Recently, Council has been sent several questions asking about our upcoming School Board Candidate Forum and felt it was best to address those questions publicly.
On June 22, 2021 at 7pm, the Northshore Council PTSA was scheduled to host the first of three scheduled Zoom Forums for each of the three open positions on the Northshore School Board. Unfortunately, all but one of the candidates pulled out at the last minute. We will leave it to the candidates to share their reasons. Due to this, the first recording was not able to be done. We are currently working on rescheduling this forum. Northshore Council PTSA has held many candidate forums in the past including school board candidate forums and most recently state representative forums in 2018 and 2020. Council volunteers have done their best to create a fair, non-partisan forum in which each candidate is asked the same questions and has the same time to answer the questions. Council took input from PTA/PTSA members as well as community members for these questions which represent a wide spectrum of issues and concerns from across the district. The three recorded Zoom Forums, though recorded on different days, would be all posted to our website on the same day and will not be edited or altered in any way. Members of the community have asked about the possibility of us hosting an in person forum. Due to the short time-frame, we do not have time to find a venue and organize an in-person forum before the primary school board election, but we will consider hosting one before the general election. Click here to learn more about the format of Council's 2021 School Board Candidate Forum. We hope that given another chance, all school board candidates will choose to participate in our Zoom Forums as it is important for voters to have the opportunity to hear about their experiences, views, and vision for the education of Northshore students in order to make informed choices. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to our Co-VPs of Advocacy by emailing advocacy@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Northshore Council PTSA is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a 2021 Northshore School Board Candidate Forum just in time for the 2021 School Board Primary. This forum is being held to educate voters within Northshore School District about the school board candidates that are running in the Primary election. We will be sharing this pre-recorded event on July 15th. We will use social media as well as our website to promote the forum to the voters within Northshore School District. It is a great chance to get to know the candidates! The format will include 3 separate videos, one for each of the three seats that are up for election. Candidates from each seat will appear with their opponents. The moderators will be from the Northshore PTSA council’s advocacy team. There will not be an audience. We have offered each candidate two minutes for an opening statement. Following that will be a short question and answer period rotating between the candidates. The questions are being solicited from citizens of Northshore. Concluding, we will offer one minute to each candidate for a closing statement. If you have questions you would like asked during this forum, please email them to advocacy@northshorecouncilptsa.org. Keep an eye out for this important resource arriving on our website and social medias around July 15! Ballots should be arriving around the same time. See below for more information on the Primary and voter registration. This is a great resource for your PTA members and school community - please share it out! Diana Christiansen and Jennifer Drury Co-Vice Presidents of Advocacy Northshore Council PTSA 6.10 Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
Thank you to everyone that attended our fifth and final membership meeting of the school year! This meeting was especially impactful as there were over 55 attendees from our local PTA’s and community partners in attendance. Council Business: The meeting kicked off with an approval of minutes from our March general meeting, before moving on to hear the Treasurer’s Report for the month of May from the Council Treasurer, Liz Nord. May’s report reflected income from membership service fees, as well as expenses related to the Spring Recognition Event, Moneyminder software renewal, WSPTA scholarship funds, WSPTA convention registration fees and awards. Next on the agenda was an update to the Northshore Council PTSA Standing Rules. Changes recommended were:
Our VP of Communications, Rachel Fitzgerald, then shared with everyone the importance of updating the contact information for positions being filled for next year in your PTA. If you are an officer next year, please update your contact information before July 1st, 2021. This information will be used to contact you by council board members that want to support your PTA. It is also how you will be on the list to receive communications from council, including the council newsletter, that will keep you updated on events and happenings in our district. Remember to update officers into memberplanet as well! District and Community Reports: School Board Director David Cogan shared an update in regards to Northshore School District that included, but was not limited to:
Lauren Lewis, acting NSD Partnerships and Volunteer Coordinator, reported the following:
After the updates were given by the community partners there was a reminder to the local PTA attendees to please remember to fill out the end of year survey from Council. This survey lets us know how we can better serve your PTA with your valuable feedback. We will be taking survey responses up until midnight on Friday, June 25th. Our Council President, Jane Chiodo, then shared a personal message of thanks to the council as well as the local leaders and community partners. Click here to read that message. Last, but certainly not least, the evening ended with our 2020-2021 Spring Recognition Event! This event was hosted by our Co-VP of Events, Mary Khouzam and Karrie Palis. The theme was "Thank You for Making Lemonade". This was such a fitting theme since all of our local PTA’s did exactly that this year, when handed lemons, they made some lemonade! The event included performances from Skyview Middle School's symphonic band, orchestra, and choir as well as a performance from the Bothell High School Bel Canto Choir. The highlight of the event was celebrating all the achievements of our local PTAs/PTSAs as well as the recipients of their Recognition Awards. Council was also honored to present this year's Council Recognition Awards. Congratulations to: 🌟 Outstanding Educator: Natalie Campbell 🌟 Outstanding Advocate: Cathi Davis 🌟 Outstanding Student Advocate: Diya Gupta 🌟 Outstanding Service: Melissa Kline 🌟 Golden Acorn: Lauren Lewis 🌟 Golden Acorn: Liz Nord 🌟 Honorary Life Membership: Nancy Chamberlain Click here to learn more about each of our 2020-2021 Council Award Recipients. Thank you to our Council Awards Committee Members Diana Christiansen, Rachel Fitzgerald, and Karrie Palis for the beautiful awards presentation and speeches given during the event! Thank you to all that attended this fun evening! It was a fun night with lots to celebrate for making it through this unprecedented school year! Looking forward to our next membership meeting in the fall. Have a wonderful summer and enjoy this much deserved time to relax with your families.
May 3-7 is Staff Appreciation Week! As a Council, we wanted to put together something that showed just how much we and families all across the district appreciate ALL Northshore District Staff. The video below is filled with lovely messages from PTA Leaders, Volunteers, and Families. Video can also be viewed at this external link: https://tinyurl.com/x6k8cr79
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! Council is gathering gratitudes to share with the many Northshore School District Administrators and Staff who work behind the scenes every week to make NSD the great district that it is! Fill out this form to leave a message to let NSD Staff know how much you appreciate them and all that they do for our district. Messages will be shared by Council PTSA with NSD Staff. Please make sure to submit your messages no later than Thursday, April 22nd. In response to the horrific attack on one of our Northshore School District teachers, the Northshore Council PTSA Board of Directors sent the following letter of support to District Admin earlier today. View the letter below or click here to print a copy. On February 4th, 2021, Northshore Council sent a letter to the school board for Public Comment. This letter was read by Northshore School District Board Member, David Cogan, during the February 8th, 2021 meeting. The letter speaks to addressing the mental health needs of children and youth and asked that the district continue to make mental health a priority in our schools. See below for a full copy of the letter. Click here to download or print. Resources Linked in Letter
National PTA: Resolution on Mental Health Programs and Services (pta.org) Washington State PTA: Advocacy (wastatepta.org) This year all of our Northshore School District Middle Schools will have a virtual Career Day together! In order to make this happen, many volunteer speakers are needed. Career Day Information The NSD Middle School PTSAs, along with the Northshore Schools Foundation, have joined forces to make sure our students can participate in an online Career Day. This year’s online program will take place on Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Career Day offers NSD middle school students insight into many different career fields. It gives our students an opportunity to learn what is needed to be successful in different fields/industries. We want our students to understand that no career path is ever a straight line and within any career there are lots of different avenues they can follow. Volunteers Needed We are looking for Presenters from ALL career fields and paths, including professional, trade, service industry, stay at home parents – you name it, we welcome it! More importantly, our past surveys show that students are eager hear about every type of job, not just those in the STEM fields. There are TWO (2) ways you can volunteer to help with Career Day this year! You can be a Presenter or a Moderator. As a Presenter, you will:
As a Moderator, you will:
Sign up to be a Career Day 2021 Volunteer! To be a Presenter:
To be a Moderator:
Goal is to have all 90 presenters and 45 event volunteers secured by the end of February. If you know of someone that you feel would be an asset to our students, please feel free share this information! Questions? Contact the District Career Day Committee at careerday2021@outlook.com. Northshore School District Bulk Purchase of Stop The Bleed Kits Council PTSA E-Prep committee will be reaching out to each PTA/PTSA in the district to ask if they would like to participate in a one time buy to add additional Stop the Bleed Kits to their school. The recommended coverage is 1 per every classroom, but each PTA/PTSA could fund more or less than that amount. cost is $45.00/kit. Stop the Bleed Kits are designed to help stop traumatic, life-threatening bleeding. To save a life, kits are important to have during the first 2 to 5 minutes before first responders arrive. Each kit contains the following:
Each kit comes vacuum sealed for long life and no maintenance. For more information, visit this link. Northshore Council PTSA is contributing $3500.00 to provide 2 of these kits per school to be located at the AEDs ensuring every school has a Stop the Bleed Kit.
In addition, Northshore School District (NSD), in partnership with Northshore Council PTSA E-Prep chairs, is offering a one-time bulk purchase of Stop the Bleed Kits to all PTAs/PTSAs. Each local PTA/PTSA can grant funds to their school by March 30th so that NSD can place orders for kits by April 30th. The E-Prep Committee is also requesting staff at each school attend a 1-hour A.C.T. Save a Life Training. For more information, contact Robin McKenzie & Tracy Jokisch, Council Emergency Preparedness Co-Chairs. |
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