Be a part of Northshore Council's newest committees! We are searching for members to be a part of two new committees; one on Equity and the other on Mental Health. Read more about each of these new committees below and find out how you can get involved!
Thank you to all that attended our 3rd membership meeting of the school year and our first meeting in 2021!
Each meeting provides us with an opportunity to connect with our wonderful local PTA leaders. Council Business and Reports Our meeting started off with an update from one of our Emergency Prep Co-Chairs, Tracy Jokisch. We learned that NSD is monitoring zooms for welfare checks. They are working on protocols regarding locations of students because many are traveling with family while attending classes. Reminder that if you see something strange going in the background during a classroom zoom to call 911. If you see a problem, call or email NSD Safety and Security. The PTSA E-Prep committee has been meeting with district rep, Clarke Combs, about various E-Prep items. From those discussions it was decided that there is a need for each school to have at least 2 Stop the Bleed kits on campus. Click here to learn more about Stop the Bleed Kits. A motion was passed to add funds to the E-Prep budget to cover the purchase of 2 Stop the Bleed kits per school. With support from local PTAs/PTSAs, this is a great start to reach the goal of having a kit at each school’s AED, rather than only at the nurse’s office. After approving the minutes from the November membership meeting, we moved on to the Treasurer’s reports for November and December. Our Treasurer, Liz Nord, reported that we were receiving council program fees as well as additional membership fees via memberplanet. Liz concluded her report by sharing that the virtual mid-year financial review had been completed and detailed suggestions provided by the financial review team. Next on the agenda was a report from our VP of Advocacy, Diana Christiansen. Diana shared with everyone that WSPTA Advocacy Week began on 1/18 and will conclude on 1/22. Each day had a different advocacy topic and Diana urged local leaders to visit the Northshore Council Blog for more information regarding Focus on Advocacy Week. Then Grace Jurado and Liz Nord from our Nominating Committee reported that they have been in talks with current council leaders regarding who will be interested in staying on in their positions next year. They also put out a request for nominations and reminded everyone that there is a link in both the newsletter and the website for those interested in nominating. Learn more here. Our Reflections Chair, Rachel Northquist, shared the exciting news that 55 submissions will be moving on to State! She is also currently working on a method to share and display the submissions and will keep council updated with the plan. Melissa Kline, Membership Chair, reported that we currently have 4485 members and that we are at 77% of last years membership. She also reminded local leaders to think of your PTA as a brand and to share the good work that your PTA has been doing for your school and community. Next on the agenda was a Family and Community Engagement (F.A.C.E.) report from Lauren Lewis. She offered some important reminders with regards to planning events for your community including attempt to reach everyone – not just your members. (School directories are available. Please send requests to our Council Secretary, Kimberly Ortiz.) Lauren also shared the importance of consulting the NPTA Multicultural Calendar when planning meetings or events. Lauren is working on applications for the WSPTA FACE Awards and would also love to hear from anyone regarding how they think that Northshore Council is succeeding in Family and Community Engagement. You can email her directly at familyengagement@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Jane Chiodo gave an update on the Educational Speakers & Community Events Grants Program. She stated that the round 3 applications were due January 22nd . These funds are available for local PTA’s to apply for if they would like to host parent education events. Concluding the council business and reports agenda was a reminder from Grace Jurado regarding WSPTA Awards. Grace shared that awards applications are due March 15th but you can contact them now in order to receive a dropbox link so your PTA can start collecting items for submission. She also reminded leaders that awards can often help with branding your PTA as well. If you have never applied for an award before she suggested that the Standards of Excellence award is the most general award but that there are also different categories choose to from. One recommendation was the F.A.C.E. award as it doesn’t seem to receive as many applications as the others do. There was also a brief discussion regarding equity of the awards and the membership agreed that there may be a need to vocalize more prominently that awards are available for everyone to apply for as they are about your PTAs/PTSAs personal achievements, not comparing them to other PTAs (multiple PTAs can win the same award). Learn more about WSPTA Awards here. District and Community Reports School Board Director, David Cogan, presented an update regarding Northshore School District that included but was not limited to:
NSD Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator, Natalie Campbell, reported the following:
Carmin Dalziel, representing the Northshore School Foundation, shared that each school has scholarship money set aside in Care Teams. If someone needs a scholarship individually send them to a Care Team. It was also noted that the Basic Needs Fund is for a crisis, a one-time event that a family needs help with. Carmin also reminded us that there are many Northshore Gives campaigns that need donations. If there are any PTAs/PTSAs that would like to donate, please contact NSF. Lastly, the All in For Kids Virtual Fundraiser Event will be held 4/8/2021 and she encouraged people to enroll in groups. Guest Speaker Cherry Holmes, Region 6 DEI Chair, WSPTA FACE Committee and WSPTA DEI Chair, presented on and discussed WSPTA DEI resources that local leaders can use within their own units. By advancing diversity, equity and inclusion there will be better outcomes for families and students. The DEI presentation shared that diversity is the representation and respect for people from different backgrounds and identities. Equity provides fairness in resources, opportunities, and outcomes. Inclusion is actions and social norms that ensure ALL PEOPLE feel that they are safe, welcomed, and that they belong. The presentation asked PTAs/PTSAs to take a deeper look at what is happening in their local unit - that they may be colorblind or on autopilot with business as usual. It’s important to build membership and leadership from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Improvements for PTAs/PTSAs requires measurements. Know your school’s demographics and statistics; this info can be found on the OSPI school report card site. Know your school and community – does it represent your PTA/PTSA? Identify barriers in your community, including culture, socio economic, policies, and relevancy. Cherry’s DEI presentation will be shared in the meeting Dropbox so members can have access to the slide presentation to take back to discuss with their PTAs/PTSAs. Our next membership meeting will be held on Monday, March 15th. We hope to see you there! ![]() Council is so proud of the work our Northshore PTAs/PTSAs are doing to support and engage our community, especially during these challenging times and we can't wait to see what you have to offer in 2021! As a reminder, we are keeping an ongoing list of events our local PTAs are hosting. This is a great resource to help connect with each other on events or inspire one for your PTA to host. If you have an event to include, particularly if it's available to members of other PTA/PTSAs, please share with our larger membership community by completing this Google form. To view a list of upcoming events, click here. To help connect further with other local leaders, check out our new FACE/DEI Facebook Group which is open to anyone interested in engaging and learning more about Family & Community Engagement and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. We would love to have you join us! Finally, as you plan activities for 2021, please consider planning inclusive events. National PTA has put together a comprehensive Multicultural Calendar to highlight and celebrate the diversity of our PTAs and school communities. You can view this calendar below or click here to print the PDF. It was great to see so many local PTA leaders in attendance for our 2nd meeting of the 20-21 school year!
The meeting kicked off with a Q and A led by our Superintendent, Dr. Michelle Reid. In addition to mentioning that the current plan with online schooling is to stay the course, she also answered many questions regarding topics such as homework, updates on the NSD curriculum resource web page, communication strategies for teachers and parents and building access for PTA’s. There was also a discussion regarding ideas for the district to provide some morale boosting activities for students and families to help with community building while we are still isolating at home for online learning. Dr. Reid welcomed ideas from the group and will investigate how to best provide some community building activities in the district. During the Council Business portion of the meeting, the membership elected Grace Jurado, Liz Nord and Jane Chiodo as the 20-21 Nominating Committee. Next on the agenda was a financial report given by Council Treasurer, Liz Nord. Her report included the Treasurer’s Reports for both September and October, presentation of the newly adopted money handling policy and an update regarding the fulfillment of the Standards of Affiliation. Liz noted that any PTA that needs to create or update their current money handling policy is welcome to use the council’s as a template found here. Lastly, there was an update regarding council goals which involved renaming the goal previously called Leading and Developing our Northshore PTAs and Leaders to Communicating with our Northshore Local PTAs and Leaders. Grace Jurado, Nancy Chamberlain and Melissa Kline worked together to create a new title and verbiage surrounding the elements of the action items in effort to create goals that are concrete and attainable. The membership unanimously voted to update the proposed changes to the council goals as presented. During this meeting we also heard from Northshore Nourishing Network (NNN) Director Sue Freeman. She shared information and tips for PTAs looking to start a successful food drive for their local units. Sue noted that the Northshore Senior Center needs canned vegetables, tuna and chicken for those looking to donate. It was suggested by a member that coordination for a food drive combined with school supply pick up days or porch pick up to gather food donations. Sue also shared that she has created helpful documents for suggested items to donate as well as how to start a free pantry. Learn more about NNN here. We then heard from community leaders including School Board Director Jacqueline McGourty, NSD Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator Natalie Campbell and the Northshore Schools Foundation Executive Director Carmin Dalziel.
Lastly on the agenda was Council updates on Advocacy, Membership and F.A.C.E. as well as an update from our First Vice President, Jane Chiodo, regarding the WSPTA awards and the Speaker and Events Grants.
Council meetings are a great way to reach other PTA leaders and learn about what is happening in the district and PTA. We hope you will join us for our next general membership meeting on Thursday, January 21st! Join us virtually on October 21st at 6:30PM for this upcoming Parent Education event: Parenting on the Same Page! Guest Speakers, Kira Dorrian and Deana Thayer, co-founders of Future Focused Parenting, aim to support parents and caregivers doing the best they can to create a safe loving environment for their children, where everyone works together as a team. This presentation is for any parent or caregiver that wants to thrive rather than just survive throughout their parenting journey. This session helps families get on the same page with their parenting partner or other adults in their children’s lives. Learn strategies for communication, preparing for parenting curveballs, and how to parent with unity even when you disagree. Presentation includes a Q&A for attendees. Talking points of this presentation include:
Register to attend at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/parenting-on-the-same-page-registration-123364748283 Zoom link will be emailed to those who have registered before the event. Note: A Spanish translator will be available during the presentation. Email mayna@closetfly.com if you would like to utilize this service so we can connect you with the translator before the presentation begins, or if you would like to request translation in another language. Acompañenos por Zoom para nuestro primer evento de KEPTA Parent Education, organizado junto con Northshore Council PTSA! Nuestros oradores invitados desean apoyar a padres y guardianes que quieren crear un ambiente seguro y cariñoso para sus hijos, en el cual todos trabajan como un equipo unido. Parenting on the Same Page (Criando Niños Juntos) Miercoles, el 21 de Octubre de 6:30pm a 8:00pm (incluyendo preguntas y respuestas) https://www.eventbrite.com/x/parenting-on-the-same-page-tickets-123364748283?utm_term=eventname_text Antes del evento, conozcan a nuestros oradores: Kira Dorrian, CHt, HBCE y Deana Thayer, M.Ed. https://futurefocusedparenting.com/ El enlace de Zoom se enviará antes del evento. Un traductor de español estará presente durante el evento. Por favor envíe un correo electronico antes del evento si le gustaría estar asignado al traductor para el evento. Si su PTA está interesada en compartir con su comunidad la grabación de esta presentación, por favor comuníquese con este correo electrónico para obtener una licencia. This event is co-sponsored by Northshore Council PTSA and Kenmore Elementary PTA. ![]()
As we move into a new school year with continued distance learning and public health concerns limiting in-person meetings, Northshore Council is hoping to promote collaboration between our local PTAs/PTSAs in developing opportunities for Parent Education and Community Connection to our members.
Please let us know what activities your PTA/PTSA is interested in planning to help parents learn, connect, and successfully support students in 2020-21 by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/HhvohMFnif1mZFGh7 Deadline to complete this form is September 23, 2020. If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Lewis, Northshore Council's F.A.C.E. Chair. Join us for ‘Northshore PTAs Connect’ – an online roundtable discussion for PTA/PTSA leaders to ask questions, share ideas and connect with one another. Offered two times a month—once in the evening (7pm) and once at midday (noon)— this series of roundtable events is designed to support our local PTA/PTSA leaders as we navigate membership, programs and managing our organizations in an uncertain and ever-changing landscape. Each roundtable event will feature a focus topic, but it is an open discussion and there is always opportunity to ask questions and tackle emerging or ongoing areas of interest or concern.
You may choose to attend the topics or times that work best for you, or attend them all!
We hope to see you there!!! If you have questions or suggested topics you would like to see addressed in the discussion, please email Council PTSA President, Robin Zaback. *Topic was changed/updated as of 11/25/2020 to better meet the needs of our PTA Leaders & Community. Click here to take our Family and Community Engagement Survey
Our Family and Community Engagement (F.A.C.E.) team is committed to increasing awareness of the importance of
In order to determine how we can best serve our PTA/PTSAs, we have developed a short survey. We encourage you to take this important survey and also share it with your Board and General Members. Our goal is to learn more about community engagement and inclusive practices in Northshore PTA/PTSAs and use this information to explore how Northshore Council PTSA can provide stronger service in these areas. This short survey should only take 5 - 10 minutes. Please complete the survey by Monday, August 24th. We will monitor this year's progress with another survey in late Spring 2021. Special Thanks to Northshore HiCap Parents Council for use of the survey tool! On behalf of our team, our sincere thanks! Lauren Lewis - Council PTSA Family & Community Engagement (F.A.C.E.) Chair Michele Holowachuk - Northshore Council PTSA Special Education Representative Mary Khouzam - Northshore Council PTSA Co-Vice President of Events Core to every PTA's mission is the overarching vision to make every child's potential a reality. Every child has needs that extend beyond the classroom and sometimes families might need additional supports in order to meet those needs. Helping to connect families with resources available in their community can be a wonderful way for local PTAs to offer their support. ![]() Crystal Springs PTA has taken this idea to heart and developed a great tool for their families. It is a brochure titled, "Emergency Food & Housing Resources." They have compiled a listing of community resources that families can reference in times of need and have put it all together in a handy brochure. Included are food stability resources, emergency housing options, and more, with details and contact information for each. Crystal Springs PTA printed the brochure and then partnered with their school office to ensure that the brochures are available and can be shared with interested families. The brochure they have created is available for download below. In addition, Crystal Springs PTA has shared the original MS Publisher file. It is editable so that your PTA can easily customize it for use in your community.
This is a wonderful way to help families who may be in need! Crystal Springs PTA's thoughtful approach to serving their community and their sharing spirit are great examples of what makes us #PTAProud!
![]() Threads & Treads provides Northshore families free, quality donated clothing for school age youth, teens, young adults and parents. Clothing items include: school-appropriate clothing for the school day and special events, sportswear, shoes, and accessories. All NSD families in need of clothing assistance are welcome to shop each month for 3 outfits and school event attire. They are open weekly each Wednesday afternoon from 3-6pm. **NEW in 2019-2020** Starting Saturday, October 5th, Threads & Treads will also be open one Saturday a month from 9-12pm. Please consider helping to spread the word about this Northshore community resource via your PTA communication channels! Download a poster or suggested write-ups that you can share via social media and/or your website. Or consider printing a poster that you can hang at your school (check with your office administration regarding poster guidelines at your school).
Threads & Treads Needs Donations!
Threads & Treads Needs Volunteers! Visit this link to sign-up today: https://cpptsa.org/ways-to-help/volunteer-sign-ups/
Threads & Treads donation wishes:
If you have any questions or would like information to provide to your school, please feel free to contact Kelly Hennessey. Thank you for your help in supporting this vital community resource! THIS PROGRAM IS COORDINATED AND SUPPORTED BY CANYON PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL PTSA.
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