Saturday, September 1, 2018

Ohio PTA Voice / September 2018



PTA Leaders and Members,

Welcome back! I hope you are as excited as I am to be starting the 2018-19 PTA year. I hope you had a relaxing summer full of fun and family activities. I know you have also been busy planning your PTA programs and events for this year…and Ohio PTA has been doing the same.  Here are some of the highlights…

·         Welcomed our new staff Laurie Mottice and Linda Freemanwalker
·         Revised the Standards of Affiliation (SOA)- new simplified checklist
·         Updated, easier to navigate website
·         New membership awards program
·         New format for The Voice
·         New Ohio PTA Grants for you, our local PTAs
o   Male Involvement Grant- Apply here  (due Sept 15)
o   Science Festival Grant- Apply here  (due Oct 5)
o   Family Engagement Grants- Apply here  (due Oct 12)

I’d love to know what you think of these changes especially The Voice and the website. We want our resources to be timely and useful and your feedback will help us do that.

As you may know, Ohio PTA won a National PTA Family Engagement Grant last spring. The grant is to promote transformative family engagement throughout our state.  Family engagement is connecting families, schools and the community to work together to positively impact student outcomes. What is transformative family engagement? It is family engagement practices that reach every family and make it possible for every family to change their child’s life for the better. It really is the heart of our mission “Making every child’s potential a reality.” So, I invite you to learn more at ohiopta.org and on the Ohio PTA Membership Blog. Think about what you can do or are doing as a PTA to be inclusive, to develop parents’ knowledge of school academic goals, to build relationships to a new building or grade level or help staff and families to truly communicate with each other.  Please tell us about your family engagement successes- either on the new SOA checklist or email me at president@ohiopta.org.  Just as families and staff need to learn from one other, we can do more if we share our experiences and resources.

Have a great year and thank you for being part of PTA!

Susan


See all September 1st posts for the Ohio PTA Voice in the right margin ---------->>>>
Or CLICK HERE for easy access to all articles in the September Issue of the Ohio PTA Voice