Reflections Update: Save Entries, Join the Reception Planning Committee, and Theme Winners Announced12/5/2023
 Important Notice: Save Your Entries Thank you for submitting all the entries! We loved witnessing the beautiful interpretations of the theme from the students. Please take note that we will be hosting an in-person celebration on March 14, 2024, and we kindly request participants save all their entries. This is especially crucial for visual art and photography submissions. More details about the mounting of the artwork and printing requirements will be shared soon to ensure we can display all the wonderful creations. Stay tuned for further information! * Save the Date: Reflections Reception * Thursday, March 14, 2024 - In-Person Celebration! Join our Reflections Reception Planning Committee (Meetings will start in January 2024) Be part of the excitement - our first Reflections Reception in person since 2019! We'll need lots of hands in organizing this very special event to honor our Northshore School District Artists. Email Council's VP of Events, Melissa Quinonez Bennett, at [email protected] to be included in the Zoom meeting email. Message from WSPTA Reflections WSPTA Reflections Theme Search Winners This year WSPTA had over 45 Reflections theme search entries. The judges selected the following students' theme ideas to advance to the National level for a chance at being the winner of the 2025-26 Reflections theme.
Resources:
Northshore Council PTSA Reflections Co-Chairs: Jasmine Lee Fry and Foram Shah
Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, opened by sharing many of the challenges facing our schools this year and next, especially budget shortfalls. We also heard from OSPI and superintendents across the state how challenging it is to get school buildings funded, built, and updated with the latest safety features. And of course, we added and updated the WSPTA platform for legislative issues and resolutions on topics including:
Updated 2023 - 2024 Legislative Priorities
October 2023
Important Advocacy Dates:New or Amended Resolutions for Consideration Deadline: The deadline to submit new or amended resolutions for consideration at the business meeting held in May during convention is noon on November 15, 2023. Find more information and the submission form on the WSPTA Resolutions webpage. Upcoming Advocacy Dates: December 13, 2023 Legislative Session Preview – Legislator Panel January 3, 2024 What to Expect in the 2024 Legislative Session – Marie Sullivan, WSPTA Legislative Consultant January 15, 2024 Focus Day in Olympia (kids welcome!) January 15 – 19, 2024 Advocacy Week (virtual) Please note Focus on Advocacy is happening a month earlier this year. Visit WSPTA Focus on Advocacy page for more information and an advocacy toolkit. More on Advocacy:
This is a busy time of year for PTA Leaders with so many things to get done in order to run your PTA, plan programming for students, and provide support to your school community. Here at Council, we want to make sure a few key "to-do" items don't get overlooked so we've created the checklist below. We've included links and resources for these items, but remember, Council is always here to help and support our local Northshore PTA Leaders! Visit our Contact Page to connect with a Council officer. PTA Back-to-School Checklist for 2023-2024
Complete Council’s Contact Form
Update Leaders in memberplanet
Enter 25 Members into memberplanet by October 31, 2023
Update your PTA’s Website
Hold a General Membership Meeting
Connect with Council
WSPTA Membership Contest:
Theme, Goal, and Online Join Link Share your 2023-2024 membership theme, goals, and online join link with us by October 31 and be featured in the PTA Spotlight in the Membership Made Easy Newsletter. Submit here. We have reached 3,111 PTA members from across Northshore PTA/PTSAs as of Sept 29, 2023!
Keep up the great work on your membership campaigns and continue to add members into memberplanet.
Congratulations to our Northshore PTA/PTSAs that have earned WSPTA Membership Awards in 2022-2023!! Membership Achievement Awards
Membership Growth Awards: To highlight the importance of membership growth, Washington State PTA recognizes local PTAs for enrolling more members than they did in the previous year. As PTAs achieve incremental increases in membership growth, they are recognized for each milestone they reach.
 Membership Growth Awards given to Northshore PTAs. Click image to view full list. Membership Growth Awards
Questions? Contact Council's Membership Chair, Kim Ortiz. Visit Northshore Council Membership Page   Each year, Washington State PTA recognizes the work of individuals, PTAs, and Councils across the state via a variety of awards, including Leadership Academy and the Awards of Excellence Program. Cottage Lake Elementary and Council submitted applications and were recognized for their efforts at the WSPTA 2023 Spring Training Conference held on May 6th and 7th. Awards work to celebrate the efforts of local PTAs and Councils in a variety of different areas. The criteria reflect a strong knowledge and application of best practices and the submission process can be rigorous. These awards are truly reflective of the dedication and strength of these PTAs and the powerful contributions they make to their communities. This year's recipients included: 2022 - 2023 WSPTA Awards Recipients
Congratulations! Learn more about the WSPTA Standards of Excellence Awards and Leadership Awards and apply for your PTA next year.
 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.  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!  Local PTAs may award the following within their local community:
Share Your List of Local PTA/PTSA 2022-2023 Recognition Award Winners with Council!
Does your PTA give out a Golden Acorn award? Maybe an Outstanding Educator, or an Outstanding Advocate award? Or more? Please let us know by completing this form. We would like to create a list of all of our local PTA award winners to share with the community. These volunteers deserve to be celebrated!!! If possible, please let us know your award winners by Thursday, June 1st so they can be celebrated in our last eNews of the school year!
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.  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.
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Northshore Council PTSA is a welcoming organization that works to support our Local PTAs and serve the children and youth of our community through advocacy, collaboration, education, engagement, leadership, and mentorship.