Presidents : Elect your  nominating committees ! More  here
Treasurers : Assess if government shutdown affects planned revenue. More  here
In This Issue
For your Boards:
  • Family Engagement Awards
  • Education Survey Results
  • Smarter Technology Use Presentation
  • ISO VP Communications
  • Revenue Sharing among PTAs
  • Political Endorsement Reminder
  • Is your PTA an ATM?
  • Spring Scholarships

For your Members (please share):
  • Congratulations to Reflections Winners!
  • FCCPTA Listening Tour
  • Fairfax County Survey
  • Final days for ERA
  • Virginia Annual Conference Highlights
Win $1,000 for your PTA – Apply for a Family Engagement Award! Our priority this year is to help local PTAs increase family engagement. With support from Whole Foods and Ernst & Young, FCCPTA is able to provide up to $10,000 in awards to recognize local PTA progress. These are not grants; you are free to put the money to use however your PTA sees fit. Deadline is March 1. Learn more  here .
Survey results . VP Advocacy Matt Dunne shared highlights of our Education Survey during last week’s General Membership Meeting, and we’ll post more specific information within the next few weeks. Headlines:
  1. Overall, Fairfax County parents and caregivers love and are proud of our schools! 
  2. Top Priorities include: Increase Teacher Pay, Hire More Teachers, Increase Teacher Diversity.
  3. Reducing class sizes was the overwhelming priority of respondents to the English-language survey. The majority of respondents to the Spanish-language version of the survey prioritized increasing safety and security, and addressing bullying and harassment. 

Thank you to Matt for this enormous effort. With 6,300 responses, representing every school and every zip code in Fairfax County, the survey is the volunteer project that keeps on giving! Questions? Contact Matt at vp.advocacy@fccpta.org .
Smarter Technology Use . Thank you to Health and Wellness Chair Fabiola Green for arranging last week’s presentation: Smarter Technology Use: Executive Functioning and the New Frontier , by FCPS psychologists Dr. Ellen Goldberger and Dr. Josh Kefer. View the power point on our  website . Questions or concerns about digital wellness? Contact Fabiola,  healthandwellness@fccpta.org .
ISO VP-Communications. Thinking about where to invest your volunteer efforts next year? Council-level PTA is a natural next step! We are currently in need of a VP-Communications. Favored candidates will be those with PTA officer experience and the ability to make FCCPTA a priority. The workload for this position can be transitioned in over the spring if needed. Read more about the position here. Interested? Contact Jane Miscavage,  president@fccpta.org .
Revenue Sharing. We’re also in search of a volunteer(s) to research various options for those PTAs who wish to donate extra funds to PTAs in need (this would be 100% voluntary). Contact Jane Miscavage,  president@fccpta.org if you are able to take the lead.
Endorsement guidelines . In Virginia, every year is an election year, and on Nov. 5 we will have a general election that includes School Board and Board of Supervisors among other offices. Following June primaries, FCCPTA will provide a candidate questionnaire and partner with the League of Women Voters to host candidate forums in the fall. As a quick reminder, all PTA members are encouraged to participate and vote for their candidates/issues of personal choice. When representing PTA we are non-partisan. From National PTA:  PTA must never support or oppose political parties or candidates, including those running for school boards on nonpartisan slates. However, PTA may adopt a position expressing its support for or opposition to issues dealing with the health, safety, education, or general well-being of children and youth, but only to the extent permissible with respect to the requirements of each PTA’s tax-exempt status. Nothing in the law or in PTA bylaws prohibits members as individuals from exercising their civic responsibilities in personal and partisan ways, including running for office. For more information, see  https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/permissible-activities-checklist.pdf

 Feeling like a cash machine? Kudos to the Executive Boards who took time in January to review budgets and make necessary adjustments. We’ve spent a surprising amount of time this month counseling presidents who feel their principals have a sense of ownership over the PTA’s money (note: overall, FCPS principals are fantastic PTA supporters and we find that open communication typically clears up financial misunderstandings). We encourage all executive boards to review this  quick article by National PTA. 

Upcoming: Scholarships. During last week’s General Membership meeting, PTA members voted to increase our scholarship fund to $5,000. Scholarship Chair Jen Lieberman will soon post an application for seniors. We will notify PTSA presidents as soon as its available. Scholarships will be presented at our May 22 Meeting. Questions? Contact Jen at  scholarship@fccpta.org.
Save the Date: June 1 Officer Training 

Leslie Boggs, National PTA president-elect, provided training for executive boards during last weekend’s Virginia PTA Annual Meeting. Look for this and other topics when we roll out June’s Officer Training!
For Your Members
Congratulations to Reflections Winners! Congratulations to the scores of Fairfax County  students who won Outstanding Interpretation Awards during the 50 th Anniversary Year of Reflections! Reflections chairs have been notified, and these entries now advance to NOVA District PTA for judging. Thank you to VP-Programs Denise Bolton for overseeing this amazing (and sometimes life-changing) PTA program!

FCCPTA Listening Tour . PTA members are invited to attend one of our Listening Tour events to share thoughts about education in Fairfax County. Information we hear from parents, teachers and students will complement our Education Survey and inform our work. Each session will be open-house style, from 7 to 9 p.m. Please join us at any of the following events:
Feb 25 -- Fairview ES
Mar 4 -- Chantilly HS
Mar 11 -- Mount Vernon HS
Apr 1 -- Marshall HS
TBD -- Madison HS

For more information contact Stella Pekarsky,   vp.outreach@fccpta.org .
What does the future of Fairfax County look like to you?  Fairfax County Government is beginning a strategic planning process with the community to shape the future together. The goal is to hear all voices and reach all segments of our community. 
What are hopes and aspirations for the future of our community? What challenges do we face and what priorities must we address first? 
This effort will span most of 2019, but in this first phase, residents are asked to:
  1. Take a short five-question online survey 
  2. Consider joining a community conversation in person between Feb. 13 and March 6 
  3. Share the survey and conversation invitation with neighbors, co-workers and county family and friends 
Ratify the ERA: Final Days.  If you would like Virginia to ratify the ERA, please call House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox to ask him to hold a floor vote, (804) 698-1066. Please call every day, until Feb 5, as his staff keeps a log of calls. Please tell his staff if you are a PTA member as well, as both FCCPTA and Virginia PTA  support the ERA . Follow news of this historic effort at  varatifyera.org .
Highlights of Virginia PTA Annual Conference and Day at the General Assembly . Congratulations to our own VP-Training, Michelle Leete, for being elected VP-Training for Virginia PTA! Officers, elected and installed on Sunday, include: Donna Colombo, president; Pamela Croom, president-elect; Jenna Alexander, vp-advocacy, Michelle Leete, vp-training; Christian Mayer, vp-programs; Kathy Volle Harrison, treasurer; Sharon Abernathy, secretary.

Virginia PTA’s Day at the General Assembly is always the Monday before the Super Bowl…so mark your calendars for 2020!
More than 40 local PTA officers from Fairfax County attended the conference and advocated for children with elected officials at the General Assembly. Shout out to Daniels Run PTA who sent their entire Board for training and bonding – look for great things to come from this group! Thank you to Virginia Secretary of Education, Atif Qarni , for providing the keynote address at the conference (pictured below with new Virginia PTA President Donna Colombo who gave a barnstormer of a speech at Monday’s #RedforEd rally).
Upcoming Dates

Feb 10-17 Take Your Family to School Week
Feb 25      Listening Tour, 7 p.m., Fairview ES
Mar 1        Deadline to apply for Family Engagement Awards
Mar 4        Listening Tour, 7 p.m., Chantilly HS
Mar 11      Listening Tour, 7 p.m., Mount Vernon HS
Mar 17      Fairfax County Spelling Bee, Lake Braddock SS
Mar 22      Reflections Awards, 6:30 p.m., Luther Jackson MS
Mar 27      General Membership Meeting and Program, 6:30 p.m., Gatehouse
Apr 1        Listening Tour, 7 p.m. Marshall HS
May 22     General Membership Meeting and Awards, 6:30 p.m., Gatehouse
June 1      FCCPTA Training for New Officers and Boards

Thank you for your extra efforts supporting families affected by the shutdown!