The mission of the Justice High School PTSA is to make every child’s potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for children.
Announcing the WOLF SHACK, Justice PTSA‘s school store and resource pantry! We are very excited to be able to establish this avenue to serve our school community by simultaneously providing essential resources that students can easily collect, starting with food and toiletries and, hopefully, moving to clothing and academic, artistic, and athletic supplies, and where we can recoup resources by providing the service of selling spirit-wear, snacks, and drinks with – all with the help of student, staff, and community volunteers.
In preparation for our upcoming grand opening, please consider donating food, essentials, money, or Amazon gift cards to stock the Wolf Shack. Use the links on our Wolf Shack page to access our Amazon Smile wish list, all donations will be shipped directly to the pantry. Please consider signing up for “subscribe and save” to make regularly scheduled donations. You can separately purchase Amazon Gift Cards and have them sent directly to the school, addressed to the PTSA. You can donate money by accessing our “Member Hub Store” link. You also sign-up to volunteer to help here. Stay tuned for more information on opening day.
Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We are are sending out this newsletter in between our scheduled bi-weekly issues in order to vote on our annual budget. Thank you to those who attended our first monthly meeting last week. If you have not already seen it, we went live on Facebook (link here)! We will try go live again for our next meeting, October 6th, but will try be a little more savvy with it next time, LOL – thank you for your patience (I hope to a meeting manager in place by then to assist me)!
The main topic of our monthly meeting was the budget (and programming) review. Based on feedback from members during the meeting and further discussion among the Executive Board, we revised the original draft and, as discussed in the meeting, are now putting forward a version for a digital membership vote. It is important to know two things: (1) the PTSA is prevented from moving forward with any business until the annual budget is approved; and (2) any budget amendment can be proposed during any future monthly meeting.
One addition to the budget since the original draft is the provision of free t-shirts for the entire staff and student-body. “Uniforms” and school “swag” have long since provided the sociological phenomenon of belonging and camaraderie among people everywhere – it is a simple gesture that can sometimes carry profound meaning, especially if an expenditure like this is a challenge for a family or one is new to this country. Additionally, our staff has been through so much during “Covid” and in preparing for and being in our building with our students day in and day out – this is a token of appreciation.
Some line items, such as those in the operating budget, we were able to derive a bit more easily using actual previous costs. Other line items, such as those under Instructional Support, School-Morale, Community Support, and Fundraising, are more challenging to determine because some of this programming will be new. We are hopeful that we will be able to bring in more income than we indicated, but we wanted to be conservative for budgeting. It is also important to note that this budget still has us ending this school year with a very large surplus. We ultimately want to spend most of what we bring in, while effectively planning cash flow from year to year, because we are not a fundraising organization, but an educational advocacy organization that raises money to support its school-community programs – we need to use the money, not sit on it. So, we will plan to recommend amendments to the budget if needed during the year, but we need to start somewherenow.
You will find the budget here and in the Google voting form (link below). Only PTSA members are eligible to vote, please register here. If you were a member last school year, that is active until October 31.
It is a simple “yes” or “no” vote. CLICK HERE TO VOTE. The deadline to vote is tonight, Monday, September 13 at midnight.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me here.
I hope everyone enjoyed their four-day week-end! And I hope that your first 10 days of school have gone as smoothly as can be! I am definitely grateful to have our students back in the building and I am hopeful about what the year could bring. Yet, I have to be honest, the frenzy of the beginning of a school year has me dragging a bit. It is hard not to become both excited and overwhelmed – wanting to take leaps and bounds forward – but steady does win races (notice, I left out the “slow” part of that:). Our efforts to help the Justice High School PTSA be more relevant and engaging in our community are a work-in-progress. Those are the buzz words, the goals, of the year: relevance and engagement. In order to achieve our goals we really do need your help – we need your input and your time. Admittedly, this whole “President of the PTSA” thing is also a work-in-progress for me and I really need to elevate my delegation game, but in order to do that we need more volunteers, please read our “wish list” below.
I would like to again THANK all of the folks who have volunteered their time thus far: handling school supply deliveries; at the Wolfpack Welcome table; feeding kids for Senior Sunrise; and those who have been in the background providing a sounding-board! I would also like to especially THANK those persons who have so far stepped-up to take on a role:
Believe me, I know time and energy are in short supply, but I am hopeful that you will find a way to support these volunteers in some capacity at some point this year. I welcome (aka beg:) you to join us: one-time/one-off volunteers, single-project managers, or position-holders are ALL welcome!
We have been working on our communication – which includes these new bi-weekly newsletters being distributed via News You Choose (we said good-bye to members-only news), a new Instagram account, an in-mid-update revised website, and a developing WhatsApp organization account. We’re trying to stay connected to you – so please share our FB/Instagram/Twitter posts (see links below) and newsletters as widely as possible. (Note: we will be attempting to go “live” on FaceBook and/or Instagram for events when possible (for viewing only), including for our first member meeting.
Please join us for our re-scheduled Monthly Member Meeting TONIGHT in the Little Theater or online (link here)!
We need volunteers for the following, please email us if you are even a little bit curious (questions encouraged, no blood-oaths required):
1. Member of the fundraising committee. First meeting: Tuesday, Sept. 14, 3pm (virtual). 2. VP of Communications. 3. Committee Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 4. Coordinator of the virtual portion of the monthly meetings. 5. Coordinator of grant requests from staff and students. 6. Coordinator the filing of grant applications for various funding opportunities. 7. Coordinator of Reflections Program. 8. Coordinator of translation/interpretation. (If you speak ANY foreign language and willing to interpret/translate, please click here). 9. Special-Education Liaison. 10. Post-Graduate Planning Liaison.
We are working on a few things, please email us if you’d like to be a part of any of it or to make a suggestion:
PTSA President’s Roundtable: Food Pantry and Swap Shop. We will be hosting a roundtable discussion including school staff, student organization representatives, and local community organizations to dialogue and plan for community services such as a school-families food pantry and in-school store (free, trade, or donation-cost items) for formal-wear, athletic equipment, coats, shoes, school/tech/arts supplies, etc.
PTSA President’s Roundtable: Support for Activities. We would like to host a roundtable discussion, including school staff, booster organization representatives, and team and club representatives, on supporting students with such things as after-school food on special days (games, performances, etc.); free/reduced passes for games/performances; athletic or artistic supplies (i.e. shoes, instruments, etc.); middle-school enrichment programs; guest-trainers/directors/consultants; and any other ideas to help support students to be involved in extra-curricular activities.
Global Calendar. We are working on a one-stop Google calendar having dates for PTSA events, Justice academics and activities, and important pyramid-school events.
Fundraising Committee. Come help us brainstorm and plan new fundraising activities, including, but not limited to a: trivia night; casino night; talent showcase; spring field day; and Senior caravan and carnival.
Member Meetings. We have 8 monthly member meetings left this year and we have a list of presentations/Q&As that are our goals for each meeting (not necessarily appearing in the order below), please email usif you have a suggestion:
FCPD SRO and Community Outreach Representatives
School Construction Update: FCPS Facilities Dept. and Fairfax County Park Authority
School Board, County Board of Supervisors, and State Congressional Representatives
Mental Health Wellness (First-Aid)
A panel on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Racial Justice
What is a PTA?
PTSA Listening Tour. We heard you and we will be continuing our efforts to come into neighborhoods and have dialogues. In order to streamline our time (let’s face it, no one wants to go to more meetings than they have to) and make it more convenient for people to attend, we are combining this with our monthly membership meetings. The sessions will begin at 6pm prior to the start of the 7pm member meetings (the videos will also be posted online) and our meeting will alternate locations (including, but not limited to: Glasgow; each of the pyramid elementary schools; apartment complex meeting rooms; the public library; parks, etc.). Please email usif you would like to suggest a location or host/plan one of the meetings.
NOTE: PTSA Monthly Meetings are the first Wednesday of each month at 7pm. They are hybrid: in-person and via Google Meet. Videos will either go live on FaceBook/Instagram and/or will be posted on our website/YouTube.
ALL are welcome to participate in our programs and events, receive our news and information, volunteer time or resources, and attend and contribute during general membership meetings! However, there is one members-only privilege:voting – having a voice in decisions about our programming, events, and spending. The National and Virginia PTA provide supportive resources (see below for examples) and your membership fees support those efforts as well as our local efforts (we need a basic level of financial support to have such things as virtual meetings, digital workspaces, online bookkeeping, etc. and additional funds for any other programming we elect to have).
Soon, at the link above, you will also see options to sponsor memberships so fellow wolves can join the PTSA-pack and to register for a free membership if you need one.
