![]() The number one reason to join PTA is to benefit your child. The best part about being a PTA member is that you can make a difference in your child's education and well-being as well as an impact in your school community. Being a part of your school's PTA is a great way to get involved so that you become part of the solution to help make positive changes for your student as well as others. Many people believe that PTA is just about fundraising and volunteering. However, it is much more than that. PTA is the oldest and largest child advocacy organization in the country. This means that being a member of your local PTA is also about having a voice in our children's education all the way up to the state and national level. When PTA representatives advocate for our children year round, they are there solely for the best interests of our children. PTA Advocacy work is made even more powerful with the full weight of local PTA members behind them. Click here to learn more about PTA Advocacy work. Even if you don't have the time to volunteer, you can still make an impact by joining your local PTA. Every membership increases the impact PTA has in regards to advocacy work. Even just being a member makes a difference! To join PTA and become a member today, visit our Northshore PTAs/PTSAs page to find a link to your local chapter. Northshore Council PTSA will be holding an in-person School Board Candidate Forum on October 5th from 7 - 8:30PM. This forum will take place at the Kenmore Community Club. Please note that capacity is limited to 100 people on a first come, first served basis. For those who are unable to attend, a video recording will be posted to our website by Friday, October 8th. Logistics for those planning to attend:
Have a question for the candidates? Email us! This forum will be hosted and moderated by the Northshore Council PTSA. Additional Resources July 15th School Board Primary - Candidate Q&A King County Ballot Information Snohomish County Ballot Information November 2nd, 2021 General Election Dates & Voter Registration Information September 28th - National Voter Registration Day October 13th - Ballots mailed for King County October 14th - Ballots mailed for Snohomish County October 25th - Last day for voters to register or update voter information online November 2nd - Last day for voters to register or update voter information in person November 2nd - Election Day Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
Registration is now open for the 43rd Annual WSPTA Legislative Assembly!
PTA delegates from across the state will come together to update the WSPTA legislative platform. At legislative assembly, discover the power PTA has to advocate for the success of every child – the whole child. In PTA every member has an equal voice, and your input matters a great deal to the success of PTA's grassroots member-driven platform. PTA is needed more than ever right now, and you can help! Key Things to Note:
During the 43rd annual Washington State PTA Legislative Assembly, delegates will decide the public policy positions that guide state and local advocacy work for WSPTA and its associated local PTAs and councils. To learn more about being a voting delegate, visit WSPTA's Legislative Assembly Voting Information page which includes the 2021 Voters’ Guide that has been created to help delegates prepare for the caucusing and general sessions. The Washington State PTA legislative platform is a two-year platform to mirror the Washington state legislative cycle. On the even-numbered years, the new platform is voted on by members at the legislative assembly in the fall. The top five issues become our short-term platform and consist of our priority issues when advocating throughout the year. Other issues are placed on an “also supported” list. Learn about WSPTA's current legislative priorities and other supported issues by clicking here. Be a part of the process and help direct the course for WSPTA advocacy by serving as a delegate for your PTA! If you are interested in attending Legislative Assembly as a delegate for your local PTA, contact your local PTA president. Check out the Legislative Assembly web page to learn more about this year's event. Save the Date for our School Board Candidate Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021!
We are working on finalizing the location and time. At this time we are focusing on planning an in person forum. Details will be posted as soon as they are available. We are also gathering questions from the community to ask during the forum. If you would like to submit a question, please fill out the form below or email your question to [email protected]. This is a great opportunity to get to know the candidates better before the November 2nd General Election. To register to vote, update your voter registration information, or learn more about what's on your ballot, visit Vote.WA.gov. Calling all Advocates! ![]() It's time to get started on PTA Advocacy for the 2021-2022 school year. Here are 6 Advocacy Action Items to add to your PTA's back to school list of things to do:
Bonus Advocacy Action Item: Let’s Vote Challenge! National Voter Registration Day is September 28th! Did you know that Local PTAs/PTSAs can run voter registration drives? You can also include the graphic below in your e-news and on social media to encourage your members to register to vote! For WA state, voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/ and is provided in multiple languages! ![]() Below you will find links to Q&As from each of the eleven (11) Northshore School District School Board Candidates running in the August 2021 Primary Election. To view the responses, click on each candidate's image which will open a PDF of the Q&A. Note: These are best viewed from a desktop type device. A message from our Co-VPs of Advocacy: To reach as many voters as possible and provide them another resource to make informed choices on their ballots, we invited the school board candidates to answer seven questions taken from the most common questions and themes we heard from PTA and community members. We know that candidates are providing information on their own websites and social media, but it can be helpful to have one place where people can access information on all the candidates to compare them more efficiently. We chose questions that cover a variety of interests and concerns from across the district. We emailed each candidate using the email address listed on the King County Elections page. We asked candidates to submit their answers via a Google form by July 12th to allow us time to publish everyone’s responses before the ballots arrive in the mail. This gave candidates one week to respond. We recognize this was a short turn around but we were eager to get information to the voters of our district after having to pivot quickly after canceling our Zoom forums. The candidates’ answers are cut-and-pasted from the Google form so you will see their complete, un-edited answers. If they have any concerns about how their responses are presented, we have asked them to let us know, so that we may address the issue. We really appreciate that all of the candidates took the time to answer our questions. NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 1 NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 4 NSD School Board Candidates for Director District No. 5 Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
Council's virtual school board candidate forums that were scheduled to be published later this month have been cancelled. For a statement as to why these forums have been cancelled, please see the video below from Council President, Jane Chiodo. Our hope is to work towards hosting an in-person forum this fall before the general election in November. For a written transcript of the video below, please click here. Northshore Council PTSA Mission Statement 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, education, mentoring, collaboration, and leadership. Website Links for School Board Candidates Contact Information Taken from King County Elections Page 6/29/2021.
¹No website listed. Link directs you to candidate statement on King County elections page. Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
Recently, Council has been sent several questions asking about our upcoming School Board Candidate Forum and felt it was best to address those questions publicly.
On June 22, 2021 at 7pm, the Northshore Council PTSA was scheduled to host the first of three scheduled Zoom Forums for each of the three open positions on the Northshore School Board. Unfortunately, all but one of the candidates pulled out at the last minute. We will leave it to the candidates to share their reasons. Due to this, the first recording was not able to be done. We are currently working on rescheduling this forum. Northshore Council PTSA has held many candidate forums in the past including school board candidate forums and most recently state representative forums in 2018 and 2020. Council volunteers have done their best to create a fair, non-partisan forum in which each candidate is asked the same questions and has the same time to answer the questions. Council took input from PTA/PTSA members as well as community members for these questions which represent a wide spectrum of issues and concerns from across the district. The three recorded Zoom Forums, though recorded on different days, would be all posted to our website on the same day and will not be edited or altered in any way. Members of the community have asked about the possibility of us hosting an in person forum. Due to the short time-frame, we do not have time to find a venue and organize an in-person forum before the primary school board election, but we will consider hosting one before the general election. Click here to learn more about the format of Council's 2021 School Board Candidate Forum. We hope that given another chance, all school board candidates will choose to participate in our Zoom Forums as it is important for voters to have the opportunity to hear about their experiences, views, and vision for the education of Northshore students in order to make informed choices. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to our Co-VPs of Advocacy by emailing [email protected]. Northshore Council PTSA is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a 2021 Northshore School Board Candidate Forum just in time for the 2021 School Board Primary. This forum is being held to educate voters within Northshore School District about the school board candidates that are running in the Primary election. We will be sharing this pre-recorded event on July 15th. We will use social media as well as our website to promote the forum to the voters within Northshore School District. It is a great chance to get to know the candidates! The format will include 3 separate videos, one for each of the three seats that are up for election. Candidates from each seat will appear with their opponents. The moderators will be from the Northshore PTSA council’s advocacy team. There will not be an audience. We have offered each candidate two minutes for an opening statement. Following that will be a short question and answer period rotating between the candidates. The questions are being solicited from citizens of Northshore. Concluding, we will offer one minute to each candidate for a closing statement. If you have questions you would like asked during this forum, please email them to [email protected]. Keep an eye out for this important resource arriving on our website and social medias around July 15! Ballots should be arriving around the same time. See below for more information on the Primary and voter registration. This is a great resource for your PTA members and school community - please share it out! Diana Christiansen and Jennifer Drury Co-Vice Presidents of Advocacy Northshore Council PTSA 6.10 Voter information and registration can be found at http://vote.wa.gov/.
![]() Marie Sullivan, Washington State PTA Legislative Consultant, hosted a legislative session recap on June 8. Over 300 bills were passed by the Washington State legislature despite the challenges of the pandemic. WSPTA had some great wins on our Top 5 issues and supporting resolutions. If you would like to view Marie’s recap, it was recorded and can be found on the Washington State PTA YouTube Channel. Her final end of session report will be out soon! Questions about how you can get involved in Advocacy? Email [email protected]!
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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.