 On November 14, 2023, Northshore Council PTSA held a virtual General Membership Meeting. We would like to say thank you to all of the local leaders from across the Northshore School District, as well as community and school partners for taking the time to join us! Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. Announcements
Council Business We elected our 2023-2024 Nominating Committee Anna Jensen, Holly Muenchow, and Laura Staneff. If you are interested in joining Council's Executive Board next year, please reach out to nomcom@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Online nomination form and more information coming soon. Learn more about what is a Nominating Committe on our blog post Everything You Have Wanted to Know About Nominating Committees. Presentation by Innovation Lab High School (ILHS) Climate Action Club
Community Partners
Council Committee Updates
Calendar Reminders
The President ended the meeting with a review of the upcoming events. All of the events dates and times are listed on the Northshore Council’s Calendar.
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!
Questions? Email Council President, Rachel Fitzgerald at president@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Save the Date - View calendar of future meeting dates.  On September 18, 2023, Northshore Council PTSA held a virtual General Membership Meeting. We would like to say thank you to all of the local leaders from across the Northshore School District, as well as community and school partners for taking the time to join us! Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. We had our first general meeting on September 18, 2023. It started out with a land acknowledgement and general information on how to find out more about this important topic.
Council Business We reviewed the purpose of Council and the benefits of contacting Council for help. Some of the advantages of Council is that we can help answer questions you may have in your local PTSA, communicate training, resolve conflict, or help you find answers on the Washington State PTA website. As a reminder, Council will not ask to review your books or report you to any agency - we are not the PTA Police. We are here to support our local PTA leaders. View the PTA Leaders Resource Chart that was shared with members at the meeting. We had an open board position and Christine Roehnelt was elected Secretary for the 2023-2024 year. Installation of all Council members was made by WSPTA Finance Officer Liz Nord. 2022-2023 Council Co-President Mary Khouzam was recognized for all of her work last year. During the meeting two breakout rooms were created. Membership Co-Chair Allison Torgesen presented and answered questions about memberplanet in one room while Brittany Hernandez, AIM representative, provided an overview of what you should know about your PTA insurance and answered questions in the second room. The proposed budget for 2023-2024 was presented and approved by the members at the meeting. Committee Updates
The President ended the meeting with a review of the upcoming events. All of the events dates and times are listed on the Northshore Council’s Calendar. We hope to see you at our next General Meeting on November 14th at 7 pm.
Election Information:
Since the position of Secretary was not contested, the election will be by voice vote at the next General Meeting on Monday, September 18, 2023, at 7 PM. Questions? Email Council President Rachel Fitzgerald.  You are invited to join our Council Emergency Preparedness (E-Prep) Chair meetings. Anyone in the PTA/PTSA is welcome to attend. The online meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month starting on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. We encourage local PTA/PTSA E-Prep chairs to attend and or 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.
We look forward to seeing you. Feel free to contact Council E-Prep Chair Robin McKenzie if you have any questions at eprep@northshorecouncilptsa.org.
Learn more about E-Prep and how to get involved.
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!
Questions? Email Council President, Rachel Fitzgerald at president@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Save the Date - View calendar of future meeting dates.  On Thursday, January 19, 2023, Northshore Council PTSA held its third General Membership meeting of the school year.
We would like to say thank you to all of the local leaders from across the district, as well as community and school partners for taking the time to join us! Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. Meeting Recap:
Council Business
Community Partners
Reminders
 Northshore Council will provide Online Meeting Hosting for local PTAs/PTSAs this 2023 - 2024 school year! This can be used by any local PTA/PTSA that wants Council to host a Zoom meeting for them. Please note that max number of attendees is 100 and that this service is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Here is how it works:
Questions? Contact us!  On Monday, May 15th, Council held their last general membership meeting of the 2022-2023 school year. Council members were joined by local leaders, community members, and parents from across the district.
Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. Parent Education Presentation
The evening started with a presentation from Lake Washington Institute of Technology and Cascadia College titled “Community & Technical College: Preparing Students for Their Future”. This parent education event was organized by Brenae Brix, Council’s VP of Secondary Support, and included a Q&A session. For anyone wanting more information or to bring this presentation to their school community, email Brenae at vpsupportsec@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Council Business Following the presentation, Council business was accomplished. We approved the March 20,2023 General Membership Meeting Minutes, presented the April 2023 Treasurer’s Report, reported that our Annual Corporate Renewal was completed, and updated our membership that we had sent in a donation to the Washington State PTA College Scholarship Fund in accordance with our budget. We also held an election for Council’s 2023-2024 Office of VP of Events. We are excited to announce that Melissa Bennett was elected to this role! We are still looking to elect a Secretary as no nominations were submitted. To find out more about this position and other volunteer opportunities for next year’s Council, visit: http://www.northshorecouncilptsa.org/council-blog/council-volunteer-opportunities-for-2023-2024. Council Co-President, Rachel Fitzgerald, then gave the following updates and reminders to the membership:
The next part of our meeting was our Council Committee Reports. Spring Recognition Celebration: Updates from Mary Khouzam. This event will be held on June 6th from 10:30-12:30 at Brightwater Community Center. Updates included reminding local PTAs to contact their President in order to RSVP and to submit their award recipients for recognition at the Council level. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekeNRBGfw7qzuQNA1alhcZq4DZkQirh3Ht8vJSgpWIkFVSQw/viewform Special Education Chairs: Laura Staneff reported on their recent meeting with Assistant Superintendent Obadiah Dunham discussing supports for neurodiverse students and gave an update on where they were at in the process of forming of a new Special Education PTSA in NSD. Membership: Kim Ortiz announced that Membership across Northshore PTAs is at 101% of last year with a total of 5521 members! There were special shoutouts to Shelton View PTA, Bothell High School PTSA, and Frank Love PTA for having the highest percent increase of members. We also gave a reminder to local PTAs to utilize the end of the year database checklist provided by WSPTA: https://www.wastatepta.org/pta-leaders/leader-resources/leadership-guides/ Advocacy: Jennifer Drury reported on her recent meeting with fellow Council board member Melissa Kline and School Board Directors Amy Cast and Sandy Hayes where they discussed overcrowding and communication between city and county councils and the school district. There were updates about the upcoming school board elections including working with the incoming Co-VPs of Advocacy on hosting a candidate forum. Jen also let us know that Washington State PTAs Legislative Session Scorecard is available to see what passed and what didn’t and that a draft of the conclusions of the Student Wellness and Safety Task Force from Northshore Schools is available to view. Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Chair: Cherry Holmes gave a recap of our parent ed event “Northshore Panel Discussion: Beyond Black and White” in partnership with RARE. Feedback from attendees was that they really appreciated the event. We ended the meeting with some timely calendar reminders.
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 2023-2024 school year.  On March 20th, 2023, Northshore Council PTSA held a virtual General Membership Meeting. We would like to say thank you to all of the local leaders from across the Northshore School District, as well as community and school partners for taking the time to join us!
Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. District and Community Partners:
We welcomed NSD’s Director of Food Services Juliana Fisher as our guest speaker. Ms. Fisher shared with us that about 2500 NSD students qualify for Free and Reduced rate breakfasts and lunches, but unfortunately only a fraction of them are currently enrolled in the program. As a result, Food Services is partnering with schools to make sure that all families are aware of the benefits and services to their students, and to encourage them to sign up if they qualify for the program. Ms. Fisher also shared with us that Food Services has faced some recent challenges due to the COVID pandemic and the impact that it had on providing meals at all schools. The main challenges have been a decrease in staffing, as well as supply chain issues. These issues have impacted the capacity for menu varieties, scratch cooking, cultural access, increasing vegetarian/vegan options, and cultural/linguistic/emotional access. Recently, Food Services created and implemented a picture food menu for our schools, which has been a hit with some of our students! Thank you, Ms. Fisher, for joining us and sharing with us how NSD Food Services continues to feed our students in our schools! Council Business: Council Treasurer Serena Xu presented the February Financial Report for review and approval, as well as the proposed Council budget for the 2023-2024 school year. Many thanks to the Council Budget committee (Mary Khouzam, Rachel Fitzgerald, Serena Xu, Brenae Brix, and Melissa Kline) for all of your hard work in helping create and proposing the new Council budget! Serena also shared with us that the Standard of Affiliation (SOA) is complete, and all elected Council officers have completed all of their required training, including PTA and the Law. Speaking of the SOA, Council Board member Diana Christiansen shared that 6 NSD schools participated in our SOA Raffle Drawing. The participating schools were Lockwood Elementary, Innovation Lab High School, Woodin Elementary, Frank Love Elementary, Cottage Lake Elementary, and Canyon Creek Elementary. The winner of the SOA Raffle Drawing is Lockwood Elementary! Congratulations, Lockwood! Council Nominating Committee member Cherry Holmes presented nominees for Council Executive Officers, and a vote was taken to approve the nominations. Our new Council Executive Board for the 2023-2024 school year are as follows: President - Rachel Fitzgerald Vice President - Grace Jurado Treasurer - Brenae Brix Co-VP of Advocacy - Holly Muenchow Co-VP of Advocacy - Terra Droney VP of Communications - Jennifer Snyder VP of Elementary Support - Diana Christiansen VP of Secondary Support - Jennifer Drury Congratulations, new Executive Board members! We currently have two Executive Board positions that we need to fill. Those positions are Secretary and VP of Events. If you like keeping accurate records and creating meeting minutes and newsletters, or if you love throwing parties or events, please consider throwing your name in the hat for one of these roles. Council will continue to seek volunteers for the OPEN positions of Secretary and VP of Events with the goal of holding an election at our General Membership Meeting on May 15, 2023. Advocacy Chair Jen Drury gave thanks to all of those involved in advocating for the best superintendent candidates, and thanks, also, to all of those who spent time during this last Washington State Legislative Session advocating for the Special Education bill, which passed in the Senate. Thank you, advocates! Half a dozen of advocates, including parents, spent much time in Zoom meetings with our legislators, and 2 dozen NSD parents, students, Superintendent Tolley, NSD school staff, and school board members traveled to Olympia on February 20th to meet with our state legislators and shared their voices in advocating for things that impact our students and our schools. Thank you for all of your advocacy! On behalf of the Grant Committee Chair (Grace Jurado, who as unable to join us), Mary Khouzam shared that another round for grant application submissions was open until March 24th, and the Council Awards Nominations form will be available soon. Reflections Chair Jasmine Fry shared that online showcasing is now available on Council’s website, and several NSD students did well! Carissa P. from Leota Middle School is advancing to National Reflections for Videography. Congratulations, Carissa! After several other committee updates, including info for an upcoming Mental Health Fair on May 23rd at Skyview Middle School, and a reminder that the Washington State PTA Convention will be held in May at the Bellevue Hilton, Co-Chair President, Mary Khouzam, brought our meeting to a close by reminding us that planning for Council’s Spring Recognition Even is underway, and details will be shared shortly. To help determine the time of day that works best for attendance, Mary shared a link to a poll asking us if a morning event time or an afternoon event time works best for each of us. Thank you to everyone who took time to join us! |
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