 Last night at the January 20th General Membership Meeting Council's Board of Directors put forward the issue of supporting the bond and levies that are on the February ballot. During this meeting we presented 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 would like to announce that the motion to support the Northshore School District Bond & Levies on the February 8th Ballot was passed unanimously. Resources to Learn More about the Bond & Levies, including the Pro and Con Positions General Bond & Levies Info: https://www.nsd.org/our-district/overview/bond-levies Pro Position Info: https://citizensfornorthshoreschools.org/ Con Position Info: https://www.nsdstudentsfirst.com/home Voter Information & Resources February 8th, 2022 Special Election Dates & Voter Registration Information January 21st - Ballots are mailed out and Accessible Voting Units (AVUs) are available at voting centers. January 31st - Last day for voters to register or update voter information online February 8th - Last day for voters to register or update voter information in person by 8pm February 8th - *Special Election Day* Deposit your ballot in an official drop box by 8pm Additional Resources King County Ballot Information Snohomish County Ballot Information  Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
 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.  Last month Council held their 2nd General Meeting of the 2021-2022 school year. We appreciate all the local leaders from across the district as well as community and school partners who took the time to attend! Continue reading for a recap of this meeting.
General Updates from President Jane Chiodo:
Council Business: The minutes from the September 2021 meeting were approved as written. Council's AIM insurance for the year was renewed and paid for in October. The mid year financial review committee was appointed while the election for the Nominating Committee was postponed until the next membership meeting. Guest Speakers:
Council Reports:
We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on January 20th, 2022 @ 7pm. For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar.  Each year, Northshore Council PTSA requests a list of district families that have opted in to receiving communications from the Northshore School District. Council is happy to share this information with the Local PTA’s that request it from us for the purposes of PTA/PTSA communications.
Requests should be made to our Council Secretaries - Cheri Hardin and Pauline Wray - and must come from the local PTA president only. Along with your directory list, we will send a copy of our 2021 Communications Guidelines for Student Directory regarding responsible use of this information. Please allow up to 1 week for your directory request to be processed.  Please join us for our second general membership meeting of the year on Monday, November 15, 2021 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). *UPDATED* Additionally, we will have THREE (3) special guest speakers during this meeting:
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.  A big part of PTA is Advocacy. Getting information out to voters is one way Council supports this advocacy work. In the upcoming November 2nd Election, three (3) Northshore School District School Board seats are up for election. To increase access to candidates for voters, Council held an in-person forum on October 5th, 2021. A recording of this forum can be found below. Before watching the forum, please read this message from Council: With events of this type, there were bound to be unexpected challenges and technical issues. And, unfortunately, our forum did not escape the gremlins. Initially, the candidates struggled with the 1 minute time limit on answers and a decision was made to extend their time to answer from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. There were also challenges with recording and especially with sound throughout the event. And, to cap it off, the microphone malfunctioned 10 minutes from the end of our event. When the microphone quit, we made the decision to switch to another video format and allow the candidates to remove their masks for their closing statements to ensure a clearer delivery. Because of these issues, you will notice that our recording is not as smooth as we had hoped. There are a few cuts in recording where we had to edit out some of the more obnoxious technical issues - especially the microphone squeaks and feedback - and our attempts to fix them. Any portion of the video where the candidates were speaking has been kept intact and unaltered. Despite the best efforts of our volunteers, you may also notice a sync issue between the audio and visual at times and most notably around the 1 hour mark. Please be assured that all answers candidates gave can be heard in their entirety. We sincerely appreciate the patience of those who were in person with us and the grace the candidates showed. We especially applaud our team of volunteers for demonstrating the meaning of "PTA Flexible". The School Board Candidate Forum can be viewed by clicking the image below.  Click the image above to watch the recording of the School Board Candidate Forum from October 5th, 2021. Additional Resources for Voters
  Last week Council held their 1st General Meeting of the 2021-2022 school year. We appreciate all the local leaders from across the district as well as community and school partners who took the time to attend! Continue reading for a recap of this meeting.
General Updates from President Jane Chiodo:
Open Council Positions: Council is still looking for a VP of Events. If you know anyone who would be a good fit, please contact us! In October, Northshore Council will start to look for three people to be on the Nominating Committee. Tip for Local PTAs: Discuss the Nominating Committee at your next PTA/PTSA meeting in order to start the process early. Upcoming Trainings and Opportunities: Legislative Assembly will be virtual and is scheduled for October 23th and 24th. Training will be available beginning in October. Upcoming training courses are listed on Council's Training Opportunities page. Council Business: In our meeting we reviewed the Year End Financial Review, our Mission and Goals, and our Standing Rules. These updated documents can be viewed in the About Us section of our website. NSD School Board Update: Director Dave Cogan shared updates from the Northshore School Board updates.
Northshore Schools Foundation Update: Carmin Dalziel gave updates on the Northshore Schools Foundation and how they continue to work to give money to schools. She shared that classroom grants now have deadlines every other month. They also provide basic needs aid (crisis funds) now. Crisis funds are $200 per family that is sent to help buy gas, groceries and get people back on their feet. Each school has a staff care team lead available. Northshore Foundation are always looking for ambassadors at each school. The Bond and Levy committee will be available to come to general meetings, if needed. If you are at Kenmore School, the school foundation just received approval to do a cash disbursement for families in extreme need. Schools access these funds through the care team lead. The business and updates part of our meeting adjourned allowing for time for breakout rooms. We were thrilled that so many local leaders participated in these rooms in order to share ideas, ask questions, and support each other! We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on November 15th, 2021 @ 7pm. For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar.  Northshore Council PTSA will be holding an in-person School Board Candidate Forum on October 5th from 7 - 8:30PM. This forum will take place at the Kenmore Community Club.
Please note that capacity is limited to 100 people on a first come, first served basis. For those who are unable to attend, a video recording will be posted to our website by Friday, October 8th. Logistics for those planning to attend:
Have a question for the candidates? Email us! This forum will be hosted and moderated by the Northshore Council PTSA. Additional Resources July 15th School Board Primary - Candidate Q&A King County Ballot Information Snohomish County Ballot Information November 2nd, 2021 General Election Dates & Voter Registration Information September 28th - National Voter Registration Day October 13th - Ballots mailed for King County October 14th - Ballots mailed for Snohomish County October 25th - Last day for voters to register or update voter information online November 2nd - Last day for voters to register or update voter information in person November 2nd - Election Day  Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
 Council is helping to promote PTA Membership across our district! Last week, Council's Co-Chairs of Membership, Hanisha Bakshani & Melissa Kline, traveled to all corners of our district placing "PTA for Your Child - Join PTA" yard signs. These signs were placed at all Northshore Schools and the District Admin Building. The QR code on these signs directs families to our list of Northshore PTAs/PTSAs* on our website. This list includes links to your website, Facebook, and online join link so families can connect with your PTA and sign up for membership. Check out the photo gallery below for pics of all the yard signs! To find out more about why online join is key, check out last week's Membership Monday article on Planning Your Campaign. *Need to update or add a link for your PTA to our list? We can do that! Just send us an email.                                    Below you will find links to Q&As from each of the eleven (11) Northshore School District School Board Candidates running in the August 2021 Primary Election. To view the responses, click on each candidate's image which will open a PDF of the Q&A. Note: These are best viewed from a desktop type device. A message from our Co-VPs of Advocacy: To reach as many voters as possible and provide them another resource to make informed choices on their ballots, we invited the school board candidates to answer seven questions taken from the most common questions and themes we heard from PTA and community members. We know that candidates are providing information on their own websites and social media, but it can be helpful to have one place where people can access information on all the candidates to compare them more efficiently. We chose questions that cover a variety of interests and concerns from across the district. We emailed each candidate using the email address listed on the King County Elections page. We asked candidates to submit their answers via a Google form by July 12th to allow us time to publish everyone’s responses before the ballots arrive in the mail. This gave candidates one week to respond. We recognize this was a short turn around but we were eager to get information to the voters of our district after having to pivot quickly after canceling our Zoom forums. The candidates’ answers are cut-and-pasted from the Google form so you will see their complete, un-edited answers. If they have any concerns about how their responses are presented, we have asked them to let us know, so that we may address the issue. We really appreciate that all of the candidates took the time to answer our questions. NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 1
NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 4
NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 5
 Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.  |
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