At the 44th Annual Legislative Assembly members from across the state came together to learn, debate, and vote on the new legislative priorities WSPTA will focus on for the next two years. In addition to the issues the delegates ranked as the top five, an additional eight issues were added to the "also supported" list. ​

Jennifer Drury, Cherry Holmes, and Kim Ortiz represented Council as voting delegates. In addition to Council delegates, there were PTA leaders from across Northshore schools that attended either in-person or remotely as delegates for their PTAs. 

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Tuesday, June 7th
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: Caregiver Self-Care
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4970917

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

This fourth (and final for this school year) webinar in the series will take place on June 7th and be focusing on Caregiver Self-Care. This webinar will discuss mindfulness to support resilience, why a checklist can calm your brain, and access to a video library with more self-care content. Check out the flyer below for more information.

*Deadline to register is 6pm on Monday, June 6th.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

Guest Presentation by Northshore School District Ethnic Studies Framework:  NSD Assistant Director of Equity and Pedagogy, Melissa Riley, and Northshore students shared a presentation on ethnic studies in the Northshore School District. This presentation answered the questions "What is ethnic studies, why is it important, and what will it look like for kids?" The curriculum will be for grades Pre K-12 and more information can be found here: https://bit.ly/pesbccdei.

Council Business: 
Approval of the January 20th, 2022 Meeting Minutes which were accepted with minor changes. Approval of the preliminary budget for the 2022-2023 school year.

Election of our 2022-2023 officers:
Thank you to our hardworking Nominating Committee, Diana Christiansen, Cherry Holmes, and Jasmine Lee Fry, for putting together the slate of candidates! Diana Christiansen read the Nominating Report. The self-nomination period was held in accordance with our e-voting policy 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 approved by a voice vote.

Congratulations to our incoming 2022-2023 officers!!

• For the Office of Co President: Rachel Fitzgerald and Mary Khouzam
• For the Office of First Vice President: Grace Jurado
• For the Office of Secretary: Open*
• For the Office of Treasurer: Serena Xu
• For the Office of VP of Events: Open*
• For the Office of VP of Advocacy: Jennifer Drury
• For the Office of VP of Communications: Jennifer Snyder
• For the Office of VP of Elementary Support: Diana Christiansen
• For the Office of VP of Secondary Support: Brenae Brix

*Please be advised that by the time the self-nomination period closed, no candidate had come forth for either Secretary or VP of Events. Council will continue to seek volunteers for these positions with the goal of holding elections for them at a future General Membership Meeting. If interested in serving in either of these roles on an interim basis, please contact us at president@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

District Updates:

• NSD Partnerships & Volunteer Coordinator Marco Garcia informed us that everything related to becoming a Northshore volunteer or being a campus visitor can now be completed on the Safe Visitor website for volunteers. He also let us know that the vaccine requirement has not been lifted. Finally, Community Serve Day will be August 21st 2022 with more information to come. Learn more about becoming a NSD volunteer.

 

• NSD School Board Updates: Director Amy Cast reviewed the technology parameters with us, reviewed strategic goals and indicators of progress as it has been five years, and reviewed the use of the Levy money including safety grants, work towards more school mental health professionals, nurses, as well as fewer portables etc. Learn more about NSD's School Board.

 

• Northshore School's Foundation: Hanisha Bakshani/NSF Ambassador North Creek High School let us know that the NSF All in For Kids event is March 31st, 2022 at 4pm at the Evergreen Church. Learn more about the Northshore School's Foundation.

Council Reports: 

• Staff Appreciation: Rachel Fitzgerald informed us that we will have a virtual staff appreciation for district staff. Currently collecting thank you notes from the community to put together for the staff. There will be a different piece for the council to do as well. The deadline to collect notes  and gather all the information is April 22nd. Learn more...

 

• Council Recognition Awards: Mary Khouzam updated us on Council recognition awards. This year we have an online form for nominations again which can be found here. If you would like to help with the awards recognition, please contact Mary at awards@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

 

• Speaker and Events Grants Program: Mary Khouzam let us know that grant program has closed for this year. Click here for Round 3 Recipients.

 

• Reflections: Jasmine Lee Fry updated us that we had 267 entries that were submitted to the council. 59 submissions were forwarded to the state. 4 entries won awards at the state level. Click here for judging results from both Council & WSPTA as well as a link to our Virtual Art Showcase. 

 

• Special Education: Laura Staneff let us know that Council will hold a series of 4 webinars scheduled for free through PAVE. The first one was about IEPS and took place on March 22nd. There will be three other webinars in April, May and June. Learn more...

 

• Mental Health Committee: Melissa Kline & Pauline Wray updated that the Mental Health Committee's Digital Safety Event with Jo Langford happened on March 14th and was well attended. Currently the committee is working on getting Mental Health resource posters up in secondary schools. Finally, an anti-bullying article is currently up on our website and ask that you please share it with your communities. 

 

• Membership: Hanisha Bakshani & Melissa Kline updated us that 21 PTAs are over their membership numbers from last year and we have a total of 5,337 members to date.   

We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on May 16th, 2022 @ 7pm. This meeting will also include our annual Spring Recognition Event!

​For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar.

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Tuesday, May 10th
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: IEP Transition (Planning for Life after High School)
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4970890

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

This third webinar in the series will take place on May 10th and be focusing on IEP Transition. This webinar will discuss planning for life after high school including information on tools to help students with disabilities prepare for adult life. Check out the flyer below for more information.

Save the Date for Our Next Special Education Webinar:

• June 7th: Caregiver Self-Care

*Deadline to register is 6pm on Monday, May 9th.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Wednesday, April 20th
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: Early Learning (Birth-3 and transition to IEP at age 3)
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4970013

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

The second webinar in the series will take place on April 20th and be focusing on Early Learning: Birth-3 services and transition into preschool for children with disabilities. Check out the flyer below for more information.

​Future webinars will include:

• May 10th: IEP Transition Planning for Life after High School
• June 7th: Caregiver Self-Care

*Deadline to register is 6pm on Tuesday, April 19th.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

Check out our new Special Education Representative Facebook Group!

​This group has been created to provide a forum for Northshore PTA/PTSA leaders to ask questions and share ideas, resources and stories about Special Education and is open to all local PTA/PTSA Special Education (SpEd) Representatives and Presidents.

While Council still plans to communicate to our local leaders via email and our other social media pages, we hope that you find this group a useful tool when it comes to communicating between our SpEd Reps across our district.

Laura Staneff was appointed at the February 7th Council Board Meeting to fill the role of Special Education Representative for Northshore Council PTSA. Laura and her family have lived in Kenmore since January 2019; they had previously lived within Lake Washington School District, having moved to Washington from Massachusetts in 2017.

In her new role at Council, Laura hopes to help to build a culture of collaboration for Special Education within NSD. She wants to improve communication within our current decentralized model for Special Education PTSA Representation, providing new opportunities for Representatives to consult with each other and to support the wider Special Education membership. She is also working on Parent Education opportunities, including the upcoming spring webinar series, Special Education: Student & Family Support, presented by PAVE (Partnerships in Action/Voices For Empowerment).

If you are the Special Education Chair for your local PTA/PTSA, or are on your local PTA's board and looking for more information on how to bring this position to your PTA, please reach out to Laura by emailing specialed@northshorecouncilptsa.org.

Northshore Council PTSA is offering a FREE Parent Education Webinar Series in partnership with PAVE (Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment). 

Special Education: Student & Family Support
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd
Time: 6:00PM
​Focus Topic: Student Rights - IEP, Section 504, and more!
Registration*: https://www.tfaforms.com/4969578

This webinar series will be presented by Jerri Clark, Parent Resources Coordinator of Partnerships in Action/Voices of Empowerment (PAVE). Each webinar in the series will have a different focus topic and a separate registration link.

The first webinar in the series will take place on March 22nd and be focusing on Student Rights: IEP, Section 504, and more! Check out the flyer below for more information.

​Future webinars will include:

• April 20th: Early Learning (Birth-3 and transition to IEP at age 3)
• May 10th: IEP Transition Planning for Life after High School
• June 7th: Caregiver Self-Care

**Deadline to register is 6pm on Monday, March 21st.

Questions? Email Council's Special Education Representative, Laura Staneff. 
For more information about PAVE, visit their website at https://wapave.org.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future Special Education: Student & Family Support events!

If you are interested in serving on Council in this role, know someone who is, or have additional questions about this role, please contact Council President, Jane Chiodo.​

Council SpEd Rep Details

• Can be a co-position (shared by 2 volunteers)
• Heads up the Special Education Committee: This committee is made up of all the SpEd reps from all NSD schools, and any projects or objectives can be carried out as a joint effort of the whole committee, rather than falling only on the chair, or co-chairs.
• Duties of this position include:
  • Helping to raise awareness.
  • Promoting district and community resources.
  • Attending Northshore Council PTSA meetings
  • Offering educational program opportunities, often in partnership with other community organizations.
  • Connecting with and supporting the SpEd reps at NSD schools by meeting with them periodically (most recently over Zoom) to hear concerns from them, and from parents of kids at the schools they represent, and/or discuss possible action items.
  • Collecting questions and feedback from NSD SpEd reps to share at meetings with Council, other local PTA leaders, school board members, or other NSD staff as appropriate.