Northshore Council PTSA is proud to co-sponsor two upcoming Parent Education Events taking place on Thursday, January 28th; one on digital safety and the other on instilling positive self-identity in our children. These events were made possible by the Educational Speaker and Community Event Grants Program. Check out the details for each of these events below!

Every year PTAs start their membership campaign and every year families ask the same question: "Why join the PTA?" ​This year especially, families may be asking why they should support PTA. It can be hard to communicate your PTA's value now that everything is online when families are used to attending PTA events or seeing the support your PTA does in the classroom. That's why it's more important than ever to answer the question "Why PTA?" One great way of doing that is sharing with your families the reason why you support the PTA. Knowing WHY those leading your PTA serve is a great way to inspire other families to support your PTA by joining or donating.

Check out all the reasons that inspire your Northshore Council Leaders to PTA below!
​Interested in making your own "Why I PTA" slides? Contact Council's VP of Membership, Melissa Kline, for help on how to.

Inspired by Community Serve Day, an annual event held in August, the Frank Love PTA decided to take it to a new level in their community.  Born was the idea of Love 4 Frank which would work to bring the community together to beautify Frank Love Elementary four times a year.

The first event was held in November.  Over 25 adults and kids came out and worked together to accomplish tasks across campus.  They fixed the drainage of a leaky faucet, repainted the faucet, prepared a flower bed for the students to plant 700 tulips bulbs in the next few weeks, and they raked and removed 10 huge garden bags of dead leaves from the exterior walk way/parking lot.

The coolest project though was the “cupping project.” PTA members worked together to install 42 feet of of fence cups along the entrance to their lovely school to spell out the school name.  The project cost $500 but the end result was an eye-catching and colorful welcome when you drive up to the school.  Frank Love PTA also hopes the project helped make a better connection with their immediate neighbors and the sign shows pride!

If you have questions, reach out to the fabulous Frank Love PTA co-Presidents, Holly Batstone and Kelli Galloway.

The following Northshore PTAs have already surpassed their total membership from the last school year. Great job!

Keep up the amazing work!!! Remember that membership is year-round and growth goals are ongoing. If your PTA has already met its initial goal-- keep the momentum going and set your next goal. And if your PTA isn't there yet-- keep at it and continue building awareness because every member counts!

If you have questions about membership, whether it's about memberplanet or finding inspiration for your next campaign, Council is here to help! Contact Council Membership Chair Amber Rosenquist with your questions.

Core to every PTA's mission is the overarching vision to make every child's potential a reality. Every child has needs that extend beyond the classroom and sometimes families might need additional supports in order to meet those needs. Helping to connect families with resources available in their community can be a wonderful way for local PTAs to offer their support.

Crystal Springs PTA has taken this idea to heart and developed a great tool for their families. It is a brochure titled, "Emergency Food & Housing Resources." They have compiled a listing of community resources that families can reference in times of need and have put it all together in a handy brochure. Included are food stability resources, emergency housing options, and more, with details and contact information for each. Crystal Springs PTA printed the brochure and then partnered with their school office to ensure that the brochures are available and can be shared with interested families.

The brochure they have created is available for download below. In addition, Crystal Springs PTA has shared the original MS Publisher file. It is editable so that your PTA can easily customize it for use in your community.

This is a wonderful way to help families who may be in need! Crystal Springs PTA's thoughtful approach to serving their community and their sharing spirit are great examples of what makes us #PTAProud!

Over the past few years, Moorlands Elementary PTA has been working on campus beautification, beginning with the installation of a bottle cap mural and culminating in the completion of a garden surround. The years of effort have resulted in a school entrance that is both beautiful and welcoming.

Bottle cap art mural – The bottle-cap mural which serves as a colorful backdrop to the new garden was originally completed in 2016. This collaborative project was an experience of tremendous support and community-building and so many positive lessons for Moorlands students. The process has done so much more than just teach students about the environment and using recycled materials to make something beautiful. The lessons that it has taught them in pulling together resources, goal-setting, project process and hard work and perseverance has been invaluable in their educational experience. They all have such pride and ownership of their work now that the see the mural up on campus. They will never look at another bottle cap the same-- and many have expressed interest in making their own bottle cap art project, so this experience really doesn’t end here.

The Garden: In the spring of 2018 a garden committee was created.  The support within the Moorlands community was overwhelming to move forward with finishing the beautification project since everyone was so proud of the mural.  The garden was built to be used-- for families and visitors to walk the path, sit on the bench, smell the flowers and admire the beloved mural.  Garden Chair Janna Snider elaborated, "My hope for the garden is that staff will use the space for meetings on sunny days,  for class volunteers to take small groups outdoors to read and discuss literature, a place to calm a child down who is struggling, and for parents to take their child’s picture on the first day of Kindergarten.  It is truly a community space for all to enjoy."

Congratulations to Moorlands PTA and to the Moorlands Elementary community on completion of this amazing collaborative project! #PTAProud

25 volunteers, 5 work parties, 15 yards of dirt removed, 14 new yards added, and 175 plants!  The bench, paid for by the PTA and made out of recycled milk bottles, was custom made for Moorlands and measures about 19’ long.

Thank you to Janna Snider, Garden Chair, Moorlands PTA, for sharing her before and after project photos!

This amazing community resource is available to our community thanks to Canyon Park Middle School PTSA in partnership with the school district and Bothell United Methodist Church. It is a huge responsibility to operate a resource like this and it is a testament to the dedication of CPMS PTSA and the many caring volunteers who make the time to operate this resource for Northshore families.

At Northshore Council PTSA's general meeting on September 16, 2019, Threads & Treads Coordinator Kelly Hennessey briefly spoke to the work that they do and the families they serve and invited Northshore PTAs to contribute their support either by budgeting an annual financial donation or by volunteering. She also shared that at the during this year's NSD Back to School Fair, they provided outfits to more than 100 people, and in just the first few weeks of school, they have been averaging 50 people a week who visit and take home clothing. And they are working to help broaden their impact by offering Saturday shopping hours once  a month.

The importance and relevance of Threads & Treads in our Northshore community cannot be understated. And CPMS PTSA and the Threads & Treads volunteer leaders are working hard to make that known! Through email campaigns, social media, and by sharing their story with local PTAs and community leaders at our Northshore Council general meeting, they are already seeing successes and gaining additional support. 

Visit the Threads & Treads website  for more information about donating, volunteering, making financial contributions, or arranging a clothing drive. If your PTA is interested in learning more about out how it can offer support, please contact Threads & Treads Coordinator Kelly Hennessey.

How did they do it??? Westhill PTSA kicked off its membership year with a social media campaign in their Westhill Elementary PTSA Facebook group. On August 19th They shared their Olympics theme for the year and announced their "Gold Medal Goal" of reaching 200 members (nearly a 20% increase over their 2018-2019 total) and encouraged families to sponsor a teacher.

In the two weeks that followed, they offered regular updates and encouraged families to sponsor their teachers and staff members. They shared a video that debunks common membership myths (watch the video) and promoted their online membership sign-up option (which they offered through their website, www.westhllptsa.org). A week into the campaign, they shared an update, listing the teachers who had been sponsored so far, and hyped up their teacher sponsorship efforts. One day, they posted 7 times throughout the day, giving regular updates as more sponsorships came in. It really built excitement and gave a lot of visibility to the campaign and drove even more families to participate. This prompted Westhill PTSA to broaden their focus to encouraging people to sponsor staff members as well.  By the next day, they only needed 14 more memberships to ensure every staff member could join. A few more posts with updates (9 more! 7 more! 5 more!) and by August 31st, they had received 60 total sponsored memberships-- enough to cover the ENTIRE Westhill Elementary staff.

The campaign was conducted entirely via social media and word-of-mouth and their community responded to the challenge in a big way.

"The level of donations was incredible and we were able to get people to sign up and tack on a teacher. We were able to share with the staff during their in-service day and they were very excited and thankful," reported Westhill PTSA President, Lindsay Christiansen, who credited their Membership Chair, Missy Cornwell, for her creative approach and for driving the campaign.

Not only did Westhill PTSA kick off their membership year in a fabulous way, but they were able to build excitement and bring their community together while also showing their support for their school staff in a big way.

Way to go, Westhill PTSA!!!  

#PTAProud

At the beginning of June, Frank Love Elementary PTA shared photos on their Facebook page of a newly-installed bottle cap mural. The mural, which overlooks the campus entrance, serves as a colorful welcome to all who visit the school. Northshore Council contacted FLE PTA to learn more about the project and how their PTA was involved.

The mural began as a 5th grade legacy project in 2017-18 in coordination with local artist, Stephanie Roman-Olvera. Parents, students, staff and community members collected and washed thousands of bottle caps which the artist used to create the colorful image. Then the 2018-19 5th Grade Class and Promotion Team partnered with Frank Love PTA, the artist, school administration and Northshore School District in order to bring the mural to completion. The PTA helped fund the mural project via its School Beautification budget.

Frank Love Elementary PTA co-President Sara Lennerblom describes the mural so well: "This community mural is [a] beautiful reflection of our FLE Community and we are thankful to the many hands that provided time, talents, and bottle caps to make this legacy gift to our school a reality. It will have a lasting imprint on our campus for years to come!"

It is so inspiring to hear stories about successful community-school partnerships such as this! Thank you so much, Frank Love Elementary PTA, for your part in making this beautiful mural happen and for sharing the story with Council!

Earlier this month, Arrowhead Elementary worked on a school-wide project called "Kindness Connects Us." The goal of the project was to celebrate acts of kindness that happen every day. Teachers and students worked together to nominate each other for kindness 'links' which were then connected to create chains in each classroom. On June 13th, a school assembly was held to combine all of the links-- creating a giant chain that gave a visible representation of how far their kind acts had reached. Arrowhead Elementary PTA provided Otter Pops and organized a group of parent volunteers to help pass those out and assist during a special celebratory all-school recess.

The Kindness Connects Us project was created by Arrowhead staff as a way to positively reinforce the ongoing work of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS)-- the district-wide framework being used to improve school climate and provide integrated supports for improving social, emotional and academic outcomes for all students.  The result of collaboration by Arrowhead's MTSS/PBIS and Equity & Diversity teams, Kindness Connects Us worked to build on the theme of Kindness that the school had been focusing on throughout the year.  They also coordinated with Arrowhead PTA to help spread the word to families and organize the culminating celebration-- turning it into a wonderful opportunity for family and community engagement as well.

The project was kicked off by having each student create an "Identity Link" to show kindness to ourselves and to celebrate their individual and unique identities. Each class picked from one of three identity link options. Teacher Jessica-Lynn Tompkins (also a project organizer) described this first step, "The identity links are included in our kindness chain to ensure that everyone (staff and student) had a link right away and to symbolize that even though we are different, we are one community."  

For two weeks, teachers gave out kindness links that included the student's name and a place to mark if they were kind to themselves, to others, or to the school. Each class had a goal of 100 links. Students received links at recess, in their classrooms, and could even nominate peers for links during class meetings. Every student in school wrote messages of how to demonstrate kindness throughout their daily lives. Then they ended the project with an all-school assembly where they connected all of the links and enjoyed some music. Together, the links of paper formed a gigantic chain across the school’s campus! The day of celebration was capped off with a special all-school recess and sweet treats from Arrowhead PTA.

This Kindness Connects Us project involved the entire school community and offered an incredible visual reminder of the power of kindness and how kindness can connect us all.