FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bay Village Schools PTAs honored by Ohio House of Representatives
(Bay Village, OH) -- Ohio Representative Dave Greenspan (District 16) presented four statehouse commendations, one to each K-12 PTA in the Bay Village Schools, for receiving the 2017 PTA School of Excellence Award from the National Parent Teacher Association. He made the presentation at the district's school board meeting Monday, December 18.
"I want to recognize and thank you for what you do to educate our students and provide students with a culture that fosters growth and development," said Greenspan. "Thank you for the good work that you do."
The commendations go to Normandy Elementary PTA, Westerly Elementary PTA, Bay Middle School PTSA and Bay High School PTSA, representing all four K-12 schools in the Bay Village City School District.
PTA Council President, Cheryll McCarty, initiated this recent set of applications in a way that coordinated all the district’s PTA units, putting them on a common, two-year renewal schedule for the designation which requires a rigorous examination of family-school relationships against national standards. Standards include welcoming families, communicating effectively, supporting student success, speaking for every child, sharing power and collaborating with the community.
“After assessing parent opinion with surveys, PTA and building leadership selected a goal from several offered by the National PTA. This year, all our PTAs focused on the goal of health and safety of students,” said McCarty. “They followed up with an action plan that would incorporate various National Standards for Family-School Partnerships. As part of the plan, each school held an event that provided a focus for strengthening family-school partnerships.”
Normandy Elementary chose to focus on healthy lifestyles at home and at school. Normandy’s “PiYo [pilates-yoga] Live Family Fitness Fun” evening brought many families into the school, communicated the importance of healthy activity to learning, and demonstrated the partnership that PTA provided with the school.
Westerly Elementary’s focus was a cyber-awareness and anti-bullying program. Bay Village Police Detective Kevin Krolkosky presented parents with strategies and tools that can empower them to face the challenges presented by youngsters having access to the internet. School staff, along with Bay Village police, worked with students throughout the year addressing internet safety and cyber-bullying. The effort to help students become safe, responsible and respectful digital citizens brought all the national standards into play.
At Bay Middle School, community health providers, first responders and fitness and nutrition professionals played a significant role at the Health Fair. They provided information, demonstrations and interactive activities to teach students about healthy choices. PTA provided the many needed volunteers, as well as a table of healthy snacks. The collaboration between the community, the school, and the PTSA addressed all of the national standards for strong partnerships.
Bay High School used the community partnership approach to promote healthy lifestyles at home and at school. The Bay High PTSA co-sponsored the annual May in Bay 5K Run/Walk and 1 Mile Fun Run. Strong communication about the event brought out more participants from the schools and community than ever before, bringing together all ages for a healthy activity. This helped confirm Bay High PTSA as a force for engagement between families and school in a very positive way.
All PTAs completed a second survey at the end of the year to gauge changes in opinion of respondents from the first survey. Improvements in ratings documented how the PTA work made an impact, and less positive results identified areas where the PTAs will focus on continued improvement.
The district's superintendent, Clint Keener, noted that there is substantial research indicating strong school-family relationships make all the difference in student achievement at school. “We are blessed to have involved families who care deeply about their children’s education in the Bay Village Schools,” he said. “Their involvement is a key factor in our success.”
