Livonia PTSA Council Courier
February 2025
LAST CHANCE TO UPLOAD PHOTOS
Link for Photos for Founders' Day
PHOTOS DUE BY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12
Upload photos for the 2025 Founders' Day now! When uploading photos, please include your UNIT NAME and a SHORT DESCRIPTION for each photo - thank you!
MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
Can you believe it's February already?!? Don't think you can't continue to gain more members. There's still a lot of school year left to plan some events and do some amazing things for your students and staff. Members can help with these ideas, planning events, decorating, organizing, and so much more! Maybe it's time for a Membership Challenge of some sort at your school. Is someone new interested in joining the Executive Board next year? Make sure they are a member this year and eligible to be on your slate. There are still so many options of what can be done before the end of the school year.
Remember, for all new members, please remit your Michigan PTA dues by the 28th of every month.
Kindly,
Nicole Dant
Treasurer and Membership Chair, Livonia PTSA Council
PTA/PTSA Excellence Program (PEP) UPDATE
Please keep uploading your documents and emailing me when you have earned some points!!
Please feel free to reach out with any questions and I will do my best to answer them or find the answer. You can email me at pep@livoniaptsacouncil.org
The current standings are below. If you feel like some points haven’t been entered please reach out and we can get any mistakes or omissions corrected.
Keadin Parish
Livonia PTSA Council PEP chair
Dear Local Education Leader,
The Livonia Public Library is thrilled to announce the launch of the PLA 2025 Early Literacy Calendar, an engaging resource designed to support families in building literacy skills with their little ones. Packed with daily activities that focus on reading, writing, singing, talking, playing, and counting, this calendar is a simple yet powerful tool to help children ages 0–5 prepare for a lifetime of learning.
We’d love your help in spreading the word about this exciting initiative!
Limited Physical Copies – Available at the Library
A limited number of printed copies are available at the Livonia Public Library for families to pick up while supplies last. Each month offers:
- Fun, skills-building activities
- Book recommendations
- Nursery rhymes
- Tips for fostering early literacy
Accessible Online – Print It at Home
The full calendar is also available online for families to download and print individual pages or the entire calendar. This ensures that every family has access to these valuable resources.
Why Early Literacy Matters
Early literacy lays the foundation for success in school and beyond. This calendar makes it easy for parents and caregivers to integrate fun, skill-building activities into their routines, from rhyming games to simple crafts.
How You Can Help
Please share this initiative with the families and educators in your network. Whether it’s through newsletters, social media, or school communications, your support will help us ensure this resource reaches as many families as possible.
For more information, please visit www.livoniapubliclibrar.org or contact us at ksmith@livoniapubliclibrary.org. We’re grateful for your partnership in promoting literacy and learning in our community!
Thank you for helping us make 2025 a year of growth and discovery for young readers and their families.
Warm regards,
Kristen Edson
Library Director, Livonia Public Library
(734) 466-2451, kedson@livoniapubliclibrary.org
COUNCIL'S UNIT SPOTLIGHT
Cleveland Elementary
Running club has also started back up. The kiddos were begging to get laps in so we decided why not. As long as the path didn't have ice on it.
Coolidge Elementary
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chair updated our bulletin board with a new theme: winter holidays from around the world. Students can stop by and read some interesting facts and learn how different cultures celebrate.
We ended our first week back at school after winter break with a family movie night. Thank you to Phoenix Theaters for donating the popcorn for this fun event!
Coolidge Cougars have continued to participate in our weekly Youth Making A Difference in school project: Comfort for A Cause. Our Comfort for A Cause project involves students spending their recess time making cards and no-sew fleece blankets for patients at Sinai Grace hospital in Detroit. We also had our first ever YMAD family night for this same cause where families worked together to make blankets. We have already donated over 70 blankets and still have a few more weeks left! A big shout out to all of our wonderful volunteers who have helped make this project so successful. We would not be able to do this without you!
We are looking forward to our next dining for donations fundraiser in February at Red Robin. This fundraiser is on Wednesday 2/12- if you mention our cause we will receive 20% of food sales donated back to the PTA.
Emerson Middle School
Hoover Elementary
It's been quiet around Hoover, y'all! We had a restful time off and now we're back at it! We had the pleasure of presenting to our parent and teacher nominees for Founders' Day by surprising them in their classroom/volunteer duties! (Parent nominee: Kim Kircos, staff nominee Shari Fortier, 3rd grade teacher!) We are so lucky to have such wonderful staff and parents here at Hoover to help our Rockets SOAR! We also had another awesome skate night!! Our kiddos love skate nights!
Kennedy Elementary
Kennedy had a nice and relaxing January.
The students came back from Winter Break and had so much fun playing outside in the snow. One of our noon monitors is on our PTA board and made sure to snap some fun pics for the 2024-25 Kennedy Yearbook that is in the works.
Kennedy’s PTA is proud to share that multiple students turned in projects for the “Reflections Contest” and two of them won at the district level with one in the dance choreography category and the other in literature. Way to go Stars!
Our PTA also put together a fun dine-out in January at Panda Express intentionally scheduled on the same day as the Lunar New Year. As always, families love these dine outs and this one didn’t disappoint.
Even though January wasn’t the busiest over at Kennedy, our PTA is gearing up for a nonstop February. Stay tuned next month to hear about all the fun we had in February!
2024-25 LPTSAC Calendar
Mark your calendars NOW for Founders’ Day, Officer’s Training, and the Audit Party!
2025
FEBRUARY
2/19 – Founders’ Day Celebration | 6 p.m. | St. Mary's Cultural & Banquet Center
MARCH
3/19 – LPTSA Council Meeting with nominations | 6-8 p.m. | Central Office
3/19 – Transportation/Warehouse/Maintenance Prep following meeting
3/20 – Transportation/Warehouse/Maintenance Appreciation Event
3/20 – Reflections Ceremony | 6:30 p.m. | Franklin High School PAC
APRIL
4/16 – LPTSA Council Meeting with elections | 6-8 p.m. | Central Office
4/23 – YMAD Event | 6-8 p.m. | Churchill High School
MAY
5/21 – Officer Training | TBD | TBD
JUNE
6/11 – LPTSA Council Meeting | 6-8 p.m. | Central Office
JULY
7/16 – Audit Party | 6-8 p.m. | Central Office
AUGUST
8/20 – LPTSA Council Meeting | 6-8 p.m. | Central Office
Livonia PTSA Council Officers Forum Facebook Group
If you are a PTA/PTSA officer or committee chair, please make sure to join our group for important information, discussions, and more! Be sure to answer the questions when you request to join. A lot of great information is shared on this closed group page. It's also a great way to network with other units, share ideas, and ask for help.
Getting Connected to Michigan PTA and National PTA
Michigan PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/everychildonevoice
National PTA Website: https://www.pta.org/
National PTA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ParentTeacherAssociation
National PTA Blog: https://onevoice.pta.org/
About us...
The Livonia PTSA Council is a group of 22 local PTA/PTSA Units within the Livonia Public Schools District. The Council is organized under the authority of the Michigan PTA for the purpose of promoting conferences, communications, leadership development and coordination of the efforts of the local units.
Interested in joining Council? There are chair opportunities available! Contact President Mandy Gerstenbrand at president@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Email: newsletter@livoniaptsacouncil.org
Website: www.livoniaptsacouncil.org
Location: 15125 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI, USA
Facebook: facebook.com/LivoniaPTSACouncil
Twitter: @LivoniaPTSAC