson
  • Outstanding Advocate: Jen Anderson
  • Outstanding Advocate: Danielle Lewis
  • Outstanding Educator: Nancy Hernandez
  • ​Outstanding Educator: Nancy McQueen
Congratulations!! 2021-2022 Local PTA Award Recipients
Updated 7.6.2022

5/16/22 General Membership Meeting Recap

6/6/2022

 
Recap: 5/16/22 General Membership Meeting

​​​Last month Council held their 5th and final 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.
Council Business:
The meeting kicked off with an approval of minutes from our March 21st general meeting, before moving on to hear the Treasurer’s Report for the month of April from Council Treasurer, Serena Xu.

Next on the agenda were updates from Council President, Jane Chiodo, which included:
  • Information on Northshore School District's student-led Mental Health Awareness talk at North Creek High School on May 18, 2022 6-7:30pm in the NCHS Commons. Link to RSVP was available in the latest issue of Council's eNews.
  • Introduction of the incoming board members and thank you to all the outgoing board members. Click here to see the list of volunteers who were elected to Council for 2022-2023 during our previous membership meeting.
  • Reminders about our two open elected positions - Secretary & VP of Events. If you are interested in taking on either of these positions, please email president@northshorecoucilptsa.org. Our board of directors can appoint someone to the position temporarily. The election process will begin in the fall with the goal of holding the election at our first general membership meeting which will take place in September.
  • Submitting local award winners to Council for recognition. We would love to highlight local PTA award winners to our communities. Please fill out our google form & let us know who your recipients are.
  • Information on connecting with Council over the summer.
    1. Check our calendar and June eNews for summer office hours.
    2. Follow Council on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for latest updates.
    3. Visit our Contact Us Page to email us any time with questions.

Our VP of Communications, Rachel Fitzgerald, then shared with everyone the importance of updating the contact information for positions being filled for next year in your PTA. If you are an officer next year, please update your contact information before July 1st, 2022. This information will be used to contact you by council board members that want to support your PTA. It is also how you will be on the list to receive communications from council, including the council newsletter, that will keep you updated on events and happenings in our district. Remember to update officers in memberplanet as well!
2022-2023 PTA OFFICERS - CLICK HERE TO UPDATE CONTACT INFORMATION WITH COUNCIL
Thank You Dr. Reid!
The Council business portion of our meeting ended with a farewell for Dr. Michelle Reid who will be leaving Northshore School District at the end of June to serve as the Superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.

Jane Chiodo read a letter with messages of appreciation from Council leaders for all that Dr. Reid has done for our district over the years. Click here to read the thank-you letter.

District and Community Reports:
  • Marco Garcia, NSD Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator, reminded us about the 2022 Community Serve Day taking place Sunday, August 21st and let us know about the CP & Dorothy Johnson awards ceremony which the district would be holding on Thursday, May 26th at 6p.m. He also let us know that the Connections newsletter would continue to have a dedicated section for district wide updates from PTA and to email him if there was anything we wanted included in future newsletters.
  • School Board President, Jackie McGourty, gave an update explaining the current state of the interim superintendent  search and that they planned to announce by June 1. She also talked about the School Board's refresh of the strategic plan.
  • Representing the Northshore Schools Foundation, Hanisha Bakshani, gave updates about the Skills4Life podcasts, their grant program, and encouraged anyone who might be interested to learn more about the foundation and become an ambassador for their school.

​After the updates were given by the community partners there was a reminder to the local PTA attendees to please remember to fill out the end of year survey from Council. This survey lets us know how we can better serve your PTA with your valuable feedback. We will be taking survey responses up until midnight on Friday, June 17th.
CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE END OF THE YEAR FEEDBACK SURVEY FOR COUNCIL
2021-2022 Council Award Recipients
​Last, but certainly not least, the evening ended with our 2021-2022 Spring Recognition Event! This event was hosted by First Vice President and Awards Committee Chair, Mary Khouzam. 

The event included performances from the Woodinville High School String Quartet and the Canyon Park Middle School Advanced Drama Class. Two of Northshore's Reflections artists were also able to showcase their submissions which received awards from National PTA!

The highlight of the event was celebrating all the achievements of our local PTAs/PTSAs that make us #PTAProud. Council would also like to celebrate the local award winners in a future blog. To include your local recipients, please complete this form.

During our Spring Recognition, Council was also honored to present this year's Council Recognition Awards.
Congratulations to the following eleven (11) individuals:
🌟 Golden Acorn: Diana Christiansen
🌟 Golden Acorn: Jennifer Drury
🌟 Golden Acorn: Rachel Fitzgerald
🌟 Outstanding Educator: Steven Hopkins
🌟 Outstanding Educator: Peter Schurke
🌟 Outstanding Advocate: Clark Combs
🌟 Outstanding Student Advocate: Esther Kim
🌟 Outstanding Service: Jane Chiodo
🌟 Outstanding Service: Melissa Kline
🌟 Outstanding Service: Pauline Wray
🌟 Honorary Life Membership: Tracy Jokisch

Click here to learn more about each of our 2021-2022 Council Award Recipients.

Special thanks to Council Members Jane Chiodo, Jennifer Drury, Rachel Fitzgerald, Mary Khouzam, and Claudine Miller for their work to make this event a success! Many volunteer hours were spent reviewing nominations, selecting recipients, organizing the slideshow, arranging for student entertainment, and surprising the award winners - all to make our 2022 Spring Recognition Event a memorable one!!
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We want to thank all the volunteers, district employees, and community members who attended this meeting and all the previous meetings held this year. We hope you will continue to join us for our General Membership Meetings in the 2022-2023 school year.

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

WSPTA 109th Convention RECAP

5/25/2022

 
Be the Change - WSPTA Convention - RECAP
​This past weekend, PTA leaders from across Northshore joined alongside those from across the state at the 109th Washington State PTA Annual Convention - three full days of education, networking, inspiration, and fun.   
 
Some of the highlights included the keynote presentations. The first featured Northshore students from The Root of Us/Root of Youth founded by longtime Northshore PE teacher, Fernell Miller. In the second keynote, Teacher of the Year, Jerad Koepp, shared his experiences developing a rich Native American education program and support system for North Thurston students.   
 
PTA leaders from Northshore taught and attended classes in mental health, diversity, equity and inclusion, family and community engagement, and much more. The knowledge leaders gained over this weekend will help strengthen our goal of "Making Every Child’s Potential a Reality".
 
During the convention, WA State PTA also commended all the amazing work done by dedicated volunteers, many of who are parents and community members here in Northshore. Council, along with several of our local PTAs & PTSAs, received awards in both membership growth and standards of excellence! Visit our awards page to learn more about these.

To learn more about this year's convention, visit the WSPTA Convention information page.

Save the date for the 110th Annual WSPTA Convention which will be held April 14, 2023 - April 16, 2023 in Bellevue, WA.

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Council Leaders at the 109th Annual WSPTA Convention

Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Award Winning Northshore PTAs!

5/24/2022

 
WSPTA Awards of Excellence - Congratulations to Northshore's 2021-2022 Award Winning PTAs!
Each year, Washington State PTA recognizes the work of individuals, PTAs and Councils across the state via a variety of awards, including Leadership Academy and the Awards of Excellence Program. Some of our amazing Northshore PTAs submitted applications and were recognized for their efforts at the 2022 WSPTA Annual Convention held May 20th-22nd.

Awards work to celebrate the efforts of local PTAs and Councils in a variety of different areas. The criteria reflect a strong knowledge and application of best practices and the submission process can be rigorous. These awards are truly reflective of the dedication and strength of these PTAs and the  powerful contributions they make in their communities.

This year's recipients included:
🏆 Standards of Excellence
  • Canyon Creek Elementary PTA - Gold
  • Northshore Council PTSA - Gold
​
🏆 Advocacy Awards of Excellence
  • Northshore Council PTSA - Gold
  • Maywood Hills Elementary PTSA - Bronze

🏆 Family and Community Engagement
  • Maywood Hills Elementary PTSA - Bronze​​

🏆 PTAs Taking Significant Action
  • Maywood Hills Elementary PTSA - Gold
🏆 Outstanding Communication Strategy
  • Canyon Creek Elementary PTA - Gold
  • ​Northshore Council PTSA - Gold​

🏆 
Outstanding Newsletter
  • Canyon Creek Elementary PTA - Gold
  • Northshore Council PTSA - Gold

🏆 Outstanding Website
  • Canyon Creek Elementary PTA - Gold
  • Northshore Council PTSA - Gold​
  • Maywood Hills Elementary PTSA - Bronze
Congratulations to our award-winning Northshore PTAs!

WSPTA Membership Awards • 2021-2022

5/23/2022

 
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PTA is a membership-driven association. Sustaining and growing membership builds PTA's power as advocates and change makers not only in your own school community, but also at district, state, and national levels. WSPTA recognizes PTAs for their work growing membership as well as for achievements in membership.
Congratulations to our Northshore PTA/PTSAs that have earned
WSPTA Membership Awards in 2021-2022!!

Membership Achievement Awards:
100% Staff Membership Award
The 100% Staff Membership Award is presented to local PTAs that enroll at least as many school staff members as there are full-time certificated employees at the school. This award recognizes the value of teachers and school staff as stakeholders advocating for all children through PTA.
  • Canyon Creek Elementary PTA
  • Innovation Lab High School PTSA
  • Kenmore Elementary PTA
  • Skyview Middle School PTSA
  • Wellington Elementary PTA
  • ​Woodmoor Elementary PTSA

100% PTA Membership Award
The 100% PTA Membership Award is presented to local PTAs that enroll at least as many members as there are full-time enrolled students at the school associated with that PTA. This is the ultimate achievement in PTA membership and recognizes that every child in the school community has a paid PTA member to be their voice. 
  • Innovation Lab High School PTSA

Membership Growth Awards:
To highlight the importance of membership growth, Washington State PTA recognizes local PTAs for enrolling more members than they did in the previous year. As PTAs achieve incremental increases in membership growth, they are recognized for each milestone they reach.
WSPTA Membership Growth Awards

Many thanks to all of our amazing Northshore PTAs/PTSAs for continually striving for membership growth, helping us to have an even more powerful voice for our children!

Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Award Recipients!

5/19/2022

 
2021-2022 Council Award Recipients
​​Each year, Northshore Council PTSA recognizes a few special people who have gone above and beyond in service to our community and who promote the well-being and education of children in our district and beyond. During our Annual Spring Recognition Event on May 16th, Northshore Council was proud to recognize eleven amazing individuals. Learn more about them and why they were deserving of these achievements in the videos and stories below:

​​Golden Acorn - Diana Christiansen & Jennifer Drury
Jennifer and Diana didn’t hesitate to jump right into their roles as Co-Vice Presidents of Advocacy. Their work started early in their 2021-2022 term as they worked to hold online candidate forums for the fall 2021 school board elections. They reached out to each candidate, put together a list of questions they solicited from the community, and organized the candidate forums. Jennifer and Diana spent countless hours organizing these events, only for them to fall apart last minute. 
These two showed us the meaning of "PTA Flexible" by instead organizing an in-person candidate forum before the election took place, and got every school board candidate to attend. They even figured out a way to record the proceeding for community members to watch later. It was so important to them to ensure the community could hear from the candidates. We admire their determination and grit through all of the ups and downs during that chaotic time!
Jennifer and Diana didn't stop there. 
  • They attended WSPTA Legislative Assembly.
  • They organized a schedule of meet & greets with state legislators for our PTA Focus Day - leading the charge when it came to bringing up our legislative priorities.
  • They have also consistently been a presence at our local school board meetings helping to let them know what PTAs are doing to support our district, communities and state.
They are certainly the dynamic duo of advocacy!

​Golden Acorn - Rachel Fitzgerald
Rachel is ALL in on PTSA. Described as AWE-INSPIRING, Rachel is so organized and thorough in everything that she does. It is absolutely amazing the sheer amount of information that she puts out on behalf of Council each and every week. Rachel also helps the local PTAs that have been awarded grants from Council by advertising their events. She's created all sorts of videos, district staff appreciation efforts, managed to piece together a video for the recent school board forum, and adds fresh and original content to Council’s website.
It’s hard to imagine the time spent and the organization it takes to accomplish what she makes looks so easy. Queen of juggling everything, Rachel constantly thinks about how to best serve our local PTAs and in turn the students and families that they serve. She is a fountain of PTA knowledge and knows how to put that knowledge to good use in helping our local PTAs and Council navigate problems and issues that arise.

Besides serving council, Rachel is a dedicated volunteer at her kids schools. She volunteers in the library, supervises lunch, and helps with other various events & tasks for her local PTAs and schools. She is always thinking about how to best help kids whether that is through volunteering, advocating, or helping our local PTAs get the information they need to succeed. Simply put, Rachel is amazing!

Outstanding Educator - Steven Hopkins
Mr. Hopkins is the Principal of Sunrise Elementary. He has gone above and beyond in the Covid era to make sure children are engaged and parents are comfortable. Sunrise has shown consistent growth and development under the leadership of Mr. Hopkins. Particularly, the last 2 years presented unprecedented challenges to educators. His stoic leadership, kindness and level-headedness in efficiently navigating the challenges of the school and community are admirable. 
With Mr. Hopkins leadership, Sunrise opened HiCap classrooms as planned for the year despite the pandemic. He made safety a priority. His communication style is impeccable - giving timely, detailed, and pertinent messaging which is a boon in these times of isolation for the last 2 years.

Mr. Hopkins is the biggest strength to the Sunrise community. He made the students’ learning environment fun and safe. He nurtured values in children, made Sunrise Elementary a community of diversity, and helped kids learn to know and respect all cultures. The families at Sunrise are so fortunate to have an untiring advocate at the helm, whose vision and values have taken their school to great heights!

Outstanding Educator - Peter Schurke
​Mr. Schurke has a tough job. Tougher than say your average everyday comprehensive high school principal. Not only does he have to do the job of principal, but he also has to do the job of CEO of what is essentially a startup high school.

Innovation Lab is a choice high school, one that does not follow a standard learning model. Mr. Schurke is ILHS's cheerleader. 
He is constantly working to get the word out about this amazing new high school focused on mastery learning by hosting webinars, going directly to local middle schools, talking directly to students about the school during their lunch periods, and more. His optimism and excitement about learning is contagious. Mr. Schurke is always open to feedback - from parents and students, listening to others’ ideas, often responding with a "let's see how we can make this work". He is forward thinking and willing to push the envelope when it comes to his students’ experiences and opportunities.

Mr. Schurke has been described as passionate and a visionary, though he is also responsive to his school community. It’s known that if kids are having problems, see an issue, or need to talk through something - they can always find Mr. Schurke.
Peter Schurke is the heart and soul of Innovation Lab High School!

Outstanding Advocate - Clark Combs
​Mr. Combs has been with the District over thirty years as a teacher. During that time he has shown significant leadership in the areas of preparedness at his home school as well as a willingness to share district wide.

When he moved into the role of the Emergency Preparedness TOSA (Teach on Special Assignment) he really took off and has done an amazing job including working closely with PTA E-Prep leaders to bring consistency to schools and help those wanting to advance larger projects to be successful.
​Mr. Combs also helped schools organize and prepare in case of emergencies. Mr. Combs has been instrumental in explaining and working to implement full scale reunification drills with the help of volunteer PTA parents so that the district could practice response and work out the kinks. Most notably, Mr. Combs has taught close to 1,000 students, staff, and community members in the ACT (Antidote/CPR/Tourniquet) since the start of the Covid-19 closures. His willingness to bring this presentation to schools, city halls, and anywhere he can lay down the CPR dummies is admirable. He is helping make this community safer. This past year, he was also tasked with coordinating the District PCR Covid testing at sites including Pop Keeney. His willingness to take on this task and the success he has shown in doing it is a testimony to his commitment to our community and well worth recognizing!

Outstanding Student Advocate - Esther Kim
​Esther is an 11th grader at North Creek High School and has kept busy with many extra curricular projects. Esther has been described as dedicated, caring, and hardworking.

​As part of her work with ASB, Esther collaborated efforts between her local PTSA and school ASB to put together resources and treats for North Creek staff during the pandemic.
​Additionally, Esther reached out to North Creek's PTSA as she was working on a project at school to provide sanitary products to the students at NCHS. Esther wanted to be able to also deliver these to students who are in need as well. To further that cause, she has teamed with the North Creek/Skyview PTSA Food Pantry since November 2021 and has been providing 20 packs of the sanitary products to ensure it gets included in the food pantry bags that go out to families in need. Esther pays for these products from her weekend job.  No doubt she has been a positive influence in her community and an outstanding student advocate!

Outstanding Service - Pauline Wray & Melissa Kline
Pauline and Melissa have worked hard in their roles as Co-Chairs of Council's Mental Health Committee; advocating for mental health support for the students in our district and shining a light on the importance of mental health.

With their leadership, the Mental Health Committee has been able to get resources out to parents, students and staff in a multitude of ways.
Some of the things Melissa and Pauline were able to accomplish through their work on the Mental Health Committee include:
  • Creating a resource poster with crisis text and phone lines to put up in all of our secondary schools.
  • Publishing articles though Council's blog about various mental health topics such as bullying and self-care.
  • Brining in speakers to talk about relevant topics such as Identifying and Addressing Youth Anxiety and Digital Safety.
  • Creating a list of mental health resources for Council's website.

Pauline and Melissa also spend their time meeting with district administration to discuss issues surrounding access to mental health counselors for students among other topics. They have continually advocated to district admin and at school board meetings for better access to resources, more information for parents, and training for teachers. Pauline and Melissa work tirelessly for all students in our district. We are in awe of their passion and dedication regarding the advocacy surrounding the topic of mental health!

Outstanding Service - Jane Chiodo
Jane has been described as a force - not like a tornado, but more like a Mack truck on a cross-country road trip.

She is currently heavily involved in PTSA at the Council level where she has done an outstanding job as the Northshore Council PTSA President. She has been very supportive to the various Council committees providing what they need to help local PTAs.
​At the local PTA level, Jane has been involved at Canyon Park Middle School and Innovation Lab High School, where she serves as the current Communications Chair. Her professional monthly newsletters are full of information, easy to read, thoroughly edited and all-around top-notch. Although Jane has an official PTSA title in each of these organizations, she does
not hesitate to dive into projects wherever there is a need, no matter if it's in her job description or not. Just some of the ways she has served her local PTAs include:
  • Planning and implementing local September back-to-school events.
  • Providing insightful feedback to various committees and volunteers.
  • Helping with emergency preparedness.
  • Serving on her local nominating committee.

Jane also finds time to volunteer at her children's schools. She is a wealth of information; always willing to help solve problems, find answers, and suggest ideas. She does a great job of advocating for student needs as well as teacher needs.  Jane can always be counted on to promote programs, and PTA as a whole, or to help educate those not involved in PTA to learn about what PTA does as a child advocacy organization. Jane cares for the NSD schools, students and community and it shows in her work!​

Honorary Life Membership - Tracy Jokisch
Many of us are well acquainted with Tracy and are in awe of just how much she knows about emergency preparedness and safety. 

For as long as many can remember, she has been the E-Prep Chair for Bothell High School PTSA even though she doesn't have any kids there! In recent years, she joined Council as a Co-Chair of E-Prep.
Tracy has helped to run the monthly E-Prep meetings, providing an invaluable resource for our local leaders. She was also instrumental in working with the district to bring together a Stop the Bleed effort that spanned the entire districts PTAs and made all of our students and staff members safer in the process.

Tracy is kind, approachable, and always willing to lend a hand. When a new E-Prep Chair recently started at Canyon Park Middle School and discovered many of their supplies out of date, they reached out to Tracy for help. Tracy volunteered to meet at the school in order to walk through what CPMS would need and how much so that they could bring the school’s emergency supplies back up to par.

Tracy serves our Northshore community in so many ways. She frequently jumps in to help on Council committees,  recently serving on the Grants Committee and the Budget Committee. We are so fortunate to have gotten to know Tracy and our district is so fortunate to have such a dedicated volunteer!

Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Award Recipients

Council Wants to Celebrate Local PTA Awardees!

5/9/2022

 
Local PTA/PTSA Award Winners
Does your PTA give out local awards? If yes, then we want to hear from you! 
Council would love to shine the spotlight on your PTA award winners!


To submit the names of your local awardees, please complete this form.

We will use the information provided to create a list of all of our local PTA award winners to share with the community. These volunteers deserve to be celebrated!!

Please submit your award winners by June 6th.

3/21/22 General Membership Meeting Recap

4/25/2022

 

​​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.
Recap: 3/21/22 General Membership 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 president@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

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 awards@northshorecouncilptsa.org.
 
  • 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.

Celebrate with Local PTA/PTSA Recognition Awards

3/15/2022

 
Local PTA Recognition Awards
Does someone in your PTA deserve a shout out?
​
WSPTA has a formal volunteer award recognition program allowing local PTAs to award honors for outstanding educator, advocate, student advocate, and volunteer (Golden Acorn), as well as the honorary life membership award.

Awards are a great way for PTAs to show their community how much they appreciate them and to celebrate the dedication of those who support your PTA's mission and goals!

Local PTAs should appoint an awards committee who will gather nominations, review them, and choose the award recipients. This can be done during a meeting or some PTAs even choose to have the previous year's award recipients chair this committee. When the awards committee advertises for nomination submissions, it can be done via social media, newsletters, website, email, or even school flyers. To make it even easier for members to submit nominations, the awards committee can create an online submission form using tools like Google Forms or Survey Monkey.

For recognizing the award recipients, your PTA can hold a volunteer recognition event or take time during a Membership Meeting to celebrate them. WSPTA offers a variety of items your PTA can order online to celebrate your award recipients including certificates, pins, plaques, and even yard signs!

Picture
Local PTAs may award the following within their local community:
  • Golden Acorn – presented to volunteer(s) in recognition of their dedication and service to children and youth in your community.
  • Outstanding Advocate – Honors individuals for their continued and dedicated service to ALL children demonstrating a commitment to speaking up for children in the areas relating to health, welfare, safety, and education of children and youth.
  • Honorary Life Membership – Recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to a PTA at the local unit, council, or state level. This special award can be given by a PTA unit, council, or region.
  • Outstanding Student Advocate Award - Recognizes students who have made significant contributions through leadership and service in their school and community.
  • Outstanding Educator – Individuals who go beyond the normal expectations of their jobs to make the learning environment fun, beneficial and challenging.

Click to learn more: WSPTA Volunteer Recognition Awards
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