City PTSA Board
Angela Schmidt
President
Angela has been a volunteer for many years at several schools within GRPS. She has been a member of the City PTSA since 2014, serving as a Zoo School liaison, Membership Chair, SANP planner, Vice President and President. Angela is the proud parent of two City graduates (2020, 2021) and two more City scholars, both in the Class of 2024. This is her last year on the Executive Board and she hopes to pass the reigns on to someone with a passion for advocacy, community building, fundraising and meme making (if you’re interested in shadowing to take over, reach out…seriously!). In her previous life, she worked as a MA level psychologist – with a good amount of time devoted to adolescents. Angela enjoys cooking and gardening, almost always has a cup of coffee in hand and speaks sarcasm as a second language.
Breanna Bouwman
Treasurer
Breanna joined the PTSA Board in 2021 as the Treasurer. She works from home doing the bookkeeping for not only the PTSA, but also her husband’s painting business. Not only does she volunteer much of her time to the PTSA, but she also helps out with the City Band Boosters and goes on most of the field trips with her youngest child who hopes to be a City scholar in the future. When Breanna isn’t crunching numbers, she likes to take walks with and without her dogs, work in her garden, and read. She has two current City scholars (Class of 2026 and Class of 2027).
Matt Sizemore
Treasurer 2
Ruth Wilson
Secretary
Ruth Wilson has served the City PTSA for eight years, beginning her service as a Blandford parent representative with her first student (City Class of 2020). She continues her service as Secretary of the PTSA and Chair of the City Band Booster Parents committee. In her outside-of-City life, she works as a private music lessons teacher throughout west Michigan and is a professional bassoonist. During the summer, you might see her working the ticket booth at Millennium Park Beach. She also serves on the board of the Grand Rapids Symphonic Band and Scouts BSA troops 292B and 292G in Grandville. She has been married to her husband, Matt for 20 years despite her tendency to volunteer him to do things on a regular basis.
Gaelle Thibault
Vice President
Gaelle joined the board in 2019, as one of our three vice presidents. This will be her 3rd and last year on the Executive Board, just in time to fully be available for her last Senior All Night Party. She has volunteered in a variety of capacities at City, 6th grade coordinator when her children attended CFE, PAL for 2 years and then Board of the PTSA. She has been a substitute teacher at Stepping Stones Montessori school for the past 10 years. A native of France, Gaelle is an ardent supporter of GRPS athletics, enjoys playing soccer, cooking among other hobbies and assists with Spanish interpretation/translation (she lived many years in Latin America during her childhood and teenage years). She has two City graduates (Class of 2019 and Class of 2022) and one City student in the class of 2024.
Ardina Washington
Vice President
Ardina joins the board this fall as one of our three vice presidents. In addition to the PTSA, she volunteers with middle school athletics at City. She enjoys calligraphy and spending time with her family. She has one City student in the class of 2025.
Elizabeth Topliffe
Vice President
Elizabeth Topliffe (she/her): Elizabeth joined the PTSA Board in 2021, and she is looking forward to supporting students, faculty and administration at City. Elizabeth works in education, and she understands that great education requires community. As a result, she builds communities. Fully invested in Elsa Maxwell’s exhortation to “Laugh at yourself, before anyone else can,” Elizabeth’s super power is finding the humor and the hope in just about any awkward or difficult situation. In her free time, Elizabeth makes up reasons to gather friends for social events, spends time with her family, walks her dog, hikes, and reads. Elizabeth has one student at City in the class of 2024.