How to Transform Your Fundraiser into a FUNdraiser

Sponsored by Apex Leadership Company

Fundraising may be necessary in today’s school budget crisis, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be FUN! We’ve got some tips for your PTA board as they plan ahead for the biggest year of fundraising, yet. Many groups struggled with fundraising during the pandemic, and how best to maximize results amid layoffs and lockdowns.

Speaker

Scott Donnell is a serial entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to both physical and mental health. In his work, Scott has partnered or collaborated with many other world-class experts in the frequency and energy space.

Why Does Your PTA Need Insurance?

Sponsored by AIM

Come to this learning workshop to find out how to protect yourself and your PTA. AIM will discuss the liability our PTA’s face, what coverages are available, and offer any guidance on what you need to do to protect yourself. 

Speaker

Elgin Allen formed AIM in 1989 and is the CEO and Owner. Prior to starting his own company, Elgin had 15 years of mixed insurance and accounting experience. AIM currently Partners with 48 of the 50 State PTA’s and is the largest writer of PTA’s in the country. 

Brains, Budgets and Technology: Making Smarter Financial Decisions

Sponsored by Mountain America Credit Union

From understanding the behaviors that influence our financial decision making to where to start with a budget, and even the technology that can help improve all of these processes, Mountain America's Robert Steed explains how you can be more efficient with your financial planning.

Speaker

Robert has been training others professionally for over a decade, helping people connect their motivating why with the what and the how of their financial behavior.

Creating a Roadmap for College Admissions and Beyond

Sponsored by The Princeton Review

Did you know that a student's academic performance is the #1 factor considered in college admissions? Join The Princeton Review as we work through the importance of middle and high school academics and help families understand why creating a solid academic foundation is vital. We will walk through the best ways to plan and prepare for high school courses beginning in middle school, understand how to get ahead, and explain what counts most during a student's high school career. We will reveal how a student's academic plan impacts college admissions and how to make high school far less stressful for families.

Speaker

Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review, is a nationally sourced expert on colleges and higher education. Over his 27-year career, he has been a college admissions counselor, publisher, editor, author, and lecturer. He presents in-person and online across the globe to students, parents, and counselors, counting those opportunities among his most rewarding professional experiences. Rob is the author of several books, including College Admissions During COVID, College Admission 101, The Best 386 Colleges, and The Best Value Colleges. At The Princeton Review, Rob is the publishing director of more than 150 books on topics such as test-prep guides, college and graduate school admission resources, and student aids available from Penguin Random House. Rob directs The Princeton Review's surveys of college applicants and their parents for its annual College Hopes & Worries Survey, as well as surveys of administrators and students for its annual college and graduate school rankings.

PTA Connected

Help families take charge of their digital lives with PTA Connected. As our families are online more now than ever, this workshop provides tools your PTA families can use together at home to help balance the time they spend with their devices and better connect with one another while also learning new ways to be safe online. By the end of the workshop you will know how to:
1. Locate and use PTA Connected program materials and resources
2. Learn how local PTAs have used PTA Connected programs remotely in their communities
3. Start to plan your own PTA Connected program

Speakers

Alyssa Montchal works on the Programs & Partnerships team at National PTA. Her work is focused on helping connect PTA leaders to the resources they need to approach digital safety and citizenship through PTA Connected. She also manages the programs grant programs and has helped to redevelop the Family Reading Experience.

Collin Robinson is serving his second term on the National PTA Board of Directors. He has been an active PTA parent leader at the local, regional, state and national levels and served as president of Oregon PTA from 2015-2017.

David Way is a father of 3 kids at Marshall Fundamental Secondary School in Pasadena, CA. He has volunteered as PTSA Unit & Council Treasurer, AYSO Coach and Board Member of 2 non-profits. He is CFO of the Dave Knight Real Estate Team in Pasadena.

Identifying and Mitigating Psychological Issues in the Classroom

Sponsored by American Psychological Association

Difficulty managing emotions continues to take a toll among students, families, and school personnel, particularly in the context of the pandemic. The focus of this session will be to provide parents with tools to help identify and prevent behaviors symptomatic of disrupted well-being and directing them to appropriate.

Speaker

Rena F. Subotnik PhD is director of the Center for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE) at the American Psychological Association. CPSE promotes the high quality application of psychological science to programs and policies for schools and pre-K through grade 12 education. 

How to Help Your Chapters Stay Tax Compliant

Sponsored by File990.org

It is important for state and local chapters to file the appropriate 990 form annually with the IRS. File990.org is a service that many state PTAs have partnered with to make filing easy and to help ensure compliance.

Speakers

J. B. Goll works with national and international nonprofit partners in ensuring a successful business relationship and expanding partnerships to provide integrated software and payment solutions. 

Deb Stern served 20 years in the United States Navy. Ten years were spent as a computer technician. She was then selected to participate in the Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program (MECP) to complete her BS in Nursing and become commissioned as a Nurse Corps officer. Deb is currently the Alabama PTA Treasurer as well as Huntsville Council of PTAs Treasurer. 

Mathew Tooker is an expert in sales forecasting, analytics, goal setting, client growth initiatives and business development. He’s a graduate of Auburn University and a part-time MBA student at Florida State University.

How Schools Can Implement Safe, In-Person Learning in the Fall

Sponsored by BD

With a return to in-person learning in the fall, parents and teachers will need to turn their attention to another public health emergency—the use of e-cigarettes by children. Hear from experts in tobacco control about current youth tobacco use, the efforts underway to address it and how parents and teachers can get involved.

Speakers

Dr. Richard Pescatore is Chief Physician, Associate State Medical Director at Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. Dr. Pescatore completed his residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, where he was also chief resident. He was also the Director of Clinical Research for the Crozer-Keystone Health System emergency medicine residency program.

Megan Wimmer is an Associate Director for HEOR (Health Economics and Outcomes Research) at BD. Her latest publication looks at cost-effectiveness and access for testing strategies for COVID-19. Megan holds an MBA from the Tepper school of Business at Carnegie Mellon and a B.Sci. in Molecular Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Teen Vaping Epidemic: Strategies and Tools for Parents and Teachers

Sponsored by Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, PAVe, Truth Initiative

With a return to in-person learning in the fall, parents and teachers will need to turn their attention to another public health emergency—the use of e-cigarettes by children. Hear from experts in tobacco control about current youth tobacco use, the efforts underway to address it and how parents and teachers can get involved.

Speakers

Dorian Fuhrman is one of the cofounders of Parents Against Vaping e-cigarettes, PAVe, a national grassroots education and advocacy organization. She founded PAVe in 2018 with Meredith Berkman and Dina Alessi as a response to the youth vaping epidemic. Today, PAVe has dozens of chapters around the country, educating parents and other adults about the dangers of flavored e-cigarette products and advocating to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, which are proven to addict kids.

Caroline Goncalves Jones is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Caroline works to support the Campaign’s advocacy efforts aimed at promoting policies and programs to prevent kids from starting to use tobacco products and helping tobacco users quit.

Portia Reddick White is Vice-President of Strategic Partnerships with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK). She leads the overall strategic direction on outreach and implementation in building, cultivating, and sustaining relationships with external partnerships with a particular emphasis on those disproportionately impacted by tobacco. With portfolios that included various interest including health care, she has managed outreach, strategy, counsel and served as primary liaison to groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and more.

Amy Taylor leads the community and youth engagement team at Truth Initiative and has more than two decades of experience in public health advocacy and education, with a background leading successful advocacy campaigns by engaging and mobilizing advocates and building coalitions. Amy Taylor is a proud PTA President at Williamsburg Middle School in Arlington, Virginia.

Summer REcharge: Powering Partnerships Between Families and Educators

Sponsored by Learning Heroes

After this past year, families deserve (and need) a REcharge. In this session, you will hear about the latest parent research about the impact of COVID-19 for Summer 2021 and beyond, discuss innovative strategies to keep learning at the center as children reconnect with family and friends and refuel their passions, and discover tools to build deeper connections with educators and out-of-school time providers.

Speakers

Bibb Hubbard founded Learning Heroes to help parents play an active role in their children’s educational success. Before Learning Heroes, Bibb held leadership positions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Widmeyer Communications, and Scholastic. Her public-sector experience includes positions at the White House and the U.S. Labor Department.

Windy Lopez-Aflitto brings 20 years of experience in family engagement, education, and philanthropy to Learning Heroes. Windy was previously with Scholastic for nearly a decade and was instrumental in the research and development of the company’s first comprehensive family and community engagement initiative.

Kelsey Nelson is a DMV native and an avid proponent of high-quality education for all children, Kelsey joins Learning Heroes with an extensive background in PR, communications and marketing, and creating/facilitating high-powered partnerships.

Dery Rodriguez is a project manager of strategic partnerships and initiatives at the New York City Department of Education's Office of Family and Community Partnerships. Dery focuses on cultivating partnerships between families, community members, and educators that support student achievement and school improvement.

Conversations About Student Privacy and Self-Harm Monitoring Technology

Sponsored by GoGuardian

Student privacy is an issue that parents, schools, and policymakers all care deeply about. Coupled with student mental health, they are two of the most critical and complex topics that we explore daily in our mission to help create safer online experiences for students. Knowing that nearly 80% of youth receiving mental health support access those services within their schools, it’s essential to ask: how can we help schools identify students at risk for mental health crises while respecting student privacy?

Speakers

Rebecca Garcia is the President of the Nevada Parent Teacher Association. A mother of four children, ages 10 to 26, she is a passionate parent advocate dedicated to ensuring that the unique needs of all students are met regardless of zip code. Navigating the complexity of public education with her own twice exceptional children led her to get more engaged as a parent advocate and PTA leader. Rebecca has called East Las Vegas home for the last 15 years, where her children have attended Title 1 schools. She currently sits on several educational committees and councils at the school, district, and state-level.

Teddy Hartman is the Head of Privacy at GoGuardian. With over two decades in the education space, Teddy has built his career on the belief that education is a mechanism for creating positive social change.

Dr. Alyssa Moore leads the Office of Digital Learning with the Delaware Department of Education. She is a career educator who has spent 22 years working with PreK-12 students, teachers, administrators, and families. She has held various roles including: classroom teacher, technology coordinator, Instructional Technology Instructional Coach & Curriculum Specialist, and Assistant Principal.

Anisha Reddy is a Policy Counsel at Future of Privacy Forum, focusing on youth and education privacy.Anisha focuses on helping stakeholders find creative ways to innovate while protecting student and children’s privacy, expanding FPF’s library of student privacy resources, and tracking state and federal policy proposals. Anisha also represents FPF on working groups and coalitions, ensuring that student privacy and equity are embedded within any education data initiative.

Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW is Associate Professor of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago, President of the American Association of Suicidology and coauthor of the 2015 Routledge text, Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner's Guide to Multi-level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention. He is a two-time winner of the National Association of Social Workers Media Award (2012 and 2016). The Social Work Podcast has over 40,000 followers on social media, listeners in 208 countries and territories, and a million podcast episode downloads per year. Follow @socworkpodcast and Facebook at facebook.com/swpodcast

STEM+Families

Is your local PTA considering hosting a STEM +Families program this upcoming school year? National PTA has everything you need to run a successful program. PTA leaders will leave this workshop with the information, tools and resources needed to successfully run a STEM +Families program.

Speakers

Tery Ackerman lives in Lexington, Kentucky and practices law as a sole practitioner, with a focus on child advocacy. She served as secretary for the Leestown Middle School PTSA during the 2020-2021 school year and is the treasurer-elect for the 2021-2022 school year. Leestown has both a pre-engineering program and also an agriscience program, so STEM programs are a natural fit for the school community.

Dani Carver is an elementary teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been involved with PTA for over ten years. She currently serves on the National PTA Programs Committee. She knows the importance of family engagement in education and National PTA has given Carver the tools to promote this in her classroom.

Kari Coppinger remembers what PTA did for her and her classmates when they were in school, which propelled her into service in the Simi Valley, California PTA as soon as she had a kindergartener. She has been president at Hollow Hills Fundamental PTA (K–6) for the last two years and is president-elect at Sinaloa Middle School (6–8). Hollow Hills enjoyed participating in the STEM+ Families Science Festival this year. In her non-PTA time, Kari enjoys easy hikes, swimming, going to the beach, reading historical fiction, and of course, time with her husband, son, and daughter.

Dana Taylor is a Programs & Partnerships Manager at National PTA and has been with National PTA for two years. Overseeing the STEM + Families Initiative, she is responsible driving the strategic vision of the initiative and carrying out the overall strategies and goals of the initiative. Dana is excited to be able to share National PTA’s STEM + Families resources with PTA members.

The New, Digital Way to PTA

Sponsored by BAND

In this workshop, Suzi Kennon, President of Texas PTA will share how she has successfully streamlined communication with her Board of Directors and Texas PTA’s key initiatives. Whether you’re a State, Council, or local leader, if you’re looking to organize scattered information and communicate efficiently once and for all, join this workshop to learn how BAND can be the one-stop-shop solution for you.

Speaker

Suzi Kennon is currently the President of Texas PTA. Suzi has almost 20 years’ experience in PTA which has included serving at the local, council, area, and state levels. She has received several awards including Texas PTA Honorary Life Membership Award, Texas PTA Extended Service Award, Volunteer of the Year at both her elementary and high school campuses, Community Ethics Award, the highest recognition in her school district for community service, The Wylie Way Award, and most recently received the Elizabeth Garrison Award.