(White Center Now photos by Evan Miglorie)
“This is the biggest night in our school’s history.”

That’s what New Start High School teacher Ann Magyar told White Center Now about tonight’s graduation ceremony for New Start and Highline CHOICE Academy, the alternative programs in Highline Public Schools. You can see it in the leaping exuberance of Dewane Sauni, who’s graduating a year early (two months ago, he was chosen White Center Kiwanis Student of the Month):

Our photojournalist covering the ceremony, Evan Miglorie, reports that Dewane gave an “emotional speech,” and that another excellent speech was given by CHOICE Academy grad Megan Johnson, honored this past spring as one of America’s top youth volunteers:

The graduation filled the Log Cabin at White Center’s Steve Cox Memorial Park with xx people. Between the two schools, the grads numbered about 40 – three-fourths of them from New Start.

But according to Ann, more than 400 people showed up to cheer on those 40 grads!

“These students have worked incredibly hard and overcome a great deal to walk across that stage,” she added. Our congrats to the grads; here’s the schedule for the other graduation ceremonies coming up in the Highline district.

With that ribbon-cutting ceremony a little more than an hour ago – check out the little boy jumping for joy! – the Educare Early Learning Center at Greenbridge is now open, a year and a half after the ceremonial groundbreaking. (Lots of background here on the facility designed to serve at least 134 children, birth-5.) Big crowd on hand:

Among the crowd of hundreds, all three 34th District state legislators – from left, Rep. Eileen Cody, Sen. Joe McDermott, Rep. Sharon Nelson:

Those attending also included Bill Gates Sr. and Mimi Gates. The event started with about 45 minutes of speeches – we’ll add video of highlights – and then, the gala ribboncutting, followed by tours.

ADDED: Two speech excerpts from the pre-ribboncutting event in adjacent White Center Heights Elementary School. The most memorable speaker was Beatrice Harper, a White Center mom whose son Angelo has attended precursor programs for the past two years:

And on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which made a major contribution to get the center built, Greg Shaw said he had a request for everyone present:

Through White Center Early Learning Initiative, WC is one of two “demonstration areas” in the state for early-learning initiatives; the other is East Yakima. Also, our regional-news partners at the Seattle Times take a closer look in this article that’s just gone online.

Click pic to play video

White Center Now was there a year and a half ago when ground was broken for the Educare Early Learning Center in Greenbridge – our video shows U.S. Sen. Patty Murray helping with the ceremonial shovel-turning – and we’ll be there this Saturday for the grand-opening celebration. It’ll start with speeches at 1 pm, followed by an open house with tours 2-4 pm. It’s adjacent to White Center Heights Elementary. Read on for the official announcement:

On Saturday, March 27, there will be a grand opening of the Educare Early Learning
Center and a celebration of the years of collaborative planning and the public
private partnership that brought this innovative and nationally recognized program
to the White Center community. The event will include a ceremony to recognize key
partners and contributors, followed by building tours and activities for young
children and their families. National, state and community leaders in early learning
will take part in the ceremony.

About the Educare Early Learning Center
White Center is now the 10th community in the United States to have one of the
country’s most respected models of early learning and care. The Educare Early
Learning Center also serves as the hub for the White Center Early Learning
Initiative (WCELI), a community-wide effort to improve early learning for all
children in the White Center/Boulevard Park neighborhoods.

The Educare Early Learning Center offers full-day, year-round
infant/toddler/preschool programs for 134 children from income eligible families and
for children with disabilities. The Center also offers caregiver and educator
resources and professional development programs to enhance the quality of early
learning and care in all settings to prepare ALL children in the community to be
successful in school and life.

All young children in the White Center community-from newborns to children five
years old-can benefit from the Center’s services. As part of WCELI, a Thrive by Five
Washington demonstration community, the Center will potentially impact early
learning in the state and nation.

The Facility
Adjacent to the White Center Heights Elementary School, the Educare Early Learning
Center is part of the King County Housing Authority’s Greenbridge community, a
96-acre redevelopment of its Park Lake Homes Public Housing. The 44,000 square foot
LEED certified building features six preschool classrooms, four infant/toddler
classrooms, training rooms and community gathering spaces.

The Center was built through a strong public-private partnership of philanthropic
foundations, individual donors and county, state and federal grants and programs.

Private foundations include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who provided
significant support, the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, George Kaiser Family
Foundation, Bounce Network, Thrive By Five Washington, The Norcliffe Foundation,
Paul Allen Family Foundation, The Seattle Foundation and the Norman Archibald
Charitable Foundation. A Kresge Challenge grant of $600,000 will help close out the
capital campaign.

Federal and state programs providing capital support include the Washington State
Department of Commerce and the Governor’s capital budget, U.S. Department of Health
& Human Services Head Start Program, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development,
and the King County Housing Authority. U.S. Senator Patty Murray, State
Representative Sharon Nelson and State Senator Joe McDermott helped to secure
portions of national and state public funding. Federal AARA funds of $2.6 million
over two years are making it possible to serve additional infants, toddlers and 3 to
5 year olds and their families.

In addition, the National Development Council, US Bank and ShoreBank Enterprise
Cascadia provided resources and financial expertise to maximize New Market Tax
Credit financing for the center.

The center was designed by Miller Hayashi Architects and built by Kassel Construction.

Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) operates the Center in
collaboration with the White Center Early Learning Initiative (WCELI) and Thrive by
Five Washington.

The Highline School Board voted unanimously last night to move ahead with a federal grant application that would require major changes at Cascade and Chinook middle schools. The grant opportunity is part of new federal regulations that identify high-poverty schools with large numbers of struggling students. In order to get the funds, districts must agree to restructure the schools by next fall.

Last week, a team of 45 people, including teachers, central office staff, parents, and community partners, gathered for a two-day summit to begin formulating a restructuring plan. Sarah Weir of the White Center Community Development Association, one of the community partners to participate on the planning team, said she left the summit “feeling really optimistic about the passion and commitment of the people who serve our kids.”

“We recognize the need for school reform. We believe all students are capable of reaching their dreams, and we’re excited about the possibilities these changes will mean for our students.” said Chinook teacher Amber Larson. She emphasized that “school staff, central office leaders, the school board, and parents all hold responsibility and need to work together to make changes.”

Theresa Carlson, Cascade teacher and vice-president of the Highline Education Association, agreed, “We need to start climbing this mountain and taking some risks. We are all in this together.”

The school board endorsed the planning team’s outline and directed the district to submit the federal grant application on Friday. Elements of the plan include

1. Increasing accountability of the school board, central office administrators, and parents, as well as teachers; and giving a senior administrator authority to make bold decisions to support the schools.
2. Increasing involvement of parents and community organizations in the schools through two-way communication, bi-lingual staff, parent advisory teams, and other means.
3. Developing new ways of evaluating staff and providing meaningful incentives for staff and administrators.
4. Rethinking the way school is delivered, such as trying innovative ways of structuring the school day.
5. Use strategies that have been successful in other high-poverty, highly diverse schools, such as adjusting schools schedules to provide more learning time.
6. Setting ambitious goals for student improvement and expecting all students to become prepared for post-high school education and the workplace.

The planning team also calls for the school district to support the restructuring plans through policy, technical assistance, commitment from the school board, and creation of a plan to sustain the changes beyond the life of the three-year grant.

Superintendent John Welch told the school board the plan “builds on the great work that is already happening and Chinook and Cascade.”

The federal accountability program requires school districts to choose one of four restructuring models:

1. Closure: Close the school and send students to other schools in the district. The school board ruled out this option for Chinook and Cascade because other middle schools do not have room to accommodate all students.
2. Restart: Open the school under a third party education management organization. This option was also rejected since charter schools are not allowed in Washington and the state has not issued a list of approved third parties.
3. Turnaround: replace principal and at least 50% of staff. This option was also eliminated.
4. Transformation: Replace the principal, reform the instructional model, develop teacher evaluations with student growth as a factor, increase community engagement, and extend learning time.

The school board decided last week to use the “transformation” model at both schools.

Highline Superintendent John Welch acknowledges that the four federal models take a narrow approach to improving student achievement. “The models imply that sole responsibility for getting middle school students to grade level is with the middle school teachers and principals,” said Welch. “We know there are other issues that need to be addressed—in elementary schools, in our system as a whole, and in the community. Still, this is an opportunity to gain some resources we haven’t had before to tackle issues at the middle school level.”

The school district expects to know by March 26 if the funds will be granted. The money could start flowing to the schools by April. If that happens, teachers would start professional development this summer. There could also be summer programs for incoming 7th graders. The schools would open in September with the changes in place.

Highline Public Schools has refinanced 2002 bonds, resulting in a savings to taxpayers of more than $8 million over the next five years.

The savings flow directly to taxpayers through reduced tax levies. The dollars cannot be used for District expenses. “This is a direct savings to our community members in the form of taxes they expected to pay, but will not have to pay,” says Superintendent John Welch.

The District was able to exceed its savings target because of recent low interest rates. Interest rates averaged 6.31% on the new bonds compared to 5.33% on the old debt.

After the refinance, Moody’s Investment Services reaffirmed the district’s Aa3 bond rating on the district’s outstanding debt. The rating reflects the district’s satisfactory financial operations and its manageable debt levels. The district has a AA- rating from Standard and Poor’s.

The Highline School Board approved the issuance of refunding bonds at its December 9 meeting. The original bonds funded the replacement of ten aging schools, which opened beginning in 2004.