Volunteer Spotlight: Seth Bridges

As a part of our ongoing series shining a spotlight on our Sacajawea volunteers, this week we’re featuring Seth Bridges, a longtime member of our community. Here’s a condensed version of his conversation with newsletter editor Susan Heller Evenson.

SH: Can you share a little bit about you and your family and how you ended up at Sacajawea?

SB: My wife (Julie Letchner) and I have three kids that currently attend Sacajawea (1st, 4th, and 5th grade). We live just up the hill from school, and it's been such a wonderful experience seeing our kids grow up in this community.

SH: You do so much at Sacajawea! Can you share more about your volunteering/position within our community?

SB: Presently, I have been the communications chair for the PTA since the 2018-2019 school year. My responsibilities include maintaining the PTA website and writing and editing our email communications.

In the past, I was the co-chair of the PTA from 2019 to 2021, and I ran the newsletter for my first two years at Sac.

I’ve had a lot of fun being able to contribute to various other events and initiatives over the years. Last spring, I had a blast helping Sac parent Erik Evenson (pitmaster extraordinaire) serve BBQ to everyone at the Spring Arts Festival. What a great way to put faces to so many names!

SH: What sparked your interest in volunteering at Sacajawea?

SB: I wanted to get engaged and involved with our community, and volunteering with the PTA seemed like an easy way to meet a lot of other parents very quickly. I was right! There was/is no shortage of ways to contribute to our school community. I met Charlene Shanahan at Jump Start, and she encouraged me to jump right in.

SH: What are some of your favorite hobbies (or can be favorite book, movie, etc)?

I love the outdoors, and I have favorite activities for every season. After a hiatus (due to parenting three kids), I returned to snowboarding over the last two years. I also love camping and the mountains, and I'm enjoying sharing that interest with my children as they grow. I've also enjoyed coaching AAA baseball this season with a number of our Sac 4th graders. Their passion for playing is infectious!

I also really enjoy cooking, and with three growing children, there’s no shortage of opportunities to try out something new. The kids might not like everything I throw at them, but they were definitely supportive of my deep dives into fried chicken and pizza during the early parts of the pandemic.

SH: What is your favorite thing about the Sacajawea community?

SB: One of my favorite things about our community is the way our educators support our children across their time at Sacajawea. From programs like NEST to the extra time teachers and staff make to get to know all of the children in the building, I know that there are MANY adults in the building who are working toward the happiness and success of our students.

Thanks for Supporting Educator Appreciation Week

Last week, the PTA celebrated our Sacajawea educators with a full week of games, gifts, food, cards, and flowers. Our PTA Educator Appreciation lead Julie Letchner coordinated the week with contributions from a number of other parents and students.

On Monday, the staff kicked off a weeklong game of Saccleship, a battleship-style game that had educators collaborating for the top prize of $100 to Third Place Books (and wonderful prizes for the rest of the top 10, too). Congrats to Elizabeth Bailey and Jahira Teague who came in with a close 1-2 finish, both having sunk all of the Saccleships (S.S. Sacajawea, S.S. Ball Stuck on the Roof, S.S. Gotcha Ticket, S.S. SHINE, and S.S. Sky House)!

There were even matching cupcakes!

On Tuesday, the educators were greeted with a gift table featuring a collection of themed gifts, such as movies, coffee, gardening, and art.

On Wednesday, the PTA provided a full bagel and lox spread from Eltana along with beautiful bouquets and personalized gift baskets for our homeroom teachers from the Chip in for Class Wins auction event. Thanks to Jessi Friedrichs for making the bouquets and gift baskets happen!

On Thursday, many parents and students contributed snacks for the teachers’ lounge and cards for educators throughout the building.

On Friday, we finished up with a catered Thai lunch to ensure everyone went into the weekend fully fed!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped the PTA celebrate and appreciate the contributions of the 55-person staff that make Sacajawea place an enriching and rewarding place for our students to learn.

2024 Sacajawea PTA Award Nominations

Submitting Nominations

It’s fast and easy to make nominations for any (or all) of the awards. Just use the button below to get started!

Awards Details

Each spring, Sacajawea PTA seeks nominations for our Golden Acorn, Outstanding Educator and the Roy Norman S.H.I.N.E. Award.  These awards celebrate the people in our community who have gone above and beyond to make Sacajawea a wonderful place for our students and families.  Please submit your nomination by Friday, May 17th.  Awardees will be announced at the Ice Cream Social on June 12th.

Golden Acorn Awards
Every year three deserving volunteers receive a Golden Acorn Award.  The Golden Acorn is a Washington State PTA award given by local PTAs recognizing exemplary and outstanding volunteerism and service to the PTA. Golden Acorn nominees should be active volunteers in PTA, our school and/or our Sacajawea community.

Outstanding Educator
This award is given to an individual (teacher, instructional assistant, staff member, administrator -- anyone on staff at school!) who has made significant contributions to our school and community and has helped to enhance the educational, social-emotional outcomes and well-being of our students.

Roy Norman SHINE Award
We are proud to continue the tradition of presenting the Roy Norman SHINE Award. Roy Norman is the late husband of Doreen Norman, Sacajawea’s Admin Secretary for over 20 years who retired in 2022. Roy was a fixture at Sacajawea Events and exemplified the SHINE values that are at the heart of our Sacajawea community (Safe, Helpful, Inclusive, Neighborly, Engaged). Nominees for this award will also have demonstrated SHINE values in how they have supported our school and community.

Please Submit your nomination online by Friday, May 17th.

Thank you!

Sacajawea PTA Awards Committee
(Heather Platisha, Justin Pritchett & Charlene Shanahan)

Budget Process Update for March 12th, 2024

As we embark on another year of community support, our budget committee is excited to share an update on our budgeting process for the 2024-2025 school year. Our budget was approximately $80,000 last year, and we're aiming for a similarly sized budget for the upcoming year. 

Key Budget Changes for 2024-2025

One key change is removing 4th-grade instrumental music from our budget. This $17,000 line item has only benefited a small number of our students over the last several years, and we believe reallocating these funds will allow us to serve our community more equitably.

Additionally, for the upcoming year, we've decided to allocate $25,000 from our surplus funds to reduce our fundraising requirements. In previous years, we relied solely on in-year fundraising and the prior year's carryover. This year, we're choosing to invest surplus funds generated more than a year ago back into our community rather than allowing them to accumulate.

Current Expenditures We’re Considering Funding in 2024-2025

Each year, part of our process is considering whether we should maintain/increase/decrease current line items. The biggest three areas of spending this year are as follows (see the next page for more details).

• Staffing: $24,000 annually, covering hourly staffing, tutors, volunteer coordination, and family support.

• Staff and Community Support: $23,500 annually for staff support, including teacher stipends, art and library funds, teacher appreciation, and family support.

• Events: $5,100 annually for events, including the Spring Arts Festival, Equity Team events, back-to-school/year-of-year parties, and more.

Proposals for New Expenditures in 2024-2025

This year, the committee is discussing several proposals from our membership for new expenditures in the upcoming year. We have eight proposals that have been submitted by our community so far, including from teachers, staff, and PTA members. Please see the next page for more information on the eight proposals.

Our PTA Budgeting Process

Our budgeting process works through a series of committee meetings, board deliberations, and board/membership votes.

Committee members: Jessi Friedrichs, Heather Platisha, Karen Murphy, Julie Letchner, Seth Bridges, Katie Klumpp, Megan Callow, Justin Pritchett, Tiffany Elliott, and Liz Riggs Meder

• In March, the budget committee presents a working draft at the PTA board meeting and refines it throughout the month.

• April sees the completion of the draft, with a presentation of the proposed budget to the board for review and feedback.

• By May’s board meeting, the board votes to approve the proposed budget, which then goes to the membership for approval at the June PTA meeting.

Current Year Budget Summary

For the current (2023-2024) school year, the PTA has a budget of approximately $82,000. That budget is broken down into the following categories (the full budget is available on the SacPTA website).

Complete List of Proposals for New Expenditures

Our community submitted the following list of proposals for consideration by the budget committee. We’re currently working to review their materials and work to prioritize them in our 2024-2025 budget.

• Increasing family support (from $2,000 to $10,000 annually), providing discreet aid to families enrolled in our Packs for Kids program.

• Purchasing school supplies ($11,000) to alleviate the financial burden on families and ensure all students have access to necessary materials.

• Providing yearbooks for all staff members ($300) at the end of the year.

• Introducing recess equipment bins ($1,500, one time)  for each classroom, enhancing student playtime experiences.

• Ukelele focus for 4th-grade music  ($3350, one time with small recurring cost). This program would introduce an instrumental music focus for our 4th-grade students, giving them a soft introduction to the optional 5th-grade instrumental music program. This program could potentially extend beyond 4th grade, reaching more students and building a more consistent and competent program.

• Full funding for one field trip per student ($4,000 annually). This program would provide a $20/child budget to fund one field trip per class. This amount would stack on top of our existing $2500 field-trip bus line item.

• Jump Start for Kindergarten ($5,000 annually). Seattle Public School has stopped funding Jump Start, a crucial program for easing the transition for students and families into school. This proposal would fund a full (5-day) Jump Start experience for Sacajawea.

• Providing for mid-year teacher/community grants (Variable amount each year. First year suggested amount $10,000). This proposal suggests creating a fund and new rules/processes formalizing how community members (including teachers/staff) could make mid-year requests for money from the PTA.

Budget Funding Proposals Open for 2024-2025 Budget

The mission of the Sacajawea PTA is to promote and support the education, community, and health of the students and families of Sacajawea Elementary. Our membership of over 150 parents and teachers volunteer their time and energy to support student enrichment programs, fundraising events, and in-class support.

As a Sacajawea Elementary School community member, you can help us shape how our PTA contributes to the school! If you have a new program, event, or idea you believe supports the PTA’s mission, we want to hear from you. Also, please let us know if you want us to expand an existing program or event. Your voice is important.

This year, the PTA is launching a new budget development process. To help us anticipate new funding items in the upcoming school year, we ask that you submit a budget request during this process so the PTA can work to understand the need and work to include it in our budget for the next academic year.

To make a funding proposal to the PTA for consideration in our 2024-2025 budget process, please complete our Funding Proposal form and submit it to our treasurer. You can email your submission to treasurer@sacpta.org or deliver a printed copy to the Treasurer’s mailbox in the front office of Sacajawea.

Proposals must be submitted before March 5, 2024, to be considered for the next year's budget.

You can access the Funding Proposal form as a Google Doc (copy the template), Word Doc, or PDF.