I'm feeling a little deja vu as I'm typing this. Why? Well once again it is the day of an important Board of Education Meeting where an important decision will be made. I know many are anxiously awaiting that decision, but let's talk about what this month has taught us. All of our students started virtually this month (with the exception of certain special education programs) and it has certainly been a learning curve for not only students and parents, but teachers and staff as well. But I've seen how resilient the students and teaching staff truly are! I see posts about all the fun the kids are having doing home scavenger hunts, fun interactive music classes (I'm looking at you Mr. Stromberg!), Kahoot (which is a hoot really), Zoom lunches with friends, teachers opening virtual classrooms a few minutes early for students to socialize and so much more! It has been a month of learning but also of fun and community. Parents are helping other parents, PTA's are figuring out the best way they can support their families and schools, and students are adapting.

I also have to give special recognition to the schools and staff that have been providing in person learning for the special education programs. I can say first hand that it has been a great experience so far. My son attends the center program at Grant and the staff has been amazing with the kids. They have been guiding them through all the new protocols and procedures with ease. Not to mention that I love how organized my son's teacher (Ms. Buscemi) is!

No matter what is decided tonight, we most certainly should be able to say we are proud of ourselves, our students, and LPS staff and teachers for taking this unusual start of a school year and molding it into something really great!

Stay healthy,

Andrea Malenfant

Council Newsletter Chair

My PTA “career” started when my son was in Kindergarten 2007. I attended a PTA meeting and volunteered to be the membership chairperson. While my kids were at Grant Elementary, I held a few different officer positions including president for 3 years. As my kids have moved through different schools, I have done almost every PTA job there is and joined council about 6 years ago. I just finished my second year as council president and it was a great experience. Of course, there were difficulties and it ended with this ultimate test of patience, Covid 19, but overall, it was positive. Council has a great group of dedicated volunteers that are always working to help the school PTA’s do the best they can. During the past 13 years I have made some great friends through PTA and I wouldn’t change that for anything. When I’m not doing PTA stuff or volunteering with the Livonia Warriors Robotics team, I work part time at an accounting firm. I also spend time working out, gardening and camping with my husband Eric, our dog Zeke and our kids.

My favorite thing about PTA is working together in a team to pull together an event and when the benefit of that event helps hundreds of kids, its even better. I also like training new PTA officers and sharing my experiences over the years.

I've been involved in PTA since our early days at Jackson Center. I wasn't going to get involved yet but they needed a Treasurer to keep the PTA alive at Jackson Center. I've been involved since! I was the Masterworks Chair at both Hoover and Webster. At Webster, I was the Committee lead for numerous committees such as Green Club, Battle of the Books and 6th Grade Send off. At Frost, I thought I would ease up on PTA commitments, but again, they needed board members to keep PTA alive. I was the Secretary for 2 years and President for 2 years. Now at Churchill, a similar pattern is emerging - Secretary for 2 years and now President for this coming year. I have met and worked with so many wonderful people through PTA. I love the commitment PTA has to support the students and staff. I have now been a member of Council for 1 year and along with Nicole Dant, just launched APS - a summer math enrichment program to help young students review the math they learned and possibly enjoy math.

I have a daughter, Anna, in 11th grade at Churchill in the MSC program. My son, Drew, just graduated from the MSC program and will be attending UM-Ann Arbor for Engineering/Computer Science. We are very grateful for the educational opportunities LPS has provided as well as the numerous extracurricular opportunities!

The month of August was particularly tough for our families as we did not know if there would be a virtual option for our ACAT program, so we wanted to ease stress and tensions as much as possible. Leading up to school starting, we posted a few encouraging memes on our Facebook page.

On the first day of school, we asked people to share their first day of school photos and had a great response of over 50 photos shared. At the end of the first week, we chalked the walk for our staff to walk into on Friday. For the first full week, we continue to share encouraging memes at the beginning and end of the week.

We conducted a family survey on how we could best serve them this year, and shared the results at our first meeting and in our weekly email spotlight.

Overall, we have tried to be cognizant of the frequency of our communications as we know many people feel overwhelmed. We are focusing on reminders that people need with LPS deadlines, being positive and trying to convey how much we are there to support our families.

Chris Chmura - Webster PTA President

Holmes PTSA President - Lori Sosnowski

Recently, the Emerson PTSA made buttons with our MoCI staff's pictures so their students could see their smiling faces WITHOUT a mask! One of our teachers was also recently featured in a news segment on PBS and showed some PTA love - check out the link to hear from Ms. Loiselle!

#eaglenation

https://www.onedetroitpbs.org/education-special-school-daze/

Mandy Gerstenbrand - Emerson PTSA Membership Chair

Our team of volunteers is assembled and trained and we're ready to kick off Reflections season. We've chosen to go virtual this year, which means all of our entries will be submitted electronically. The chairpersons will be looking to their unit boards to help with promotion at PTA meetings and in your communications to families. They'll also need to confirm that your unit has completed its Standards of Affiliation on time, because if you don't, then your participants can't be judged at the state level, if they win at the district level. We also want to include our Livonia Virtual students, so if you've already established a line of communication with those families, please help us reach them. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!

As a reminder, this year's theme is "I Matter Because..." The deadline for students to turn in entries is Friday, November 13th. We're looking forward to seeing how our students interpret this theme!

Thanks,

Debbie Yates

Livonia PTSA Council Reflections Chair

Founder's Day photo album link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5xMibuFozu7Zkvow7

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. The LPTSA Council is working hard to help share information so our members can be educated voters.

1) LPS Board of Education: There are 4 open seats with 6 candidates running. The Council is hosting a Candidate Forum on September 30th. All 6 Candidates are planning to attend. The forum will be conducted via Zoom and a recording will be made available for public viewing afterwards.

2) Wayne County Enhancement Millage: This is a Renewal of an existing Millage and will not result in a tax increase. At the September General Meeting, the LPTSA Council voted unanimously to endorse this Millage. At statement about our Endorsement will soon be made available.

3) State House of Representatives: There are 3 House Districts that reach into the LPS Boundaries – District 11, 16, and 19. We collaborated with the Northville Council to create a list of 8 education related questions that we requested all the related Candidates answer. We are now receiving and compiling their replies and will soon make them available.

For all 3 of these items, we plan to communicate the information by using our website, Facebook, and e-blast. Please help communicate this information with your local members and School Community when it becomes available.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Mike Testa (advocacy@livoniaptsacouncil.org).

Mike Testa

LPTSA Council Advocacy Chair

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.

2020

TBD - Memberhub Training | TBD | TBD

11/18 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | BOE

TBD - Council Meet and Greet | TBD | TBD

TBD - Council Workshop | TBD | TBD

2021

1/20 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | BOE

TBD - Council Workshop

TBD - Chili Cook-Off

1/21 - Reflections Celebration | TBD | TBD

2/10 - Founder's Day | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Schoolcraft VistaTech Center

3/17 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | BOE

TBD - Council Workshop

4/21 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | BOE

4/21 - LPTSA Council Gen. Membership Meeting (Elections) | 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Unit members attend virtually

TBD - YMAD Celebration

5/19 - Officer Training | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | TBD

6/16 - LPTSA Council EB Meeting | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm | TBD

TBD - Audit Party | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm | TBD

http://commonsensemedia.org/resources-for-families-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

http://cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/index.html

http://pbs.org/parents/coronavirus-resources-for-parents