 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!
We will begin our meeting with a special 30-minute parent education presentation: Community & Technical College: Preparing Students for Their Future. Come learn about high-quality, affordable educational opportunities that can launch your student into a meaningful job and career path. The presenters will be Lake Washington Institute of Technology and Cascadia College. This presentation is appropriate for parents of all (freshman-senior) high school students. Immediately following the presentation, we will conduct our regular PTA business including holding an election for VP of Events. 
Request passcode by emailing communicationsvp@northshorecouncilptsa.org before meeting. Questions? Please email Brenae Brix, VP Secondary Support at vpsupportsec@northshorecouncilptsa.org.
Election Information: Northshore Council will be holding a virtual election for its open board position of VP of Events at the General Membership Meeting on Monday, May 15, 2023. The slated candidate is as follows: VP of Events: Melissa Quinonez Bennett Please be advised that no nominations were received for the position of Secretary. Council will continue to seek volunteers for the Secretary role with the goal of holding an election for it at a future General Membership Meeting. Virtual nominations for these positions closed on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Election Information: Since the position of VP of Events was not contested, the election will be held by voice vote at the next General Meeting on Monday, May 15, 2023, at 7 PM. Questions? Email Co-Presidents at president@northshorecouncilptsa.org. 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 prior to the meeting. You can also request the passcode by emailing Council PTSA Communications VP, Jenn Snyder.
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 prior to the meeting. You can also request the passcode by emailing Council PTSA Communications VP, Jenn Snyder.  On November 17th, 2022 Northshore Council PTSA held its second 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: 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:
Thank you community partners for joining us! Council Committee Updates:
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 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 prior to the meeting. You can also request the passcode by emailing Council PTSA Communications VP, Jenn Snyder.
WSPTA Leadership Training Information: Immediately following our General Meeting, we will be offering two Leadership trainings; Volunteers - Find Them and Keep Them and Roles and Responsibilities of the Board. Training is free and will satisfy the WSPTA annual training requirement. Training Descriptions Volunteers - Find Them and Keep Them How can your PTA build the community of volunteers it needs to run a thriving association? How do you attract volunteers and keep them involved? How do you create a balance between your volunteer resources and your needs? Get more volunteers and keep them! We’ll show you how. Roles and Responsibilities of the Board This presentation will help all board members understand the basic responsibilities of their positions – and everyone else’s! It will also cover items such as advocacy, fiduciary responsibility, membership and outreach. Additional Meeting Information:
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, Jenn Snyder.  Last month, on September 19th, Council held its first General Membership meeting of the 2022-2023 school year. We appreciate all the local leaders from across the district as well as all of the community partners who were able to attend!Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. Meeting Recap:
The General Membership meeting began with the reading of a Land Acknowledgement, a small but important step in showing respect and honor for the Indigenous Peoples of the land that we work and live on, and their truth, stories, and histories, which we commit to protecting and preserving from erasure. Claudine Miller was presented as the nominee for Council’s Secretary, and was then elected into the role after a vote was taken. Region 6’s Area VP, Liz Nord, then officially installed the Council officers for the 2022-2023 school year. Thank you, Council officers, for your commitment to serving our local PTAs and our students! Interim Superintendent Michael Tolley took some time to share with us what his and Northshore Schools’ focuses will be going forward into the 2022-2023 school year. NSD’s mission of “strengthening our community through excellence in education by focusing on our school communities, school climate and welfare, and school systems” will be hopefully be achieved by strategic initiatives such increasing inclusionary practices, and determining the measures that will tell us what we are going to do to help our students be successful in their education. To hear more about these strategic initiatives, and to share your hopes, concerns, and questions with Mr. Tolley, please consider attending a Listen and Learn session. More information can be found at https://www.nsd.org/our-district/leadership/interim-superintendent/listen-and-learn . Council Business:
District and Community Partners:
Lastly, our Council chairs gave us updates on the important work that they are doing to advocate for and support our NSD students and local PTAs. We are very excited for all that they are doing, and we hope that you will join us this school year in advocating for all of our NSD students! Thank you to all who joined us for the first General Membership meeting of 2022-2023, and we hope that you will continue to attend our meetings!  Welcome back for the 2022-2023 school year. We are excited to have our first meeting of the new school year. We invite you to attend and share ideas. Open to All! Date: Wednesday, October 12th, 2022 Time: 6 PM Location: Online via Zoom Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71180094000? Meeting ID: 711 8009 4000 Passcode: *available upon request* The goal of this committee is to promote mental health awareness and partner to bring relevant trainings, events, and resources to our community.
For questions about the mental health committee and for the meeting passcode, please email mentalhealth@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Visit our Mental Health Awareness page for more information and resources.
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