August 2024

It's Go Time!

School starts in just a few weeks! It's time to start planning your events for this school year, preparing your 24-25 budget, and welcoming staff and families to a new school year.

Tune-in to live PTA Leader webinars this week, or watch the recordings to get tips and new ideas for an impactful PTA year.

Below you'll find this year's Membership Challenges, links to webinars, and a quick update on significant state policy conversations that will impact your school community.

Cell-Phone Free Education: This year, the start of the school year will be a good time to host a "Conversation That Clicks". In early July, the Governor's Executive Order 33 directed the Virginia Department of Education to establish a Cell-Phone free policy by August 15th, to be finalized by September 16th. Local school boards must have related policies and procedures in place by January 1, 2025. Parenting in the digital age is complex. For the past 5 years PTA's have been hosting community conversations that create an informed space for families and communities to discuss online safety and healthy digital habits.

Check-out these 5 PTA Connected Conversation Event Toolkits
Encourage parents to send comments to the VBOE

NEW School Performance Framework: Despite overwhelming public feedback in opposition to an ABC style school performance rating system, last week the Virginia Board of Education adopted a rating system that uses a 100-point scale and the following four categories to rate school performance; Distinguished (90+ points), On-Track (80-89 points), Off-Track (65-79 points), and Needs Intensive Support (-65 points). These are not the same categories used for federal school performance reporting nor are they the categories used for VDOE school improvement plans. The new School Performance Framework is over-weighted to report SOL pass rates with a lower weighting given to student growth. It also adds a new 5th grade and 8th grade "Performance Task" test in year two.

The new system includes only ~69 schools in the 'Distinguished' category, and will rate 60% of Virginia's schools as 'Off-Track' or 'Needs Intensive Support', with ~926 (54%) of Virginia's schools in the 'Off-Track' category. Talk with your Principal about how this new system will impact your school and discuss the types of mission-driven family engagement events that could benefit your school community to increase parent awareness, and benefit student academic achievement.

See current data about your school (does not reflect new rating system)
Plan a Family Reading Activity
Plan a Math Night or STEM Night
Check-out the Healthy Mind / Healthy Earth / Healthy Bodies toolkits

Best wishes for a successful first PTA event of the year as you host your Back to School events! If need support getting the school year started for your PTA, please reach out, your Council and State officers are all here to support you!

Yours in Partnership,

Jenna Alexander

President, Virginia PTA

Annual Paperwork aka Compliance

Let's Get it Done!!

Annual compliance was due August 1st.

All documents should be uploaded to your PTA's Givebacks/MemberHub account.

On-time completion of your annual Standards of Affiliation requirements ensures outgoing officers report on the work they oversaw, and enables incoming officers to start planning a budget and calendar for the new school year.

Tips from the July Newsletter

Annual Standards of Affiliation (Compliance) List

Video Tutorial:Upload Compliance Documents

PTA Budgeting

Preparing your annual budget is an excellent opportunity for your executive board to talk through goals for the coming year. Start by talking about what you want to accomplish and then determine how much funding you need.

Remember, our mission is to advocate for the academic success, health and welfare of children and engage families. You should only raise enough money to cover your needs for the year. Please be mindful of whether or not the items that you discuss raising money for are items that should be paid for by the school division. If so, talk with your Council PTA, or review resources on the Virginia PTA website and consider advocating for improved resources.

Your Executive Board should approve the proposed budget that will be presented to the general membership for adoption at your first PTA meeting of the school year.

PTA Finance Resources

Get Organized

Treasurer Monthly Checklist

Permanent Records Binder Tabs

Records Retention Schedule

Sample Budgets & Reports

Sample Budget & Monthly Report (xls)

Treasurer Forms

Treasurer Request Form (1pg)

Check Request Form

Cash Count Deposit Sheet

List of Checks for Deposit Form

Fraud Prevention Check List

PTA Webinars!

Membership Challenges!

Set a membership goal this year and share it with your community!

We challenge every PTA to increase their membership by 10% compared to last year.

Set a stretch goal of 20% to earn a President’s Trailblazer Award!

We'll be tracking and celebrating when your PTA reaches Membership Milestones. Additionally, each month we’ll be celebrating outstanding membership achievements, and holding a drawing to award prizes.

Use #PTAMembershipMatters on social media and tag Virginia PTA so we can celebrate and recognize your work and accomplishments.

Membership awards are determined based on dues paid, as reflected in your Givebacks account. To be eligible for cash prizes, your unit must have have completed the annual Standards of Affiliation to be in good standing.

AUGUST CHALLENGE: Say "YES!" To New Adventures.

Enter your destination into the GPS! Share your online join link, theme, & goal with us. Complete this form to be entered to win!

2024-2025 Membership Challenges

All Membership Resources

Aug 5th Membership Webinar

2023-2025 Schools Of Excellence

CONGRATULATIONS to our 22 PTAs in Virginia who have been recognized as leaders in family to school partnerships with a National PTA School of Excellence Award.

Schools recognized with this award participated in a year-long program to identify and implement best practices in family engagement using PTA's Standards for Family-School Partnerships.

Throughout the 2023-2024 school year these PTAs and schools collected feedback from their school communities using surveys and other outreach tools, participated in workgroups with PTAs across the nation, and created and implemented plans of action to improve family engagement.

Enrollment is now open for the 2024-2025 School of Excellence program.

The deadline to enroll is Oct. 15. Learn More

2024-25 Reflections Arts Contest

Student Art Contest!

Celebrate student creativity this year by encouraging participation in the 2024-2025 Reflections student arts contest!

This year's theme is "Accepting Imperfection"

Here's How It Works

Your PTA encourages students to enter in any of six art categories, and selects school-based winners using local artists as judges.

Your PTA celebrates participating students and winners; and advances 1st place entries to compete at the city/county or regional level. Council/Regional winners advance to compete at the state level, and Virginia PTA advances winners to the National level for recognition and an opportunity to win a $800 Young Artist Scholarship and $200 for their Local PTA.

Your PTA should be ready to advance your school's winners to the next level by December 15th!

Get Started!

Aug 27th Webinar

All webinars are recorded and available on the Leadership Training page of our website.

Givebacks 2-minute "How-To" videos are also available.

WATCH RECENT WEBINARS

Recruit Volunteers & Officer Elections

About Council PTAs

Financial Review & Treasurer Transition

Treasurer 101 Best Practices

President Leadership

Council Officer Training

PTA Officer Basics

Givebacks & Compliance

Let's Grow Membership

Mon. Aug. 5, 2024 | 7pm

Review the basics of membership including, setting-up membership sales, communicating the value of your PTA, and hear tips from local units who achieved membership excellence last year.

WATCH

Impactful Family Events

Mon. Aug. 5, 2024 | 8pm

Learn about family event toolkits and grants that are available for your PTA, as well as how you can create events that grow family engagement and support student success.

WATCH

Prepare Your PTA Budget

Tues. Aug 6, 2024 | 7pm

Learn the basics of how to develop your PTA budget, how to manage principal financial requests, and how to identify opportunities to advocate for better school funding instead of fundraising.

PTA Insurance Coverage

Tues. Aug. 8, 2024 | 8pm

Is your PTA appropriately protected? Are you protected as an officer? Join this workshop presented by AIM Insurance to learn the basics of why PTAs need insurance, what the different types of coverage protect against.

Create an Advocacy Culture

Wed. Aug. 7, 2024 | 7pm

Learn how to build an advocacy climate in your PTA. We will review the basics of positions and resolutions, and how your PTA can take action locally and at the state level for your school community.

Record Retention & Digital Recordkeeping

Wed. Aug 7, 2024 | 8pm

Join this workshop for Secretaries and Treasurers to learn all of the basics for keeping electronic books, recording minutes, financial reporting, and establishing a strong record-keeping system.