Livonia PTSA Council Courier
May 2021
And Just Like That, May Is Almost Over!
How's everyone doing? We are fresh off of Staff Appreciation Week and for some of the units, it's been a MONTH long celebration! As we stop to catch our breaths, it's now on to end of the year planning! While it's hard to believe that the school year is almost over, I know many are looking forward to the summer. This was by far one of the most challenging years not only for the PTA, but for everyone!
It was so great to see the amazing ways many of the units showered their school staff with appreciation! Of course they deserve to be spoiled every year, but ESPECIALLY this year! Kudos to all the units who worked extra hard to make this SAW week/month one to remember. And thank you to all LPS teachers, staff, and leaders for ALL THAT YOU DO! WE APPRECIATE YOU!
Andrea Malenfant
Council Newsletter Chair
Officer Training Is Happening!
PTA Shout Out!
LPTSA Council's Transportation Appreciation Efforts*
Let's Talk About P.E.P.!
What's Due:
1.) Remit $40 unit renewal dues to MI PTA by June 1st. There are two ways to pay Unit Renewal Dues. You can either go to the Michigan PTA store in MemberHub (https://mipta.memberhub.store) and pay them using a credit/debit card, or you can mail a check (be sure to include your unit's ID number on the check) payable to Michigan PTA:
Michigan PTA
PO Box 510535
Livonia, MI 48151
2.) Input your board members for the 2021 - 2022 school year in Memberhub due - June 1st.
3.) Monthly membership dues to MI PTA are due this Friday, May 28th. How do you remit? The easiest way is to use MemberHub. Use the Admin Console>PTA>State Payment and send it digitally right now! Or by check sent to MI PTA.
*If you have any oustanding memberships that need to be paid, PLEASE do so now!*
Membership
The end of year is fast approaching. It's the time of year to vote in next year's PTA board members and start looking towards the future. While this past year was an interesting and challenging one, the future looks bright! Start thinking about how you can engage your members, bring in new members, and grow your PTA for the future! What incentives could your PTA unit present to your parents, teachers, students, and community, to encourage them to become a member? It's never too early to think about the future.
As a reminder, Michigan PTA currently has 3 Membership Challenges PTA units can apply for. These all run through the end of May. The last day to submit for these challenges is June 1st. I'm so proud that Livonia has been well represented in these challenges, and we even had one unit win! I'm confident we could have more. Good luck to our amazing PTA units!
Sara Bennett - LPTSA Council Membership Chair
ELVS Program*
Math APS Program*
LPTSA Council's YMAD Virtual Celebration!*
There's Still Time To Donate Games to Council's Math APS Program!*
Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors*
Livonia PTSA Council would like to introduce you to a new monthly resource that we will be providing. We will be sharing a list of diverse books every month that you can use to find ideas for your kiddos. We're calling it the Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors Book List, because of a concept introduced by multicultural children's literature expert, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. Her exact quote is at the top of the book list, but the general idea is that books are windows and sliding glass doors when they offer a view and a pathway into worlds that are new to children, and they are mirrors when they reflect back what children see in their own lives. Children benefit from all three.
Each month's list will start with a specific area of focus. This month the focus is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, featuring books with characters from those cultures. The list also includes a number of books with characters and stories that represent a number of different races, cultures, religions, abilities, and identities. The goal is that your students will see themselves AND their classmates represented in these stories, so that they can feel seen and so they can learn new perspectives.
The May 2021 list is here:
https://livoniaptsacouncil.files.wordpress.com/.../divers...
If you would like to recommend other books or topics for future monthly lists, please share them in the comments. If your students would like to share their thoughts or a review on any of the books we share, please share that in the comments. My goal is for this to become a resource that leads to an active conversation about these topics.
Thanks,
Debbie Yates
Livonia PTSA Council Diversity & Inclusion Chair
Council's Unit Spotlight
Webster Staff Appreciation Week - Thanking Our Stars
Since we were unable to have families donate food / gift cards like we have in the past, we asked families for monetary donations. We had a much better response than anticipated, which helped offset the costs greatly when we haven't been able to fundraise as much.
We had a special treat each day for the staff. We chalked the walk and had outdoor signs thanking our staff greeting them on Monday. We decorated the staff lounge with a star theme, to recognize what stars our staff is. We stocked the lounge with snacks and drinks (taken from their favorites they shared at the beginning of the year). We had food trucks come Tuesday and Thursday that week and covered the cost. Culver's donated sundaes for all 65 of our staff on Wednesday (thank you Culver's!), and on Friday we capped off the week with a gift card in everyone's mailbox and a slideshow of families who had sent in their words / videos / drawings of what they appreciated about our staff.
The staff was incredibly appreciative of the week, and we were so happy to show how grateful we are!
Chris Chmura - Webster PTA President
Webster Chalks The Walk!
Who Doesn't Love Culvers?
Food Trucks Are Always A Hit!
Riley's Month of SAW!
Riley PTA has spread out staff appreciation through the whole month of May!! We decorated the staff lounge with our theme "Shining Star", provided a bagel/cream cheese, juice/coffee breakfast, gift bags with a custom made Riley cup and each staff received a treat bag full of goodies. We were happy to include all our staff- principals, office, teachers, specials' teachers, support, custodial and SACC. Our final week of staff appreciation, we will provide lunch to all our staff including members from Central Office as they are moving into Riley on May 24. They are all Shining Stars and we appreciate all they do!!
We had our first ever spring flower sale through Foertmeyer & Sons and it was a success! The sale was very easy for the PTA to run, families purchased online through their sale portal and the flowers were beautiful. We have received lots of positive feedback from parents & staff of the quality of the flowers, ease of purchase and they hope we will do this again in the future. The top earning students in every class ( in person & LV) were invited to a silly string party with Mrs. Cousino and Mrs. Mazzoni along with other prizes. Huge thank you to Mrs. Cousino & Mrs. Mazzoni for an awesome party, lots of fun and a great memory! The PTA appreciates you!!
Nikki Watson- Riley PTA President
Advocacy News!
Michigan PTA Q&A - School Boards and the Open Meetings Act 5/1/21*
Recently LPTSA Council's own Advocacy Chair Mike Testa participated in a Q&A on the Open Meetings Act for MI PTA. As we all know, Mike jumped into the Advocacy role head first and has been extremely active! We are thankful for all the work Mike has done this year! Here is the information on his latest Advocacy work:
MI PTA Unit/Council Awards and Certificates
Michigan PTA offers a wide variety of non-competitive certificates and competitive awards to recognize the remarkable work of volunteers. Awards are intended to honor exemplary leadership and service for children. The deadline for submission is June 1, 2021. For details, visit michiganpta.org/state-pta-awards
Appreciation Awards- Appreciation Awards are a way to recognize the exemplary service of local and council PTA members. Authentic Michigan PTA Appreciation Awards include both a certificate signed by the current Michigan PTA President and a pin representing the type of award. Proceeds from Appreciation Awards supplement the Fran Anderson Scholarship. Appreciation awards can be purchased any time of the year. For details, visit michiganpta.org/appreciation-awards
Important Dates for the 2020 - 2021 Year!
Please note that these dates and times could be subject to change due to COVID - 19 regulations. We will inform all units of any updates or changes as soon as possible.
*UPDATED
2021
*6/16 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | Frost Middle School
*6/23 - Officer Training | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Frost Middle School
TBD - Audit Party | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | TBD
8/5 - 8/8 - Michigan PTA 103rd Annual Convention | Virtual Convention
Have You Joined Us On Facebook?
If you are a PTA officer or committee chair, please make sure to join our page for important information, discussions, and more! A lot of great information is shared on this closed group page. It's also a great way to network with other units, share ideas, and ask for help.
Resources For PTA's During COVID - 19 *
Getting Connected to MI PTA And National PTA
Michigan PTA Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/everychildonevoice
National PTA Website : https://www.pta.org/
National PTA Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/ParentTeacherAssociation
National PTA Blog: https://onevoice.pta.org/
About us...
The Livonia PTSA Council is a group of 22 local PTA/PTSA Units within the Livonia Public Schools District. The Council is organized under the authority of the Michigan PTA for the purpose of promoting conferences, communications, leadership development and coordination of the efforts of the local units.
Interested in joining Council? There are chair opportunities available! Contact President Mandy Gerstenbrand at mandy.gerstenbrand@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Email: newsletter@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Website: www.livoniaptsacouncil.org
Location: 15125 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI, USA
Phone: .
Facebook: facebook.com/LivoniaPTSACouncil
Twitter: @LivoniaPTSAC