Harboring victory and success
Marisa O’Neil
They’ve helped fire victims in San Bernardino, organized a
districtwide college fair and produced a video on student discipline
policies.
And after taking home five of seven state awards, the Harbor
Council PTA can boast that it’s the winningest PTA in the state.
President Patty Christiansen and Executive Vice President Ellen
Carroll credit teamwork for their success, which includes winning
Outstanding Council for the second year running.
But having fun doesn’t hurt, either.
“Patty [Christiansen] and I took the job on with the understanding
we are going to have a good time, and we have,” Carroll said. “And
we’ve just carried that on through.”
Harbor Council also won My PTA/PTSA awards at last week’s PTA
Convention for Membership Creativity, Outreach Efforts, Parent
Involvement and Teacher, Staff and Administrator Involvement. This is
also the first time the council, which includes all Newport-Mesa
Unified School District PTAs, took home so many awards.
They beat out 184 councils representing more than a million
members, Christiansen pointed out.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen a PTA as active [as Harbor
Council],” school district spokeswoman Jane Garland said. “They come
to all our meetings and interact with us on a daily basis. They
deserve all their awards.”
Christiansen and Carroll have nearly half a century of PTA
experience between them. Their knowledge and experience helped with
the council’s success this year, Christiansen said, but working with
the people throughout the district really made the difference.
“Our basic goal was to become partners in education in this
district,” she said. “Our theme was: ‘Teaming up for Kids.’ We got
our parents involved, teachers involved, administrative staff
involved. We pretty much managed to be complete partners in policy
making, planning and everything.”
District involvement was so great, she said, that members of other
PTA councils complimented Christiansen’s support when she won the
Orange County PTA Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. Three tables
full of administrators, parents and board trustees from Newport-Mesa
showed up for the awards ceremony.
“She has that team spirit,” school board member Linda Sneen said.
“It’s infectious. She makes it easy, you want to be a part of it.
They’re making the district look good and it seems like there’s no
stopping us. We’ve got really good momentum.”
This year, Harbor Council PTA organized a toy and book drive for
San Bernardino fire victims. They delivered two truck loads of items
donated by local families.
The council also put on a college fair at the Orange County
Fairgrounds for students from Newport-Mesa schools to check out 200
colleges. They also put together a DVD that was distributed to all
the high school students in the district, explaining the district’s
drug- and alcohol-related suspension policy prior to each high
school’s prom.
“I’ve noticed the difference this year,” Christiansen said. “When
we were named Outstanding Council, everyone’s ears perked up. Now
they say: ‘Hey, this is a great organization.’”
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