PTA Mission

The overall purpose of PTA: A powerful voice for all children; A relevant resource for families and communities; and, A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child.

Important Information From FCCPTA Treasurer Lynn Terhar

Many PTAs are voting on last minute expenditures as we approach the end of the school year and starting to work on next year's budget.

Here is some information that should help guide your decisions:

FCCPTA General Membership Meeting

Key business is to conduct the officer elections. Click HERE To Read The Nominating Committee's Report.  Nominations will also be taken from the floor for all positions.

The Best Practices Workshop originally scheduled for March 27 will be conducted following the officer election.

General Membership Meetings are open to all PTA members.

Date: 
Tue, 05/22/2012 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Location

Gatehouse II -- FCPS Headquarters
8115 Gatehouse Road 1st Floor, Cafe
Falls Church, VA 22042
See map: Google Maps

Best Practices Workshop

Please join the FCCPTA in a roundtable discussion of “Best Practices for Running Elementary, Middle, and High School PTAs” on Tuesday, May 22nd at approximately 8:00 PM in the Gatehouse Café on the first floor of the Gatehouse Administration Center, 8115 Gatehouse Road, Falls Church, VA 22042. The Best Practices of PTA roundtables will begin immediately after the General Membership Meeting concludes. Link up with your fellow PTA leaders to share your best practices, to hear new ideas to improve your PTA/PTSA or participate in both.

Workshop Coordinators: Debbie Kilpatrick, current Centreville HS PTSA President and former TJHSST PTSA President, FCCPTA Local Unit Liaison; and Beth Tudan, former Oakton Elementary and Landstuhl Elementary and Middle School PTA President; FCCPTA Recording Secretary.

Potential discussion for elementary school topics include:

  • Communication: websites, newsletters, email and weekly folders; use of social media.
  • Membership retention and growth (parent, faculty, staff, community)
  • Volunteer recruitment, coordination, e-tools, and recognitions
  • Working with the school administration and faculty
  • Target marketing: who is your constituency?
  • Planning the PTA calendar
  • Writing a PTA agenda; Running an effective PTA Meeting
  • Community events; Corporate Partnerships
  • Fundraising ideas to support PTA programs and student enrichment
  • Community outreach; working with Cluster and Pyramid PTAs
  • International Night; Language translations for PTA programs
  • Healthy Food; Student Healthy Living

Potential discussion for middle and high school topics include:

  • Communication: web sites, newsletters, use of social media; Just Between Friends
  • Membership Retention and growth (parent, student, faculty, staff, community)
  • Free Resources for Parent and Student Programs; Language translations for materials
  • Increasing Student PTSA participation programs
  • Student Academic Recognition Programs
  • PTSA Senior Scholarship information
  • College Prep Workshops; Practice SAT/ACT Testing
  • Working within Clusters and Pyramids to coordinate PTA/PTSA Programs
  • Identifying effective committees and plan of works
  • Fundraising Ideas; Online Payment Programs
  • Corporate Partnerships; Mentorship Programs; Booster Organizations
  • All Night Grad/Prom Programs Questions?

Contact Debbie Kilpatrick president@cvhsptsa.org or Beth Tudan at beth@thetudans.org

Date: 
Tue, 05/22/2012 - 8:00pm

Location

Gatehouse Administration Center
8115 Gatehouse Road Cafe
Falls Church, VA 22042
See map: Google Maps

FCCPTA Nominating Committee Report

April 19, 2012 FCCPTA Nominating Committee Report:

The FCCPTA Nominating Committee met on April 16th and reviewed all nominations for the PTA Executive Committee for the 2012-214 term. In accordance with Fairfax County Council PTA bylaws, all candidates must be members of a PTA in good standing.

The proposed officer nominees met all criteria for election to office. After careful consideration, the following slate of officers were adopted and are presented as follows:

  • President - Ramona Morrow
  • President-Elect - Debbie Kilpatrick
  • Vice President of Advocacy - Pam Kondé
  • Vice President of Communications - Greg Brandon
  • Vice President of Local Engagement - Beth Henson Tudan
  • Vice President of Programs - Peter Bisset
  • Secretary - OPEN
  • Treasurer - Cynthia Nair

On Tuesday, May 22, the Nominating Committee will present this proposed slate and nominations from the floor will be in order. The Nominating Committee will continue to seek nominations for the position of Secretary and present the name at the time of the election meeting. Please contact fccptanominations@gmail.com.

Following the presentation of the proposed slate and nominations taken from the floor, the election will be conducted and the newly elected officers will then be installed.

Respectfully submitted by:

Debbie Kilpatrick, Nominating Committee Chair

Committee Members:

Anna Diefendorf
Walt Carlson
David Edelman
Steve Greenburg

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Mantua Elementary School Earns Phoebe Apperson Hearst-National PTA Outstanding Family-School Partnership Award

Phoebe Apperson Hearst-National PTA Outstanding Family-School Partnership Award


Mantua Elementary School PTA in Fairfax, Va., earned the highest distinction by receiving the Phoebe Apperson Hearst-National PTA Outstanding Family-School Partnership Award. They created a human relations committee to help bridge the gap between the school and the families of students in the community which speak more than 40 different languages. The committee now has translators for school publications to help keep families of students informed of the school’s progress, programs and events. In addition, the PTA implemented a mentorship program and extracurricular activities for students, as well as service projects for the elderly, families in need and sick children in the community.

Mantua Elementary PTA truly understands that bringing family engagement into the school can positively impact student success. As a part of the award, the PTA will receive two all-expense paid trips to this year’s 116th Annual National PTA Convention in June where they will be recognized with $2,000.

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Fairfax County Youth Survey Results for 2010

The Fairfax County Youth Survey is a comprehensive, anonymous, and voluntary survey that examines the risk and protective factors and various health behaviors that influence the health and well-being of our county's youth. The survey is administered every year in Fairfax County Public Schools to all students in 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grades.

The survey's focus areas include:

  • Use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD)
  • Violence
  • Delinquency
  • Bullying and aggression
  • Mental health concerns such as suicide, depression, body image
  • Sexual health (8th, 10th, and 12th grade only)
  • Nutrition and physical activity
  • Risk and protective factors at home, school, and in the community

In order to gather the breadth of information desired by community stakeholders and to manage the length of the survey, questions for 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students are divided among two shorter surveys (Risk and Protective Factors and Healthy Behaviors). Both surveys have a common set of core questions which will be asked every year. The additional questions on the Risk and Protective Factors survey are largely pulled from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Communities That Care Survey. The additional questions on the Healthy Behaviors survey are largely derived from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). In 2009, 8th, 10th and 12th grade students were given the Healthy Behaviors Survey.

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2011 FCCPTA Reflections Awards

We are pleased to announce that we will be awarding 320 students with Fairfax County Reflections awards.

The listing on this website is by Clusters, then by Art mediums, and then by awards to be given.

The awards are as follows:

  • OI is for Outstanding Interpretation or 1st place
  • AE is for Award of Excellence or 2nd place
  • AM is for Award of Merit or 3rd place We have sent all Outstanding Interpretation winners on to the District level.

Many thanks to all reflections chairs and to all students who participated in this year’s reflections program. Our judges have been very pleased to see what our students can produce.

Please Click HERE To Download The List Of Award Winners

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Nut and Bolts of Being a Special Education Liaison

The Special Education Liaison serves as a resource to the school community about Special Education for students with disabilities.

Duties include:

  • Attending meetings of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs Special Education Committee.
  • Sharing relevant information about special education and related activities and events with the school community.
  • Reviewing, and as appropriate, reporting on recent activities of the FCPS Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities, http://www.fcps.edu/dss/ACSD/index.shtml 
  • Providing periodic updates to the school unit PTA. Requirement: a moderate level of activity throughout the school year.

Communication is key

  • Use your PTA's website, newsletter or email contact system to keep the school community informed about events and activities that impact students with disabilities.
  • Possible sources of information items:

o Fairfax County Public School's Parent Resource Center: www.fcps.edu/cco/prc/index.shtml

o FCPS Office of Special Education Instruction:  www.fcps.edu/dss/sei/index.shtml

o Parent Education Advocacy Training Center (PEATC), Virginia's federally funded parent training and information center:  www.peatc.org

o Kellar Institute for Human Disabilities at GMU:  www.kihd.gmu.edu/library

o Contact list for FCPS Department of Special Services- www.fcps.edu/dss/directory.pdf

o List of FCPS Procedural Support Liaisons-  www.fcps.edu/dss/seps/psl/psl.pdf 

o Virginia Department of Education:   www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/index.shtml

o Many more, subscribe to listservs and e-mail lists for updates from these organizations.

Build awareness

  • Consider ways to raise awareness of disability and special education-related issues. For example, National Inclusive Schools Week (www.inclusiveschools.org) during the first full week in December, can be an opportunity to highlight inclusive practices, raise disability awareness and share information about resources available to families of children with special needs.  Also check out the FCPS www.fcps.edu/cco/prc/resources/packets/documents/InclusionResourcePacket...
  • Other proven ideas:

o Parent coffees with a presenter

o “Field trips” for parents or for families to an activity or event

o A Q & A –format in every edition of the PTA newsletter

o Conduct a needs assessment of the families in your school

o Include special education information in Welcome or Newcomer packets

Foster relationships that help students with special needs

  • This is primarily an information-sharing role. Provide factual information whenever possible.
  • Two important jobs are to listen and clarify.
  • Avoid taking sides in any individual dispute.
  • Remember the importance of keeping confidences and maintaining relationships with parents, teaching staff and administrators alike. You cannot help parents be informed advocates if you have alienated the professionals serving their children!
  • Beware single-disability focus or speakers promoting a specific agenda or product.
  • Welcome the entire school community to events and activities.

There is no one way to be a special education liaison

  • Beyond the tasks in the job description, there are no “required” tasks of the liaison.
  • Use what worked in past, but also try new approaches. If it does not fly, that is OK!

Prevention Toolkit

Fairfax County and Fairfax County Public Schools is pleased to offer an exciting new resource that is available to Fairfax County community organizations and parents.  This new resource is the Prevention Toolkit. In short, the Prevention Toolkit is collection of suggestions, tools, and resources to assist families, school staff, PTA's, community- and faith-based organizations, social clubs, and others in promoting the well-being of youth in our community. The toolkit is focused on 5 key areas: mental health (depression and suicide), bullying and cyber-bullying, physical activity and nutrition, teen dating abuse, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. In addition, at the same website, you can find general and topic specific Fairfax County Youth Survey results from the 2010 survey.

The toolkit is just one example of several collaborations between Fairfax County Government and Fairfax County Public Schools. For example, the school system recently released a system-wide bullying prevention and intervention plan that will help strengthen the learning environment for all of our children. Fairfax County Government supports this initiative and has already begun collaborating with the school system to take the bullying prevention message out into the community. This work will create a model that can be used to advance other initiatives that will ultimately help assure that all of our children are academically, physically, mentally, and socially well.

Please share this information with your PTA communities. Visit the Prevention Toolkit website and download the Prevention Toolkit Flyer for more information.

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