Council Business:
Bond & Levies Support/Opposition Vote: Council's Board of Directors put forward the issue of supporting the bond and levies that are on the February ballot. During this meeting, both the pro and con positions on the issue were presented before calling for a motion to determine our PTSA’s support of or opposition to the bond and levies. Council would like to announce that the motion to support the Northshore School District Bond & Levies on the February 8th Ballot was passed unanimously. Learn more... District Updates:
Council Committee Reports:
We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on March 21st, 2022 @ 7pm. For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar. Northshore Council PTSA participated in Focus on Advocacy Week January 17-21!
Every meeting started with the number one priority of the Washington State PTA, Mental Health. Advocates asked that representatives work to fund and create policies that support mental health in our schools and communities. Additional Asks Included:
Throughout Focus on Advocacy Week, in addition to meeting with legislators, PTA advocates were asked to email their elected officials to advocate for children. Council and many of our local PTAs promoted Focus on Advocacy Week using social media accounts, websites, and newsletters to encourage members to participate as well. Throughout the next sixty days, the Washington State Senate and House will debate and vote on issues that directly affect children and families in Washington State. If you would like to be kept up to date on these issues, please subscribe to Action Alerts. ![]() Northshore Council would like to thank the legislators and their assistants who met with us during Focus on Advocacy Week!
Council would also like to recognize the PTA Advocates who took time out of their week to participate in the meetings:
If you would like to learn more about Council's Advocacy work or how you can get involved, visit our Advocacy page.
Calling All PTA Advocates for Mental Health Awareness ![]() Council's Mental Health Committee has been noticing inconsistencies with the accessibility to a school's mental health resources. We are asking our local leaders to take a few minutes to check out the website for their school to determine the following:
After checking out your school's website, if you find these things hard to locate or not available, we encourage you to advocate with your school office staff and principal to get these things included. If your school is already doing a great job at making mental health information accessible, we would love to know! Please email the link to your school's website so we can share it as a resource with other PTA leaders and schools looking to improve their mental health accessibility and awareness.
Legislative session is upon us and starting Monday, January 17th, it's
WSPTA's Focus on Advocacy Week!!
Here's a brief run-down on what you can expect out of this week long event and how you can get involved!
When is Focus on Advocacy Week? This week long event runs Monday, January 17th through Friday, January 21st Who should participate? Anyone who wants to advocate for students, teachers, or their school community! Advocacy is for everyone and now is the perfect time to get involved. Where does this take place? This year, Focus on Advocacy Week is virtual! That means anyone wanting to participate can do so from their phone or computer. What is the Legislative Session? The Legislative session is the time when our senators and representatives work on bills. They will be debating, reading emails, and holding meetings about current bills for the session. What is Focus on Advocacy Week? Focus on Advocacy Week is the week where we as PTA members focus on calling, writing, and having meetings with our legislators. We do this to get our Legislative Priorities into the hearts and minds of our elected officials and to educate them on what our members need and want. Why does Focus on Advocacy Week matter? This is the best time to get our priorities heard by our representatives. Washington State PTA members voted and approved our top 5 issues that we believe lawmakers should work on. Now is the time that we bring these issues to the forefront of their work. See below for a list of our Top 5 Issues as well as how PTA plans to put equity at the center of everything we do with our 2020-2022 Legislative Priorities. How can someone participate? 1. Sign up for the WSPTA's Action Network Group to get timely alerts. 2. Find your Washington State Legislature Representatives. 3. Fill out this Focus Day Interest Google Form to schedule meetings with legislators 3. Set aside time during Focus on Advocacy Week to call and email. WSPTA has designated each day next week to a different focus topic: ◘ Monday, January 17 – Call to Action: Focus on dismantling racism ◘ Tuesday, January 18 – Call to Action: Focus on equity ◘ Wednesday, January 19 – Call to Action: Focus on mental health and wellness ◘ Thursday, January 20 – Call to Action: Focus on preserving and flexing funding ◘ Friday, January 21 – Call to Action: Focus on safety and emergency preparedness 4. Join Marie Sullivan, Washington State PTA’s legislative consultant, on January 11th from 7-8pm over Zoom as she presents Preparing for the 2022 Legislative Session - Your Questions Answered. 5. Check out the awesome videos and one page issue documents available on Washington State PTA’s Advocacy page about each of the priorities. 6. Spread the word! Invite others from your PTA community to join you in connecting with state legislative leaders. Use the hashtag #WSPTAOneVoice to share about Focus on Advocacy Week through your PTA's, and even your own, social media accounts. Remember to share updates via your PTA's other channels such as website or emails.
Check out the image below from WSPTA to see how PTA is putting Equity at the Center of Everything We Do with our 2020-2022 Legislative Priorities. Click here for a printable version.
Please join us for our third general membership meeting of the year on Thursday, January 20, 2022 via Zoom! In addition to our regular business items, we’ll also be holding elections for our 2021-2022 Nominating Committee (See First Notice of Election post). Additionally, Council's Board of Directors would like to put forward the issue of supporting the bond and levies that are on the February ballot. During this meeting we will present both the pro and con positions on the issue before calling for a motion to determine our PTSA’s support of or opposition to the bond and levies.
Council meetings will build your PTA knowledge, give you the opportunity to network with other PTA, school district and community leaders, and they can be a lot of fun, too. Each PTA may send up to 4 voting representatives - but we encourage ALL who are interested to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!
*A meeting passcode is required to join. It will be sent to local leaders via email. You can also request the passcode by emailing Council PTSA Communications VP, Rachel Fitzgerald. Last month Council held their 2nd General Meeting of the 2021-2022 school year. We appreciate all the local leaders from across the district as well as community and school partners who took the time to attend! Continue reading for a recap of this meeting.
General Updates from President Jane Chiodo:
Council Business: The minutes from the September 2021 meeting were approved as written. Council's AIM insurance for the year was renewed and paid for in October. The mid year financial review committee was appointed while the election for the Nominating Committee was postponed until the next membership meeting. Guest Speakers:
Council Reports:
We hope you will join us for our next General Membership Meeting on January 20th, 2022 @ 7pm. For a full list of our upcoming meetings and events, check out our Calendar. ![]() As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Council would like to take time to give thanks and we hope that you will as well. We also would like to recognize that November is Native American Heritage Month and as part of PTA's mission of inclusivity, we honor and stand with our Native American neighbors. We hope that as you spend time with friends and family this holiday weekend giving thanks, that you will also take time to support Indigenous American communities.
Resources to learn more about Native American Heritage Month and Supporting Indigenous Peoples
![]() We're fresh out of Legislative Assembly and gearing up for Focus Week which will take place January 17 - 21, 2022! Let us know how we can support advocacy efforts at your school! Please complete Council's short Advocacy Efforts Survey to help us serve you better. Additionally, Council's Co-VPs of Advocacy, Diana Christiansen and Jennifer Drury, are happy to speak at one of your PTA's board or general meetings or talk with folks one-on-one about questions they have about getting involved in advocacy at all levels. Please reach out to us at [email protected]. Last weekend, delegates from Northshore PTAs joined over 350 members to come together at the 43rd Annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly 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:
Amended resolutions:
The WSPTA Resolutions webpage has been updated with the titles of the new resolutions and are identifiable as either *new*, *amended*, or *retired*. WSPTA looks forward to seeing everyone next year for the 44th annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly where delegates will vote on a new Top 5 platform. Look for information this spring on how to submit a proposal on a topic that is important to you, your community, or your PTA! A big part of PTA is Advocacy. Getting information out to voters is one way Council supports this advocacy work. In the upcoming November 2nd Election, three (3) Northshore School District School Board seats are up for election. To increase access to candidates for voters, Council held an in-person forum on October 5th, 2021. A recording of this forum can be found below. Before watching the forum, please read this message from Council: With events of this type, there were bound to be unexpected challenges and technical issues. And, unfortunately, our forum did not escape the gremlins. Initially, the candidates struggled with the 1 minute time limit on answers and a decision was made to extend their time to answer from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. There were also challenges with recording and especially with sound throughout the event. And, to cap it off, the microphone malfunctioned 10 minutes from the end of our event. When the microphone quit, we made the decision to switch to another video format and allow the candidates to remove their masks for their closing statements to ensure a clearer delivery. Because of these issues, you will notice that our recording is not as smooth as we had hoped. There are a few cuts in recording where we had to edit out some of the more obnoxious technical issues - especially the microphone squeaks and feedback - and our attempts to fix them. Any portion of the video where the candidates were speaking has been kept intact and unaltered. Despite the best efforts of our volunteers, you may also notice a sync issue between the audio and visual at times and most notably around the 1 hour mark. Please be assured that all answers candidates gave can be heard in their entirety. We sincerely appreciate the patience of those who were in person with us and the grace the candidates showed. We especially applaud our team of volunteers for demonstrating the meaning of "PTA Flexible". The School Board Candidate Forum can be viewed by clicking the image below. Additional Resources for Voters
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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.