We are excited to share that the Northshore Council PTSA is a proud sponsor of the Northshore School District's 2nd annual Virtual College and Career Night. ​

This event will be filled with valuable information to help families plan and navigate post high school options and is
​open to all NSD high school families. More than 20 virtual sessions will be offered for learning more about colleges and universities and career exploration.
​Topics include:

• College Application Process
• Paying for College, Transfer, Tech, and 2-Year Programs
• Apprenticeships and Career Colleges
• Preparing for a career
• ...and so much more! 

​See full list below! 

Questions? Contact Council's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Chair, Cherry Holmes at [email protected].

Meeting Recap: 
​
Council Business:
After reviewing and approving the meeting minutes from our September General Membership meeting, Council Treasurer Serena Xu presented the October 2022 financial report for review, as well as requesting volunteers for the Mid-Year Financial Review Committee. Please email Serena Xu if interested in serving on the committee.

Next on the agenda, Communications VP Jenn Snyder proposed changes to our social media policy by adding Instagram, as well as removing our inactive YouTube account, which were then approved by vote. 

Co-President Mary Khouzam asked for volunteers to serve on the Nominating Committee. If you would like to serve on the Nominating Committee, please email the Council Co-Presidents at before December 16th. The election of the Nominating Committee will take place at the January 19 General Membership meeting. 
​
Community Partners:

• Northshore School District - Community Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator Marco Garcia announced that COVID vaccine requirements have been lifted for volunteering in NSD schools, and will no longer be required. He also shared that Parent Square (district communication tool) will launch for all staff in January 2023, and for all paraeducators in February 2023. The NSD Communications newsletter will now be sent out to families on Mondays, with submissions due the Wednesdays before. 

​

• NSD School Board - School Board member Amy Cast (shared via Council Co-President Rachel Fitzgerald, as Director Cast was unable to join us) let us know that the superintendent search has been awarded to GR Recruiting, who will now move forward with developing a profile of what staff and families are looking for in a superintendent. The search is to be completed by Spring 2023. 

Thank you community partners for joining us!​

​Council Committee Updates:

• Advocacy - Jennifer Drury let us know that Coffee Conversations with NSD families has been a success, as well as ongoing conversations with the NSD School Board. Focus Day will be held on February 20th, and we are encouraged to email our legislators rather than send postcards, since the cards are not read anymore due to a lack of storage space in the legislative offices. Jennifer also shared that we would like to have more conversations with NSD students to give them an opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts regarding advocacy work in our schools. Legislative Assembly took place in October, and the Top 5 Priorities to focus on this year were determined to be 1) Addressing the Student Mental Health Crisis, 2) Addressing critical gaps in Education Funding, 3) Preventing and reducing gun violence and suicides, 4) Addressing funding, inclusion, and supports in Special Education, and 5) Building and maintaining safer school facilities. 

 

• ​Membership - Kim Ortiz shared that we are now at 99.9% of last year’s membership numbers, with several schools above 100% of their last year’s membership numbers. Those schools are Cottage Lake Elementary, Frank Love Elementary, Sorenson Early Childhood Center, Shelton View Elementary, Westhill Elementary, Kenmore Middle School, Timbercrest Middle School, Bothell High School, and Woodinville High School. 

​

• Reflections - Jasmine Lee Fry (via Rachel Fitzgerald, as Jasmine was unable to join us) shared that the deadline for local submissions is on December 2nd. 

​​

• Speaker and Events Grants Program - Grace Jurado shared that Northshore Council is the only Council that has all members in good standing, and only one grant request has been received for this grants quarter. The deadline for the second round of grants was November 25th. More information about the Council's next round of Educational Speakers and Community Events grant requests can be found on our blog. 

Before adjourning the meeting, Co-President Mary Khouzam gave a thank you to those who planned and coordinated the Presidents and Principals Event, and reminded everyone to complete and submit the Presidents and Principals Event survey. Mary also shared that Council is looking for someone to volunteer as VP of Events, and another volunteer is needed to serve as Council’s Family and Community and Engagement (F.A.C.E.) Chair. If you are interested in volunteering, please email the Co-Presidents as soon as possible. 

After adjourning our meeting, attendees were given an opportunity to join two training sessions (“Volunteers and How to Find Them”, and “Roles and Responsibilities of the Board”). 

Please join us for our next General Membership Meeting on January 19th at 7pm via Zoom!

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 [email protected]. 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!

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.

​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.

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Tuesday, June 7th
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: Caregiver Self-Care
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4970917

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

This fourth (and final for this school year) webinar in the series will take place on June 7th and be focusing on Caregiver Self-Care. This webinar will discuss mindfulness to support resilience, why a checklist can calm your brain, and access to a video library with more self-care content. Check out the flyer below for more information.

*Deadline to register is 6pm on Monday, June 6th.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

Parents and students from all communities are invited to join this ZGiRLS workshop, hosted by professional athletes, as they talk about how they learned to navigate stress & anxiety while also maintaining a growth mindset. You will learn a results-driven approach to stress management and concrete steps everyone can take to develop a growth mindset. Help your student step into their confidence and regulate their stress levels in order to prevent feeling overwhelmed and anxious all the time.

Leota PTSA, Skyview PTSA and Northshore Council PTSA are pleased to be partnering with ZGiRLS to bring you this educational event. ZGiRLS, which was founded by Olympic and NCAA female athletes, supports the mental development of girls ages 11-16 years old. All parents and students regardless of gender are welcome to this event.
 
Speakers: Prior to becoming the co-founder and executive director of ZGiRLS, Jilyne Jarvis, spent a year traveling the world with the US Ski & Snowboard team. Jilyne graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelors in public communications.  Helena Scott was on the US Sailing Team for 5 years in which the US team placed 9th at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Helena went on to earn a bachelors in biomechanical engineering and a masters in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She is now working as a mechanical engineer.

Questions? Email [email protected].

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.

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Tuesday, May 10th
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: IEP Transition (Planning for Life after High School)
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4970890

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

This third webinar in the series will take place on May 10th and be focusing on IEP Transition. This webinar will discuss planning for life after high school including information on tools to help students with disabilities prepare for adult life. Check out the flyer below for more information.

Save the Date for Our Next Special Education Webinar:

• June 7th: Caregiver Self-Care

*Deadline to register is 6pm on Monday, May 9th.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

It's April, and with only 2½ months of school left this year, it may be surreal to think that we are nearing the end of our 3rd school year affected by the pandemic. We may have lost things and we may gave gained things, but life is starting to emerge as something somewhat familiar. Some of us may feel abuzz with possibility. Some of us may feel trepidatious or overwhelmed.

How do we slow down, collect ourselves, and progress with more purpose and less stress after such a wild ride?

By practicing self-care.

By definition, self-care means doing what is best for us, like increasing our emotional and physical stamina, improving our self-esteem, and building resilience towards stressors that we can’t eliminate. Basically, the term describes a conscious act we take in order to promote our own physical, mental, and emotional health in order to be better equipped to live our best
lives.

Self-care isn't just about finding ways to relax. It's about taking care of yourself:

• Mentally - keeping your mind sharp, practicing self-compassion
• Physically - sleeping well, eating a balanced diet, getting regular exercise, taking your medications
• Emotionally - taking time to daydream, being introspective and mindful, and processing emotions safely & effectively
• Socially - cultivating and maintaining friendships
• Spiritually - finding deeper sense of meaning in the world