​Does someone in your PTA deserve a shout out?
​WSPTA has a formal volunteer award recognition program allowing local PTAs to award honors for outstanding educator, advocate, student advocate, and volunteer (Golden Acorn), as well as the honorary life membership award.

Awards are a great way for PTAs to show their community how much they appreciate them and to celebrate the dedication of those who support your PTA's mission and goals!

Local PTAs should appoint an awards committee who will gather nominations, review them, and choose the award recipients. This can be done during a meeting or some PTAs even choose to have the previous year's award recipients chair this committee. Check your Standing Rules as it may say who is on the committee. When the awards committee advertises for nomination submissions, it can be done via social media, newsletters, website, email, or even school flyers. To make it even easier for members to submit nominations, the awards committee can create an online submission form using tools like Google Forms or Survey Monkey. 

For recognizing the award recipients, your PTA can hold a volunteer recognition event or take time during a Membership Meeting to celebrate them. WSPTA offers a variety of items your PTA can order online to celebrate your award recipients including certificates, pins, plaques, and even yard signs!

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.

Focus on Advocacy - Q&A "Office Hours" is being offered by WSPTA. This is an open opportunity to have your questions answered by experienced WSPTA Advocates and learn how to best hold effective meetings with legislators. There is no formal program, please just come by and let us help you. Register to receive meeting link. 

• February 01 | 12pm - 1pm | Online
• February 01 | 7pm - 8pm | Online

​Would you like to discuss more on how your PTA can participate this year? Please contact Northshore Council's VP of Advocacy, Jennifer Drury.

​Remember to review coverage with your board before paying the premium.
Please note that premium payments are due before the end of November.

WSPTA Recommendations for Insurance include:

• General liability (covers your PTA),
• Officers’ liability (covers the board of directors, who make the decisions),
• Property if you own anything (short-term coverage is available for cookie dough or other physical items PTA holds during sales), and
• Fidelity bond to cover the PTA assets for loss due to fraud and embezzlement.

You may also want to consider social media insurance if you have active social media accounts.

Also be sure to add Northshore School District as an additional insured and request the endorsement from AIM when you renew - they do not automatically send that each year. NSD requires an updated copy of the form each year by December. If your PTA does not submit the updated endorsement, you risk cancellation of existing facility reservations and will be unable to make new requests until they have updated insurance paperwork.

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. 

​The goal is to have 5,000 members from across Washington State sign-up on October 26. This is a great day to invite your local community (local business leaders, community members, school board members, alumni of your school, and of course, your school’s family members) to join your PTA. This contest aims to grow knowledge and build membership by spreading the word about PTA, who we are, what we do, and why we do it as well as the knowledge that anyone can be a member of a PTA.

How to Participate: 

• Post your ask on your social media sites and PTA website.
• Ask your school to put it in the school newsletter.
• Show the value of your PTA, boast and brag about what your PTA has done and what you plan on doing for the students and school. ​
• Utilize PTA’s new resource on Why YOU belong in PTA.
• Think about how you can promote the Great PTA Sign-Up Day in your community. Find ideas and resources from WSPTA and from National PTA.
• Update your online join links with WSPTA and Council. (see below)
• Check your email for weekly helpful tips from WSPTA leading up to the Great Sign-Up Day! 
• Watch the WSPTA Membership page for updates.

​Of course, there will be prizes! If your PTA enrolls at least seven members on October 26, you will be entered into the prize drawings.

Update 10/17/22
Get ready to frame your ASK for The Great PTA Sign-Up Day (from WSPTA website)

• Who will you ask to join your PTA – parents, caregivers, staff, community supporters, alumni? Remember: ANYONE can be a PTA member!
• How will you ask them to join your PTA – social media posts, flyers, personal contact? Diversify your methods to get the word out about your PTA and why people should want to be involved!
• Where will you ask them to join your PTA? – at a school event, with a table at the public library, from a printed invitation shared with customers by a local business. When your PTA has a visible presence in your community, more people will want to learn more!
• Where will WE at WSPTA ask them to join your PTA? – At our Find Your PTA page! As a reminder, make sure you have shared your online join link with WSPTA so we can add it to this page. Submit yours at this link: https://bit.ly/3vXSV91.
• Need help setting up an online join link? Reach out to the WSPTA Support team at support@wastatepta.org for assistance!

Membership in a local PTA helps build community, gives each member a voice and vote in important matters, and counts towards our state membership numbers that we can use to show our strength when we advocate in Olympia on behalf of all children!

​Updating Online Join Links:
All of WSPTA's communications will direct people to the Find Your PTA webpage, so please double-check to ensure that your PTA’s online join link is listed and correct. If your link isn’t listed or needs to be updated, you can email support@wastatepta.org with the correct information or complete this form. This is also a good time to verify that
Council has your updated links on their Northshore PTA/PTSAs webpage. Email VP of Communications, Jenn Snyder to have your links updated with Council. 

Visit WSPTA for more information about the Great Sign-Up Day. 

What issues are important to your school community and students across the state? Take this poll to give us some input before Legislative Assembly.  Please share with all your local PTA members.

​We will share results with Northshore PTA Presidents and Advocacy/Legislative Chairs.

​As we wrap up another school year, Council would like to take a moment to recap some of the amazing advocacy work that has been done this year.

​We also want to thank all of our local PTA Advocacy Chairs, for the work they do at their school and within their community to advocate for all children, and our PTA members, who help strengthen our voice by being a part of the oldest and largest child advocacy organization in the country!

In October, PTA delegates came together for the 43rd Annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly. During this event, PTA delegates were able to learn, listen, debate and vote on additions to our grassroots legislative platform.

​Three new resolutions and two amended resolutions were approved during the 2021 Legislative Assembly!

New resolutions:

1. Improving Literacy and Educational Outcomes (18.42) - adopted
2. Increasing Access and Affordability of Post-Secondary Education (18.43) - adopted as amended
3. Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth in Highly Mobile Populations (2.27) - adopted as amended

 
Amended resolutions:

1. School Construction Bond Reform (18.20) - amendments adopted
2. Student Assessment and Testing (18.13) - amendments adopted

The 60 day 2022 Washington state legislative session ran from January 10th to March 10th. This included the February 2022 Focus Week where PTA Members advocated to elected officials about WA State PTA's Top 5 Legislative Priorities for the current legislative session. 

Some key accomplishments from this year's legislative session include:

• SHB 1590 will provide school districts with enrollment stabilization funds for the 2021/22 school year equal to half of their enrollment decline from the 2019/20 school year. It will also allow school districts to use 2019/20 enrollment levels to set limits on levy funds collected in 2023.
• 2SHB 1664 will increase state funding for nurses, social workers, psychologists, and counselors in phases through the 2024/25 school year. Note: Northshore already pays for a lot more nurses and social workers than are funded by the state, this increase in state funding will not necessarily lead to an increase in these staff positions, but it will add some money to NSD's budget. It is a step in the right direction. 
• E2SHB 1153 will require most school districts to adopt a language access policy and procedures that will help them engage with non-English speaking families.
• ESHB 1699 will temporarily allow school districts to rehire retired school staff without jeopardizing their retirement benefits. This may help with our current staff shortage problem.
• SSB 5933 establishes a school seismic safety grant program that will help schools make renovations to increase safety in case of earthquakes and tsunamis.
• ESSB 5078 will limit the sale of high-capacity magazines to no more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The end of the legislative session means it’s time to start looking and planning ahead. Here are a few actions you can take before the school year is over:

• Thank your legislators! We’ve had some great wins this session, so it’s always a good idea to send legislators an email thanking them for their work.
• Organize a Voter Registration Drive - It’s never too early to register to vote, especially since in Washington State, 16 and 17 year-olds can pre-register and automatically receive their ballots when they turn 18. And 17 year-olds can vote in a primary election, as long as they turn 18 by the time of the general election. Organizing a high school voter registration drive is easier than you think, particularly when you partner with the League of Women Voters Seattle/King County. They have a wealth of information on how to conduct a drive, and often are able to help you on-site with registration forms, signs, buttons, and stickers.
• Organize a Candidate Forum - This fall, the whole WA State House and half of the Senate are up for re-election this fall, so consider holding a candidate forum. Candidate forums are a great way to get your community engaged in the electoral process, and to voice your issues to the candidates. WSPTA has a Candidate Forum Toolkit to help you have a successful event.
• Connect with Advocates Across WA State - Want to hear what’s going on with advocacy in other regions across the state? Have information or insights to share? Or are you just looking for an online advocacy community? Join the FB group WA State Parent Legislative Chairs.
• Save the Date for the 2022 Legislative Assembly, October 15th & 16th - At the 2022 Legislative Assembly, delegates will debate and vote on these submissions and whether to add them to our platform. This year is especially important as we will be voting on a new Top 5 to focus on over the next two years. Check with your local PTA about including a budget line to send delegates to the 2022 Leg Assembly if you don't currently have one.