This legislative season has been filled with a lot of activity and sometimes it can be difficult to keep up. We want to help highlight some key areas of importance. With the state legislation session quickly coming to a close, we want to highlight some bills that could use your advocacy in keeping with the PTA’s support of educational environments that are inclusive and effective for all students. Bill to advocate against HB 1069 (Education)/SB 1320 (Child Protection in Public Schools) Likely to be considered in the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on 4/13 This is the extension of “Don’t Say Gay” until grade 8, with additional provisions to have the state, not districts, approve sex ed curriculum and instructional materials,
READ MORE →Blog
Well, Spring is finally here, and we are just a few weeks away from our President’s and Principals Luncheon. If you have not purchased your tickets for this exciting event, you can bring a check to our Emergency General Meeting for the purpose of electing our new DCCPTA Officers on Wednesday, April 12th, or to our General Meeting on Tuesday, April 25th. You can also go on to our MemberHub and purchase tickets. We have some great vendors participating in our Vendor Fair this year. We are so happy to be able to have this event back in person! Nominating Committees should be announcing the slate of officers for your PTA/PTSA for the 2023-2024 School Year and you should have
READ MORE →Greetings to Everyone! Spring is in the air, and we have so many things happening in the month of March. On March 21st we have our in-person Reflections Ceremony and we are so excited we are back to having this great celebration held in person! Thank You to the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for letting us hold this event in their auditorium! If you have not taken advantage of Florida PTA’s Road to Success Wednesdays, I encourage you to do so. They offer many great learning opportunities in these sessions, especially things you can take back to your school and PTA. We are looking forward to all of the great award submissions that we will be collecting at
READ MORE →DCCPTA is always looking for ways to educate its members and provide opportunities to advocate for all children. In the past couple of days, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and its administration have been in the news. Below are some facts for you to review and who you may contact to advocate on this topic. Duval County Public School (DCPS) has received a grant from the CDC – Division of Adolescent School Health (DASH) for approximately the past 10 years. The first five-year grant was awarded in 2013, then the district reapplied and was awarded a second five-year grant. This year, the CDC has agreed to extend the grant for a sixth year, if a request for an extension is
READ MORE →Duval County Council of PTA’s, in alignment with both National PTA and Florida PTA positions, supports diverse and inclusive curricula, classroom materials, as well as professional development. We support well-rounded and varied experiences and ideas being shared and accessible by all students. This leads to higher academic and personal achievements as well as overall well-being at all levels. One of the hallmarks of a free and democratic society is the freedom to exchange ideas. Free, democratic, well-rounded individuals learn to interact with all types of information and can think for themselves. Public schools are another hallmark of a free and democratic society. Public schools are to serve all community members. They should also represent all who attend and contribute to
READ MORE →February is a very busy month for DCCPTA. We are working on a lot of exciting events to finish the school year. I am happy to inform everyone that our Presidents’ and Principals’ Luncheon will be in person this year! We will be back at UNF’s Adam W. Herbert University Center and doing a Vendor Fair before the luncheon. More information regarding ticket sales will be coming soon! I hope everyone has elected their Nominating Committee for officers to serve for the 2023-2024 School Year. Please remember that you need to have either 3 or 5 people to serve on your committee and not someone who did last year. Even though an office may be a 2-year term, the nominating
READ MORE →The Duval County Council of PTA is proud to announce the winners of the 2022-2023 Reflections Art Program for Duval County. Congratulations to the Award of Excellence and Merit winners! Forty-nine (49) Awards of Excellence winners will represent Duval County and their local schools at the State level phase of this year’s program. Read The Full List of Winners Thank you to all the local unit leaders, volunteer judges, and committee members for supporting our students and advocating for the arts. You make our mission possible, and we couldn’t be more grateful for amazing volunteers like you. For more information visit the Reflections page or contact awards@dccpta.org.
READ MORE →DCCPTA will be doing a Diaper Drive to help those on Florida’s West Coast that suffered a great amount of loss due to the recent hurricanes. We will be collecting for Newborn to Toddler size diapers and pull-ups to ship over to help many families who are in desperate need of these. We will have a collection box located at the back of the Cline Auditorium at our January 24th general meeting. Thank you in advance for helping DCCPTA with this project.
READ MORE →DCCPTA has been working with the school board over the summer concerning the dress code and enforcement. Please contact the following people if your child is dress coded inappropriately (please copy advocacy@dccpta.org or diversity@dccpta.org). This will allow data to be taken which will be necessary for us to advocate for change. DCPS Student Discipline: Mr. Byron Copeland: copelandb@duvalschools.org Mr. Jackie Simmons: simmonsj@duvalschools.org Elementary: Ms. Marianne Simon: simonm@duvalschools.org Mr. Randall Strickland: stricklandr@duvalschools.org Middle School: Dr. Denise Hall: halld@duvalschools.org High School: Mr. Timothy Simmons: simmonst@duvalschools.org
READ MORE →I can’t believe fall is here! We are changing gears from hot summer days to cool crisp mornings and evenings. It has been so exciting to have a lot of our PTA/PTSAs reinstated, some haven’t had a PTA in 5 to 10 years! We want to welcome all those new Local Units and I as well as the other board members are here to help make your school year a success. Our DCCPTA’s first collection of donations to the Giving Closet Project was a success and we will continue to collect those items that are on the list at our October 25th and November 29th General Meetings. If you need a list of items we are collecting, please email me
READ MORE →