Leader Notes November 13, 2025

communications1908
6 days ago
3 min read

*If you did not receive this as an email, register here.

Keeping you in the loop on all things PTA!

This LAPTA Leader Notes includes the following important items:

1) Christmas donations for homeless students

2) Reflections Theme Search entries due Nov 16

3) $750 Literacy Grant applications due Nov 23

4) Red Ribbon Week Safety Poster Contest winners announced

1) Christmas Donations for Homeless Students

LAPTA encourages all local PTAs to do something special for your school's homeless students during the holiday season, if you are able to. Ask your principal how many homeless students your school has and then come up with a plan to give these students extra love and support. This can be little or big, whatever the PTA decides they'd like to do. The number of students in this category is staggering!

If you are in St. Tammany, they have a "Caring Angels Tree" for the 42 unaccompanied, homeless high school students. These students are not only homeless but are also living independent of their parents. On November 21 from 11am - 1pm, Ashley Benton (Ashley.benton@stpsb.org) will be in the atrium of Central Office at 123 Theard St in Covington for people to get a Caring Angel off the tree. Each student has an angel which lists their top 3 choices for gift cards. They are also requesting candy and basic toiletries to include in the gifts. The angel with its gift cards are due back by December 12. Ashley will then distribute the gifts with the added candy and toiletries to the students for Christmas. If you are not able to go on Nov 21, email Ashley or call her at (404) 867-6876 and she can assign an angel to you.

If you are in Caddo, contact the McKinney Vento Homeless Department. Try Erin Lee at EScott@caddoschools.org. For the other parishes, ask your principal for the contact with your school board.

2) Reflections Theme Search Entries Due Nov 16

As students to help pick the 2026-27 theme that will spark fun and creativity for a future National PTA Reflections program. The theme will inspire students to create works of art in six categories: Dance Choreography, Film Production, Literature, Music Composition, Photography, and Visual Arts. Share the graphic below to solicit entries from your community. LAPTA receives the entries and does the rest! See more at LouisianaPTA.org/contests.

3) $750 Literacy Grant Applications Due Nov 23

The $750 LAPTA Literacy Grants help Local PTA Units host literacy programs at their affiliated schools. Literacy skills in Louisiana are unacceptably low, and LAPTA and National PTA are making literacy opportunities a priority for our children. For program suggestions, see PTA.org Programs. See more at LouisianaPTA.org/grants.

4) Safety Poster Contest Winners

Thank you to those PTAs that participated in Safety Poster Contest! Here are this year's winners.

Primary: Pre-K - Gr 2

Zara Bunton (South Highlands Elementary Magnet PTA)

Emma Matheny (Roseland Montessori PTA)

Dominic Catalano (Roseland Montessori PTA)

Intermediate: Gr 3-5

Aadish Bhattarai (South Highlands Elementary PTA)

Elizabeth Mijalis (South Highlands Elementary PTA)

Elijah Bean (Roseland Montessori School PTA)

Middle: Gr 6-8

Annabelle Marcus (Roseland Montessori School PTA)

Paisley Busby (Roseland Montessori School PTA)

Addyson Carpenter (Roseland Montessori School PTA)

High: Gr 9-12

Mary Poirier (C.E. Byrd PTSA)

Elizabeth Briery (C.E. Byrd PTSA)

Caroline Smith (C.E. Byrd PTSA)

Givebacks and Affiliation Help

If you haven't figured Givebacks out yet, check out LouisianaPTA.org/givebacks. We also have a video tutorial on submitting dues. Once you get this initial set up done, it should be easy sailing afterward. For affiliation help, email Philip Davis at Affiliation@LouisianaPTA.org.

Video: How to Submit Dues to LAPTA