 At the 44th Annual Legislative Assembly members from across the state came together to learn, debate, and vote on the new legislative priorities WSPTA will focus on for the next two years. In addition to the issues the delegates ranked as the top five, an additional eight issues were added to the "also supported" list. Jennifer Drury, Cherry Holmes, and Kim Ortiz represented Council as voting delegates. In addition to Council delegates, there were PTA leaders from across Northshore schools that attended either in-person or remotely as delegates for their PTAs.
In addition to voting on the legislative priority issues, delegates approved one new resolution "4.16 Equitable and Impactful Family Engagement in Education" and amendments to resolutions 2.23, 18.36, and 18.40 that encompass issues on gun violence, highly capable, and students with disabilities. Learn more about the resolutions. Thank you all for advocating for our students! More on Advocacy:
 WSPTA Legislative Assembly 2022 Registration is NOW OPEN for WSPTA's Legislative Assembly! WSPTA's 44th Annual Legislative Assembly When: Saturday, October 15th & Sunday, October 16th Where: Hybrid - Bellevue College / Remote PTA delegates from across the state will come together to update the WSPTA legislative platform. At legislative assembly, discover the power PTA has to advocate for the success of every child – the whole child. In PTA every member has an equal voice, and your input matters a great deal to the success of PTA's grassroots member-driven platform. PTA is needed more than ever right now, and you can help! Be a part of the process and help direct the course for WSPTA advocacy by serving as a delegate for your PTA! If you are interested in attending Legislative Assembly as a delegate for your local PTA, contact your local PTA president. Key Things to Note:
Voting Delegates: During the 44th annual Washington State PTA Legislative Assembly, delegates will decide the public policy positions that guide state and local advocacy work for WSPTA and its associated local PTAs and councils. To learn more about being a voting delegate, visit WSPTA's Legislative Assembly Voting Information page which includes the 2022 Voters’ Guide that has been created to help delegates prepare for the caucusing and general sessions. About Legislative Assembly: The Washington State PTA legislative platform is a two-year platform to mirror the Washington state legislative cycle. On the even-numbered years, the new platform is voted on by members at the legislative assembly in the fall. The top five issues become our short-term platform and consist of our priority issues when advocating throughout the year. Other issues are placed on an “also supported” list. Learn about WSPTA's current legislative priorities and other supported issues by clicking here. Check out the Legislative Assembly web page to learn more about this year's event. More on Advocacy:
 As we wrap up another school year, Council would like to take a moment to recap some of the amazing advocacy work that has been done this year. We also want to thank all of our local PTA Advocacy Chairs, for the work they do at their school and within their community to advocate for all children, and our PTA members, who help strengthen our voice by being a part of the oldest and largest child advocacy organization in the country! In October, PTA delegates came together for the 43rd Annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly. During this event, PTA delegates were able to learn, listen, debate and vote on additions to our grassroots legislative platform. Three new resolutions and two amended resolutions were approved during the 2021 Legislative Assembly! New resolutions:
Amended resolutions:
The 60 day 2022 Washington state legislative session ran from January 10th to March 10th. This included the February 2022 Focus Week where PTA Members advocated to elected officials about WA State PTA's Top 5 Legislative Priorities for the current legislative session. Some key accomplishments from this year's legislative session include:
The end of the legislative session means it’s time to start looking and planning ahead. Here are a few actions you can take before the school year is over:
If you would like to learn more about Council's Advocacy work or how you can get involved, visit our Advocacy page.
 As a grassroots association, Washington State PTA relies on its members to provide the priorities that we will advocate for at the state-level and within our communities. Learn more about our WSPTA legislative priorities here and the history of our advocacy efforts here.
Any PTA member is encouraged to submit an issue, resolution, or principle that addresses concerns that affect children on a state-wide level. The 2022 submission process is now open!
Key Deadlines:
To assist you in the process, WSPTA has developed a series of five videos, "The Savvy Submitter's Guide to Issues, Resolutions, and Principles," to walk you through the required steps:
At the 2022 Legislative Assembly, delegates will debate and vote on these submissions and whether to add them to our platform. This year is especially important as we will be voting on a new Top 5 to focus on over the next two years. Questions about submitting or about advocacy? Contact Northshore Council PTSA's Co-VPs of Advocacy, Diana Christiansen and Jennifer Drury. Northshore Council PTSA participated in Focus on Advocacy Week January 17-21!
Every meeting started with the number one priority of the Washington State PTA, Mental Health. Advocates asked that representatives work to fund and create policies that support mental health in our schools and communities. Additional Asks Included:
Throughout Focus on Advocacy Week, in addition to meeting with legislators, PTA advocates were asked to email their elected officials to advocate for children. Council and many of our local PTAs promoted Focus on Advocacy Week using social media accounts, websites, and newsletters to encourage members to participate as well. Throughout the next sixty days, the Washington State Senate and House will debate and vote on issues that directly affect children and families in Washington State. If you would like to be kept up to date on these issues, please subscribe to Action Alerts.  Northshore Council would like to thank the legislators and their assistants who met with us during Focus on Advocacy Week!
Council would also like to recognize the PTA Advocates who took time out of their week to participate in the meetings:
If you would like to learn more about Council's Advocacy work or how you can get involved, visit our Advocacy page.
Legislative session is upon us and starting Monday, January 17th, it's
WSPTA's Focus on Advocacy Week!!
Here's a brief run-down on what you can expect out of this week long event and how you can get involved!
When is Focus on Advocacy Week? This week long event runs Monday, January 17th through Friday, January 21st Who should participate? Anyone who wants to advocate for students, teachers, or their school community! Advocacy is for everyone and now is the perfect time to get involved. Where does this take place? This year, Focus on Advocacy Week is virtual! That means anyone wanting to participate can do so from their phone or computer. What is the Legislative Session? The Legislative session is the time when our senators and representatives work on bills. They will be debating, reading emails, and holding meetings about current bills for the session. What is Focus on Advocacy Week? Focus on Advocacy Week is the week where we as PTA members focus on calling, writing, and having meetings with our legislators. We do this to get our Legislative Priorities into the hearts and minds of our elected officials and to educate them on what our members need and want. Why does Focus on Advocacy Week matter? This is the best time to get our priorities heard by our representatives. Washington State PTA members voted and approved our top 5 issues that we believe lawmakers should work on. Now is the time that we bring these issues to the forefront of their work. See below for a list of our Top 5 Issues as well as how PTA plans to put equity at the center of everything we do with our 2020-2022 Legislative Priorities. How can someone participate? 1. Sign up for the WSPTA's Action Network Group to get timely alerts. 2. Find your Washington State Legislature Representatives. 3. Fill out this Focus Day Interest Google Form to schedule meetings with legislators 3. Set aside time during Focus on Advocacy Week to call and email. WSPTA has designated each day next week to a different focus topic: ◘ Monday, January 17 – Call to Action: Focus on dismantling racism ◘ Tuesday, January 18 – Call to Action: Focus on equity ◘ Wednesday, January 19 – Call to Action: Focus on mental health and wellness ◘ Thursday, January 20 – Call to Action: Focus on preserving and flexing funding ◘ Friday, January 21 – Call to Action: Focus on safety and emergency preparedness 4. Join Marie Sullivan, Washington State PTA’s legislative consultant, on January 11th from 7-8pm over Zoom as she presents Preparing for the 2022 Legislative Session - Your Questions Answered. 5. Check out the awesome videos and one page issue documents available on Washington State PTA’s Advocacy page about each of the priorities. 6. Spread the word! Invite others from your PTA community to join you in connecting with state legislative leaders. Use the hashtag #WSPTAOneVoice to share about Focus on Advocacy Week through your PTA's, and even your own, social media accounts. Remember to share updates via your PTA's other channels such as website or emails.
Check out the image below from WSPTA to see how PTA is putting Equity at the Center of Everything We Do with our 2020-2022 Legislative Priorities. Click here for a printable version.
 Registration is now open for the 43rd Annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly!
PTA delegates from across the state will come together to update the WSPTA legislative platform. At legislative assembly, discover the power PTA has to advocate for the success of every child – the whole child. In PTA every member has an equal voice, and your input matters a great deal to the success of PTA's grassroots member-driven platform. PTA is needed more than ever right now, and you can help! Key Things to Note:
During the 43rd annual Washington State PTA Legislative Assembly, delegates will decide the public policy positions that guide state and local advocacy work for WSPTA and its associated local PTAs and councils. To learn more about being a voting delegate, visit WSPTA's Legislative Assembly Voting Information page which includes the 2021 Voters’ Guide that has been created to help delegates prepare for the caucusing and general sessions. The Washington State PTA legislative platform is a two-year platform to mirror the Washington state legislative cycle. On the even-numbered years, the new platform is voted on by members at the legislative assembly in the fall. The top five issues become our short-term platform and consist of our priority issues when advocating throughout the year. Other issues are placed on an “also supported” list. Learn about WSPTA's current legislative priorities and other supported issues by clicking here. Be a part of the process and help direct the course for WSPTA advocacy by serving as a delegate for your PTA! If you are interested in attending Legislative Assembly as a delegate for your local PTA, contact your local PTA president. Check out the Legislative Assembly web page to learn more about this year's event. Calling all Advocates!  It's time to get started on PTA Advocacy for the 2021-2022 school year. Here are 6 Advocacy Action Items to add to your PTA's back to school list of things to do:
Bonus Advocacy Action Item: Let’s Vote Challenge! National Voter Registration Day is September 28th! Did you know that Local PTAs/PTSAs can run voter registration drives? You can also include the graphic below in your e-news and on social media to encourage your members to register to vote! For WA state, voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/ and is provided in multiple languages!   Marie Sullivan, Washington State PTA Legislative Consultant, hosted a legislative session recap on June 8. Over 300 bills were passed by the Washington State legislature despite the challenges of the pandemic. WSPTA had some great wins on our Top 5 issues and supporting resolutions.  If you would like to view Marie’s recap, it was recorded and can be found on the Washington State PTA YouTube Channel. Her final end of session report will be out soon!  Questions about how you can get involved in Advocacy? Email advocacy@northshorecouncilptsa.org!
 Thank you to all that attended our fourth membership meeting of the school year! Each general meeting provides us with an opportunity to connect with our wonderful local PTA leaders and community partners and learn more about the great things happening across our district.
A little bit of fun: We started off our meeting with a 30 minute “social” time. We invited all to join us to chat with Council and other local PTA leaders. We had great conversations and learned that “Flight” was the most desired superhero power in our fun poll! Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker this month was Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid who graciously answered questions regarding the upcoming shift to hybrid learning in NSD. A great range of questions were asked including but not limited to: how PTAs can support the return to classrooms, the thinking behind the hybrid model, vaccination progress for teachers, when the learning model will be decided for Fall, what hybrid will look like for those 100% remote, and the latest updates on SBAC testing. We thank Dr. Reid for taking the time to join us during such a busy and stressful time. Council Business: After approving our minutes from our January general meeting, we moved on to hearing the Treasurer Report for the month of February. We then moved on to learning about our 2021-2022 preliminary budget. Our budget committee worked along with our Treasurer, Liz Nord, to evaluate what our needs would be for next year taking into consideration the decrease in memberships that we had experienced in 2020-2021 possibly continuing next year. A few changes were recommended, such as lowering our income expectations and cutting costs where we could (obtaining a smaller PO Box, lowering line items such as hospitality, grants, office supplies, etc.). We also added line items for our new DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) position and our new Mental Health committee. The preliminary 2021-2022 budget was approved by a unanimous voice vote. Next up on the agenda was electing our 2021-2022 officers! Thank you to our hardworking Nominating Committee, Grace Jurado and Liz Nord, for putting together a rocking slate for next year! Liz Nord read the Nominating Report. The self-nomination period was held 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 unanimously approved by a voice vote. Congratulations to our incoming 2021-2022 officers!!
Council Reports: Tracy Jokisch, our Emergency Prep and Safety Co-Chair, gave us an update regarding the bulk purchase of Stop the Bleed kits for district schools. There will most likely be over 500 kits ordered in total, which will include 2 kits per school contributed by Council. In conjunction with the Stop the Bleed effort, Clark Combs, district Eprep specialist on the district Safety and Security team, has been offering virtual ACT training to staff. Diana Christiansen, our Council Vice President of Advocacy, gave us an update regarding the exceptional attendance by WA State PTA members at this years National PTA Legislative Conference. It was great to see big representation especially at “Hill Day” when attendees met directly with legislators and their staffers. Check out our NPTA LegCon recap here! We got an update on the Reflections program. 55 pieces were forwarded to the state competition and we were waiting to hear results. (Results now in - check them out here!) The Council Reflections Celebration website was a big hit allowing many families – as well as family and friends around the country! - to experience all the works of art from artists all over the district. Next year’s theme was announced as, “I Will Change the World By…”. Diana Christiansen and Karrie Palis announced that our Council Recognition Awards Nominations were open. They are looking for nominations for the following awards: Outstanding Educator, Outstanding Advocate, Outstanding Student Advocate, Outstanding Service, Golden Acorn, Honorary Life Membership. They are also looking for members to join their committee to review nominations and select winners. Melissa Kline gave an update regarding membership. Three (3) PTAs had reached 100% staff membership and, in total, we have reached 4,826 members which is 62% of last year’s number. Melissa also gave an update about the newly formed Mental Health Committee. The committee had their first meeting recently, at which they discussed goals and things they would like to work on which included communicating about mental health awareness programs. Lauren Lewis, our Council F.A.C.E. (Family and Community Engagement) Chair, talked about the Equity Inventory Committee, which was established to assess where our Council stood in regards to equity and diversity. The goal of the committee was to look at all facets of our operation through a DEI lens and then to make suggestions on areas that we could improve on. Lauren was also working on finding a presentation about how to navigate the US high school system that could be offered to families in our district that speak other languages or who have moved here from other countries. Natalie Campbell, the District Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator, said that we could partner with her and Elizabeth Meza to bring something like this to the district. It was also noted that through the Council Educational Speaker and Community Events Grants program, Woodin Elementary was offering "Guide to Helping Your Children Succeed in Elementary and Beyond", presented by Sistema Escolar, USA, to district parents. District and Community Reports: School Board Director David Cogan presented an update in regards to Northshore School District that included, but was not limited to:
Natalie Campbell, NSD Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator, reported the following:
Carmin Dalziel of the Northshore Schools Foundation gave updates regarding her organization and their work to support NSD:
Our last guest was Patsy Treece of the Citizens for Northshore Schools group to talk about Bond and Levy support. Her group’s purpose is to give citizens information about the bond and levies on the ballot and to urge them to vote. Bond and levy votes only happen every four years. Bonds need 60% to pass and levies need 50%. She was looking for volunteers to serve the group and was particularly interested in adding diversity so that all voices could be heard. She also asked if PTAs could add a line item to their budgets to help support the Citizens group. Learn more about Citizens for Northshore School here. Our next membership meeting will be held on Monday, June 7th. We hope to see you there! |
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