Council Historical Report 2021-2022
President’s Notes: Who knows where the time goes? Another wonderful school year has passed and again it was filled with lots of changes. The COVID-19 pandemic was still present and again our school buildings remained limited to visitors and activities. The children attended seated classes 5 days a week except in January. COVID-19 variant Omicron raced through our buildings and students had to stay at home and return to virtual learning for a short time.
PTA remained active in supporting staff and students in new and inventive ways.
SCPTA continued to hold Zoom Executive and General meetings. We returned to in person meetings in December 2021 at Delaware Elementary. We had to return to Zoom January, February and March. We were able to once again return to in person April and May at The Discovery Center. It is so nice when we are able to meet in person and reconnect old and new friendships.
Springfield Council of PTAs won the AtLaw Award for outstanding advocacy, the Outstanding Newsletter, and the Outstanding Website Awards at the Missouri PTA annual convention.
I was able to continue to connect with units on various social media platforms and I continue to learn something new each year from them as this pandemic continues. I was happy to continue volunteering at The PTA Clothing Bank on Thursdays.
As this school year closes, a few events are taking place and the excitement the students have is contagious! I know I am excited to see what new adventures happen when we return again in the fall.
Take Care and see you in August, Mandy Mitchell
Treasurer’s Notes: As treasurer, I (Becky Volz) managed and balanced the four SCPTA bank accounts with monthly reconciliations, uploading to MoneyMinder and transferring all PayPal transactions as well as writing checks for budgeted items and reimbursements. I have maintained our status and reports to the IRS, MO-SOS, and MOPTA. I have communicated with and assisted units on their “units-in-good-standing” status and updated all SPS principals contact info for Care and McBride Funds awards. I have assisted several treasurers with their reports and processes. I have maintained communication with our bank manager and accounts representative. I have provided monthly treasurer reports and attended all general and executive monthly meetings. This year we distributed $3100 in Care and McBride funds back to Elementary, Middle School and High School Principals, we supported Project Graduation for all 5 High Schools ($2500), and we provided National PTA/Discord grants to 3 High School PTSAs ($3000).
Clothing Bank Notes: We can’t express how truly grateful we are to have our students and volunteer community back in full action. Hanging, sorting, clothing drives, and Facebook shares, you kept us going. We can’t wait for another year! Aug – April (May and June numbers not included) we had 1,462 students visit the PTA Clothing bank. We gave out 5,758 pairs of socks, 5,751 underwear, and 411 coats. We are looking forward to summer visits June 23 (10:00-4:30) and August 18 will be our back-to-school shopping date (10:00am – noon, 2:00pm -6:00pm). Keep up with us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ThePTAClothingBank and on our website https://scptamo.com/the-pta-clothing-bank/ . (Taryn Raidel)
We recognized our PTA Clothing Bank superheroes, Mandy Mitchell, Taryn Raidel, Janetta Tracy, and Terry Dunham with a Missouri PTA Distinguished Service award.
SCPTA and The PTA Clothing Bank participated in 2 Parent University programs presented by the district.
Programs: While our Reflections entries were down this year, we had a number of student winners at the state level and one Award of Excellence winner at the National PTA level. See all of our winners on our website and keep an eye out for next year’s Reflections trainings: https://scptamo.com/reflections-dates/
The 2022-2023 Reflections Theme will be: Show Your Voice! Please encourage your young artists to be thinking about the theme so that they will be ready to participate this fall.
Springfield Council of PTAs was given a grant opportunity from National PTA and Discord. We hosted 2 listening sessions to help National PTA develop an online safety program for teens. Students, parents/caregivers from Central HS PTSA, Hillcrest HS PTSA and Parkview HS PTSA also participated.
Legislative Notes: In November, we hosted a virtual Town Hall meeting with area state representatives. We urged our elected officials to keep public schools a priority in the state; we asked for more support with mental health issues; and support with aggression in the classrooms. In March we hosted our annual school board candidates’ forum with all 5 candidates participating. We posted the recording of forum to our Facebook page and received over 3,000 impressions. In May, Travis Shaw, Executive Director of Operations for SPS, presented an update on the projects supported by Proposition S approved in April 2019. SCPTA supported the passing of the bonds and the projects it supported. All promised projects have been completed or are in process. Additional projects were supported by the bond as well.
Bank account overview as of 5/28/2022
Springfield Council of PTAs 