You are invited to join Council's next Emergency Preparedness (E-Prep) Chair meeting!
Anyone in PTA/PTSA is welcome to attend our meetings, and we encourage all local PTA/PTSA E-Prep chairs to attend as well as PTA/PTSA Presidents and/or Vice Presidents or delegates.

In this meeting we share and obtain updates from the NSD Safety team and discuss opportunities where the PTA can provide support to our schools in the areas of emergency preparedness, safety, and security.  

Date: Tuesday, February 1st
Time: 11:00 AM to Noon, Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Zoom Link & Passcode: Available upon request

If you would like the zoom link and passcode in order to attend this meeting, or have questions concerning Emergency Preparedness, please email Council's E-Prep Co-Chairs, Tracy Jokisch & Robin McKenzie. We look forward to seeing you!

​These sessions are intended for families, caregivers, educators, and community members. Students are welcome to attend, however content (and terminology used) may be more suited for middle & high school students.

Registration is required to attend. Deadline to register is Wednesday, February 2nd at 4pm. There is NO requirement to attend both sessions, however only Session 1 will be recorded and shared.

Information Regarding Session 1:
Join gender education specialist Aidan Key with Gender Diversity in examining the topic of gender diversity in children and teens, the challenges faced by these children youth and their families, exploring current research and identifying the best approaches for creating inclusive, supportive environments for these children. 

In our TWO PART WEBINAR, Aidan Key will address several key objectives (as well as several more):

• Increasing familiarity with terminology and concepts related to gender diversity, specifically transgender, gender diverse, and non-binary youth by establishing a framework of gender and core gender terminology.
• A comprehensive delineation of gender identity and gender expression as it relates to, and is distinctive from, biological sex and sexual orientation.
• Overview of gender diverse children in today’s society as well as past perspectives.
• Barriers to understanding and myths associated with gender diverse populations.
• Understanding the experiences of gender diverse youth and their families.
• Increased confidence and tools for having age-appropriate conversations about gender diversity with children of all ages.
• How to best support gender diverse students and their families.

Information Regarding Session 2:
Kids have questions. Adults have questions. We can get them answered in Session 2! NOW IS THE TIME to get clarity from a reliable source.

Questions may arise like these:

• How can a child be transgender or gender diverse?
  
• Aren’t they too young to know? 
  
• Shouldn't they wait until puberty? 
  
• What if this is a phase? They seem pretty confused. Are they just trying to get attention?
  
• Is it alright to talk with children about this and what is age-appropriate? 
  
• How is this different from being gay?  
  
• I hardly know what it means to be transgender, what do they mean by genderqueer, pansexual, asexual, non-binary, and gender fluid? 
  
• What about bathrooms, locker rooms, overnight trips, sports and other gender-segregated spaces?
  
• How do I handle teasing or bullying?

If you already have questions, please include them in your registration so the presenters can prepare in advance.

Please join us for our third general membership meeting of the year on Thursday, January 20, 2022 via Zoom!
In addition to our regular business items, we’ll also be holding elections for our 2021-2022 Nominating Committee (See First Notice of Election post).

Additionally, Council's Board of Directors would like to put forward the issue of supporting the bond and levies that are on the February ballot. During this meeting we will present both the pro and con positions on the issue before calling for a motion to determine our PTSA’s support of or opposition to the bond and levies.

Council meetings will build your PTA knowledge, give you the opportunity to network with other PTA, school district and community leaders, and they can be a lot of fun, too. Each PTA may send up to 4 voting representatives - but we encourage ALL who are interested to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

*A meeting passcode is required to join. It will be sent to local leaders via email. You can also request the passcode by emailing Council PTSA Communications VP, Rachel Fitzgerald.

​WA State PTA's 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 membership.

PTAs must be in good standing and submit a completed application form by March 15, 2022 to be eligible for this award. Recipients of the 100% Staff Membership Award will be recognized at the WSPTA convention in the spring.

Check out the below flyer put together by Washington State PTA to help determine if you are eligible for this award! Click here to download or print the flyer.

Council's goal for our combined Northshore PTAs is to have 6,000 members this year. We encourage all of our local PTAs/PTSAs to continue to promote the value of membership. For tips and resources in doing so, visit our Membership page. Additionally, you can always reach out to Council's Co-Chairs of Membership, Hanisha Bakshani and Melissa Kline.

You are invited to join Council's next Emergency Preparedness (E-Prep) Chair meeting!
Anyone in PTA/PTSA is welcome to attend our meetings, and we encourage all local PTA/PTSA E-Prep chairs to attend as well as PTA/PTSA Presidents and/or Vice Presidents or delegates.

In this meeting we share and obtain updates from the NSD Safety team and discuss opportunities where the PTA can provide support to our schools in the areas of emergency preparedness, safety, and security.  

Date: Tuesday, December 7th
Time: 11:00 AM to Noon, Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Zoom Link & Passcode: Available upon request

If you would like the zoom link and passcode in order to attend this meeting, or have questions concerning Emergency Preparedness, please email Council's E-Prep Co-Chairs, Tracy Jokisch & Robin McKenzie. We look forward to seeing you!

​We're fresh out of Legislative Assembly and gearing up for Focus Week which will take place January 17 - 21, 2022!

Let us know how we can support advocacy efforts at your school! Please complete Council's short Advocacy Efforts Survey to help us serve you better.

Additionally, Council's Co-VPs of Advocacy, Diana Christiansen and Jennifer Drury, are happy to speak at one of your PTA's board or general meetings or talk with folks one-on-one about questions they have about getting involved in advocacy at all levels. Please reach out to us at advocacy@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

You have promoted Reflections and shared your due date with your school community. Some of you may even be receiving artwork!

So now what? Now it's time to submit artwork to Council! Deadline to submit is 9PM on Friday, December 3rd.

Check out our Step-by-Step Guide to Submitting Your PTA's Reflections Entries to Council below. For questions or help with your submissions, please contact Jasmine Lee Fry at reflections@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

1. Make sure you have registered your Local PTA Reflections Program with the National PTA.
2. Make sure the signature lines on all entry forms are filled in. Names can be signed or typed.
3. Take any necessary digital photos of visual arts pieces or work with families to get photos. Please check the rules to ensure the pieces are compliant.
4. Arrange for blind judging as necessary. Click here to read more on judging Reflections.
5. Determine the artwork you will be submitting to Council. Each local PTA can submit up to 20 pieces (+ up to 6 special artist pieces) to Council.
6. Each PTA has its own Dropbox folder. A link will be emailed to Reflections chairs and PTA presidents by Monday, November 15th. Once you have access to the folder, please upload a test file so we have time to troubleshoot any issues you may encounter.
7. Inside your folder you will see:
   • Directions -- Please read this document before submitting.
   • Spreadsheet -- You will fill in some information needed to coordinate judging and to advance pieces to WSPTA. All of the information you need should be on the entry forms.
8. Upload/copy/drag student art piece and entry form to the Dropbox folder. You should be submitting two files per student entry. The exception will be Music Composition entries that require notation; those entries will have three files (This is only for middle and high school divisions).
9. Please rename the files to match this format: Student First Name and Last Name - Arts Category - Form/Artwork/Notation (notation is only used for 6-12th Music Composition entries). This will help us make sure the hundreds of pieces of art we receive can be matched to an entry form.
   1. Example 1: Jasmine Fry - Literature - Form
   2. Example 2: Jasmine Fry - Literature - Artwork
10. When you have added all of the artwork and entry forms to your Dropbox, please email reflections@northshorecouncilptsa.org and let us know you are done and how many pieces you are submitting, so we can verify that we have matching numbers.
11. Feel free to submit your artwork early! After 9PM on Friday, December 3rd, access will be restricted to the Reflections Dropbox folders.

For more information about Reflections, including entry forms and rules, visit our Reflections page.