March 20, 2023 Membership Meeting Recap

On March 20th, 2023, Northshore Council PTSA held a virtual General Membership Meeting. We would like to say thank you to all of the local leaders from across the Northshore School District, as well as community and school partners for taking the time to join us!

Continue reading below for a recap of the meeting. 

District and Community Partners:
We welcomed NSD’s Director of Food Services Juliana Fisher as our guest speaker. Ms. Fisher shared with us that about 2500 NSD students qualify for Free and Reduced rate breakfasts and lunches, but unfortunately only a fraction of them are currently enrolled in the program. As a result, Food Services is partnering with schools to make sure that all families are aware of the benefits and services to their students, and to encourage them to sign up if they qualify for the program. Ms. Fisher also shared with us that Food Services has faced some recent challenges due to the COVID pandemic and the impact that it had on providing meals at all schools. The main challenges have been a decrease in staffing, as well as supply chain issues. These issues have impacted the capacity for menu varieties, scratch cooking, cultural access, increasing vegetarian/vegan options, and cultural/linguistic/emotional access. Recently, Food Services created and implemented a picture food menu for our schools, which has been a hit with some of our students! Thank you, Ms. Fisher, for joining us and sharing with us how NSD Food Services continues to feed our students in our schools!

Council Business:
Council Treasurer Serena Xu presented the February Financial Report for review and approval, as well as the proposed Council budget for the 2023-2024 school year. Many thanks to the Council Budget committee (Mary Khouzam, Rachel Fitzgerald, Serena Xu, Brenae Brix, and Melissa Kline) for all of your hard work in helping create and proposing the new Council budget! Serena also shared with us that the Standard of Affiliation (SOA) is complete, and all elected Council officers have completed all of their required training, including PTA and the Law. Speaking of the SOA, Council Board member Diana Christiansen shared that 6 NSD schools participated in our SOA Raffle Drawing. The participating schools were Lockwood Elementary, Innovation Lab High School, Woodin Elementary, Frank Love Elementary, Cottage Lake Elementary, and Canyon Creek Elementary. The winner of the SOA Raffle Drawing is Lockwood Elementary! Congratulations, Lockwood! 

Council Nominating Committee member Cherry Holmes presented nominees for Council Executive Officers, and a vote was taken to approve the nominations. Our new Council Executive Board for the 2023-2024 school year are as follows: 

President - Rachel Fitzgerald
Vice President - Grace Jurado
Treasurer - Brenae Brix
Co-VP of Advocacy - Holly Muenchow 
Co-VP of Advocacy - Terra Droney
VP of Communications - Jennifer Snyder
VP of Elementary Support - Diana Christiansen
VP of Secondary Support - Jennifer Drury

Congratulations, new Executive Board members!

We currently have two Executive Board positions that we need to fill. Those positions are Secretary and VP of Events. If you like keeping accurate records and creating meeting minutes and newsletters, or if you love throwing parties or events, please consider throwing your name in the hat for one of these roles. ​Council will continue to seek volunteers for the OPEN positions of Secretary and VP of Events with the goal of holding an election at our General Membership Meeting on May 15, 2023.

Advocacy Chair Jen Drury gave thanks to all of those involved in advocating for the best superintendent candidates, and thanks, also, to all of those who spent time during this last Washington State Legislative Session advocating for the Special Education bill, which passed in the Senate. Thank you, advocates! Half a dozen of advocates, including parents, spent much time in Zoom meetings with our legislators, and 2 dozen NSD parents, students, Superintendent Tolley, NSD school staff, and school board members traveled to Olympia on February 20th to meet with our state legislators and shared their voices in advocating for things that impact our students and our schools. Thank you for all of your advocacy!

On behalf of the Grant Committee Chair (Grace Jurado, who as unable to join us), Mary Khouzam shared that another round for grant application submissions was open until March 24th, and the Council Awards Nominations form will be available soon.

Reflections Chair Jasmine Fry shared that online showcasing is now available on Council’s website, and several NSD students did well! Carissa P. from Leota Middle School is advancing to National Reflections for Videography. Congratulations, Carissa! 

After several other committee updates, including info for an upcoming Mental Health Fair on May 23rd at Skyview Middle School, and a reminder that the Washington State PTA Convention will be held in May at the Bellevue Hilton, Co-Chair President, Mary Khouzam, brought our meeting to a close by reminding us that planning for Council’s Spring Recognition Even is underway, and details will be shared shortly. To help determine the time of day that works best for attendance, Mary shared a link to a poll asking us if a morning event time or an afternoon event time works best for each of us. 

Thank you to everyone who took time to join us!

​