Home

Comments to the School Board

October 14, 2009

Good evening, my name is Heather Gillette and I am here representing the Issaquah PTSA Council.

During the summer PTSA, ISF and VIS all partnered together to produce and distribute a postcard in early August to all families in the district. It is referred to as:  “The 3 things postcard”. Our purpose was to create a game plan for families
Our message:

  1. Join and support your PTSA
  2. Donate to the Issaquah Schools Foundation “Calling for Kids” campaign
  3. Vote yes for our 3 levies in February

So, have people done #1 and #2?

With regards to #1, while our first set of numbers are not due to the Washington State PTA until October 25 we ran the numbers for our General Membership meeting last week and as of October 8 we had 12,891 members across the District. When compared with the October enrollment numbers that puts us at 87% membership in the district – 1 adult voice for each of the 87% of students in our district.

And #2? Well, we all wait anxiously to see how the “Calling for Kids” campaign does next Tuesday, October 20 and Wednesday, October 21.

We have a ways to go before the February renewal levies vote but we can tell you that the Issaquah PTSA Council voted in early September to endorse all 3 renewal levies. From there each individual PTA is taking it back to their General Membership and those endorsements are coming in as well. We are committed to this campaign and have a VIS parent rep in every building to help with communications and organizing volunteers.

While not one of our “3 things” we believe that the Eyman Initiative 1033 has the potential to do harm to education and undercut many of the positive things that all of these organizations are trying to do to help our students, let alone the drastic impact that would occur to the Issaquah School District. As such, the Issaquah PTSA Council took this to our General Membership, presented the pros and cons, and ultimately voted to oppose I-1033. We would like to encourage the Issaquah School Board, the voice of our community, to also take a stand against I-1033.