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Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Award Recipients!

5/19/2022

 
2021-2022 Council Award Recipients
​​Each year, Northshore Council PTSA recognizes a few special people who have gone above and beyond in service to our community and who promote the well-being and education of children in our district and beyond. During our Annual Spring Recognition Event on May 16th, Northshore Council was proud to recognize eleven amazing individuals. Learn more about them and why they were deserving of these achievements in the videos and stories below:

​​Golden Acorn - Diana Christiansen & Jennifer Drury
Jennifer and Diana didn’t hesitate to jump right into their roles as Co-Vice Presidents of Advocacy. Their work started early in their 2021-2022 term as they worked to hold online candidate forums for the fall 2021 school board elections. They reached out to each candidate, put together a list of questions they solicited from the community, and organized the candidate forums. Jennifer and Diana spent countless hours organizing these events, only for them to fall apart last minute. 
These two showed us the meaning of "PTA Flexible" by instead organizing an in-person candidate forum before the election took place, and got every school board candidate to attend. They even figured out a way to record the proceeding for community members to watch later. It was so important to them to ensure the community could hear from the candidates. We admire their determination and grit through all of the ups and downs during that chaotic time!
Jennifer and Diana didn't stop there. 
  • They attended WSPTA Legislative Assembly.
  • They organized a schedule of meet & greets with state legislators for our PTA Focus Day - leading the charge when it came to bringing up our legislative priorities.
  • They have also consistently been a presence at our local school board meetings helping to let them know what PTAs are doing to support our district, communities and state.
They are certainly the dynamic duo of advocacy!

​Golden Acorn - Rachel Fitzgerald
Rachel is ALL in on PTSA. Described as AWE-INSPIRING, Rachel is so organized and thorough in everything that she does. It is absolutely amazing the sheer amount of information that she puts out on behalf of Council each and every week. Rachel also helps the local PTAs that have been awarded grants from Council by advertising their events. She's created all sorts of videos, district staff appreciation efforts, managed to piece together a video for the recent school board forum, and adds fresh and original content to Council’s website.
It’s hard to imagine the time spent and the organization it takes to accomplish what she makes looks so easy. Queen of juggling everything, Rachel constantly thinks about how to best serve our local PTAs and in turn the students and families that they serve. She is a fountain of PTA knowledge and knows how to put that knowledge to good use in helping our local PTAs and Council navigate problems and issues that arise.

Besides serving council, Rachel is a dedicated volunteer at her kids schools. She volunteers in the library, supervises lunch, and helps with other various events & tasks for her local PTAs and schools. She is always thinking about how to best help kids whether that is through volunteering, advocating, or helping our local PTAs get the information they need to succeed. Simply put, Rachel is amazing!

Outstanding Educator - Steven Hopkins
Mr. Hopkins is the Principal of Sunrise Elementary. He has gone above and beyond in the Covid era to make sure children are engaged and parents are comfortable. Sunrise has shown consistent growth and development under the leadership of Mr. Hopkins. Particularly, the last 2 years presented unprecedented challenges to educators. His stoic leadership, kindness and level-headedness in efficiently navigating the challenges of the school and community are admirable. 
With Mr. Hopkins leadership, Sunrise opened HiCap classrooms as planned for the year despite the pandemic. He made safety a priority. His communication style is impeccable - giving timely, detailed, and pertinent messaging which is a boon in these times of isolation for the last 2 years.

Mr. Hopkins is the biggest strength to the Sunrise community. He made the students’ learning environment fun and safe. He nurtured values in children, made Sunrise Elementary a community of diversity, and helped kids learn to know and respect all cultures. The families at Sunrise are so fortunate to have an untiring advocate at the helm, whose vision and values have taken their school to great heights!

Outstanding Educator - Peter Schurke
​Mr. Schurke has a tough job. Tougher than say your average everyday comprehensive high school principal. Not only does he have to do the job of principal, but he also has to do the job of CEO of what is essentially a startup high school.

Innovation Lab is a choice high school, one that does not follow a standard learning model. Mr. Schurke is ILHS's cheerleader. 
He is constantly working to get the word out about this amazing new high school focused on mastery learning by hosting webinars, going directly to local middle schools, talking directly to students about the school during their lunch periods, and more. His optimism and excitement about learning is contagious. Mr. Schurke is always open to feedback - from parents and students, listening to others’ ideas, often responding with a "let's see how we can make this work". He is forward thinking and willing to push the envelope when it comes to his students’ experiences and opportunities.

Mr. Schurke has been described as passionate and a visionary, though he is also responsive to his school community. It’s known that if kids are having problems, see an issue, or need to talk through something - they can always find Mr. Schurke.
Peter Schurke is the heart and soul of Innovation Lab High School!

Outstanding Advocate - Clark Combs
​Mr. Combs has been with the District over thirty years as a teacher. During that time he has shown significant leadership in the areas of preparedness at his home school as well as a willingness to share district wide.

When he moved into the role of the Emergency Preparedness TOSA (Teach on Special Assignment) he really took off and has done an amazing job including working closely with PTA E-Prep leaders to bring consistency to schools and help those wanting to advance larger projects to be successful.
​Mr. Combs also helped schools organize and prepare in case of emergencies. Mr. Combs has been instrumental in explaining and working to implement full scale reunification drills with the help of volunteer PTA parents so that the district could practice response and work out the kinks. Most notably, Mr. Combs has taught close to 1,000 students, staff, and community members in the ACT (Antidote/CPR/Tourniquet) since the start of the Covid-19 closures. His willingness to bring this presentation to schools, city halls, and anywhere he can lay down the CPR dummies is admirable. He is helping make this community safer. This past year, he was also tasked with coordinating the District PCR Covid testing at sites including Pop Keeney. His willingness to take on this task and the success he has shown in doing it is a testimony to his commitment to our community and well worth recognizing!

Outstanding Student Advocate - Esther Kim
​Esther is an 11th grader at North Creek High School and has kept busy with many extra curricular projects. Esther has been described as dedicated, caring, and hardworking.

​As part of her work with ASB, Esther collaborated efforts between her local PTSA and school ASB to put together resources and treats for North Creek staff during the pandemic.
​Additionally, Esther reached out to North Creek's PTSA as she was working on a project at school to provide sanitary products to the students at NCHS. Esther wanted to be able to also deliver these to students who are in need as well. To further that cause, she has teamed with the North Creek/Skyview PTSA Food Pantry since November 2021 and has been providing 20 packs of the sanitary products to ensure it gets included in the food pantry bags that go out to families in need. Esther pays for these products from her weekend job.  No doubt she has been a positive influence in her community and an outstanding student advocate!

Outstanding Service - Pauline Wray & Melissa Kline
Pauline and Melissa have worked hard in their roles as Co-Chairs of Council's Mental Health Committee; advocating for mental health support for the students in our district and shining a light on the importance of mental health.

With their leadership, the Mental Health Committee has been able to get resources out to parents, students and staff in a multitude of ways.
Some of the things Melissa and Pauline were able to accomplish through their work on the Mental Health Committee include:
  • Creating a resource poster with crisis text and phone lines to put up in all of our secondary schools.
  • Publishing articles though Council's blog about various mental health topics such as bullying and self-care.
  • Brining in speakers to talk about relevant topics such as Identifying and Addressing Youth Anxiety and Digital Safety.
  • Creating a list of mental health resources for Council's website.

Pauline and Melissa also spend their time meeting with district administration to discuss issues surrounding access to mental health counselors for students among other topics. They have continually advocated to district admin and at school board meetings for better access to resources, more information for parents, and training for teachers. Pauline and Melissa work tirelessly for all students in our district. We are in awe of their passion and dedication regarding the advocacy surrounding the topic of mental health!

Outstanding Service - Jane Chiodo
Jane has been described as a force - not like a tornado, but more like a Mack truck on a cross-country road trip.

She is currently heavily involved in PTSA at the Council level where she has done an outstanding job as the Northshore Council PTSA President. She has been very supportive to the various Council committees providing what they need to help local PTAs.
​At the local PTA level, Jane has been involved at Canyon Park Middle School and Innovation Lab High School, where she serves as the current Communications Chair. Her professional monthly newsletters are full of information, easy to read, thoroughly edited and all-around top-notch. Although Jane has an official PTSA title in each of these organizations, she does
not hesitate to dive into projects wherever there is a need, no matter if it's in her job description or not. Just some of the ways she has served her local PTAs include:
  • Planning and implementing local September back-to-school events.
  • Providing insightful feedback to various committees and volunteers.
  • Helping with emergency preparedness.
  • Serving on her local nominating committee.

Jane also finds time to volunteer at her children's schools. She is a wealth of information; always willing to help solve problems, find answers, and suggest ideas. She does a great job of advocating for student needs as well as teacher needs.  Jane can always be counted on to promote programs, and PTA as a whole, or to help educate those not involved in PTA to learn about what PTA does as a child advocacy organization. Jane cares for the NSD schools, students and community and it shows in her work!​

Honorary Life Membership - Tracy Jokisch
Many of us are well acquainted with Tracy and are in awe of just how much she knows about emergency preparedness and safety. 

For as long as many can remember, she has been the E-Prep Chair for Bothell High School PTSA even though she doesn't have any kids there! In recent years, she joined Council as a Co-Chair of E-Prep.
Tracy has helped to run the monthly E-Prep meetings, providing an invaluable resource for our local leaders. She was also instrumental in working with the district to bring together a Stop the Bleed effort that spanned the entire districts PTAs and made all of our students and staff members safer in the process.

Tracy is kind, approachable, and always willing to lend a hand. When a new E-Prep Chair recently started at Canyon Park Middle School and discovered many of their supplies out of date, they reached out to Tracy for help. Tracy volunteered to meet at the school in order to walk through what CPMS would need and how much so that they could bring the school’s emergency supplies back up to par.

Tracy serves our Northshore community in so many ways. She frequently jumps in to help on Council committees,  recently serving on the Grants Committee and the Budget Committee. We are so fortunate to have gotten to know Tracy and our district is so fortunate to have such a dedicated volunteer!

Congratulations to our 2021-2022 Award Recipients

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