 Congratulations to Kerys P. of Leota Middle School, whose video production entry won an Award of Merit in the National PTA Reflections arts competition.
Kerys, an 8th grader, crafted a stop-motion film entitled Be Yourself. She was among the 200 national winners who were honored for their creative interpretations of the theme Show Your Voice, in the categories of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography and visual arts as well as a special artist division. View the list of all National PTA Reflections 2022-2023 winners. View Northshore Council PTSA's 2022-2023 Reflections Art Showcase.
Join us in honoring this year's finalists by attending the WSPTA Reflections Student Recognition Celebration Thursday, April 27 6:30 - 8:00 PM RSVP Here This year’s WSPTA Reflections Student Recognition Celebration will be a virtual program. Our award-winning students’ artwork will be shown with live hosts guiding attendees through activities and a live chat feature so the audience can congratulate students as their artwork is displayed.  Please join us in celebrating our student artist with the launch of the Northshore Council Reflections Online Showcase on Monday, February 27. It will include all of our Council Qualifiers and will be found on our website under the Reflections tab. The 2023-2024 Reflections theme is "I Am Hopeful Because..." Please spread the word so student artists can start working on their new pieces! 
Questions? Contact Council's Reflections Chair, Jasmine Lee Fry.
For more information about the Reflections program, please visit our Reflections Program page.  Congratulations to all the students who made it to the Council Level for judging!! CONGRATULATIONS to all our talented Northshore artists who participated in Reflections this year! We had 215 entries from 27 schools. The students demonstrated creativity and passion while keeping with the 2022-23 theme of "Show Your Voice". Judging Results: There were 57 State Qualifiers who continued on to Washington State PTA for further judging. There were also 12 pieces that received the honorable Judge's Choice Award.
This year's Reflections theme was "I Will Change the World By...". National PTA received more than 900 entries from 47 state PTAs. A list of all National award recipients can be found here: https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/programs/reflections/current_reflections-21-22/2021-22-reflections-winners-list.pdf
To learn more about Reflections and how to promote the PTA program at your school, visit our Reflections page.  Council is hosting two (2) Roundtables focusing on Reflections! Join us for one or both of these roundtables which are designed to support our local PTA/PTSA leaders with any questions they may have about the 2021-2022 Reflections Program.
Can't make it to the roundtable but still have questions? Check out these additional resources for help!
 The theme search for the 2023-2024 Reflections arts program is underway! Students are encouraged to submit theme ideas that spark fun and creativity! In response to the winning theme, students from Pre-K through 12th grade will create original works of art in one or all the available arts categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, Visual Arts.
The student who submits the winning entry will receive a $100 prize from National PTA. Past themes and duplicate submissions will not be considered. Submissions must by received via email by Nov. 1, 2021. Click here to for a list of past themes. Submit your entry using the NEW online Theme Search form. Questions? Email ptaprogdir@wastatepta.org. This year's Reflections Theme is "I Will Change the World By..."
The Reflections Program is a National PTA and WSPTA cultural arts competition. The purpose is to provide an opportunity for students to use their creative talents by expressing themselves through their own original works for the theme of "I Will Change the World By...".
Reflections is so much more than "just an art contest." It helps kids take risks, be inspired, think creatively, receive positive recognition and be celebrated for their works of art. It also allows our community to celebrate our students' creativity! Encourage art by offering Reflections at your PTA! Council is here to help make it easy! Check out our Reflections page for regular updates and links to the student entry form and rules (available in English and Spanish), join the Northshore Council PTSA Reflections and Art Docent Chairs Facebook group and be sure to sign up for our "almost weekly" Reflections communications. Dates to Note:
Questions? Contact Council's Reflections Chair, Jasmine Lee Fry.  National PTA has announced the results of the 2020-2021 PTA Reflections!
Click here to see a full list of results from National PTA. Council would like to extend a special congratulations to the following two (2) students from Northshore who both received an Award of Excellence from National PTA for their Reflections submissions:
You can check out their submissions and all the other amazing Northshore Artists on our Virtual Showcase website through June 18th, 2021.  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! |
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