From partner site West Seattle Blog but potentially of interest to White Center/Highland Park-area parents: Concord Elementary, which is in South Park but is included in Seattle Public Schools‘ “West Seattle South” cluster, is trying to get the word out about its unique Two-Way Bilingual Program, and there’s a parent-information meeting next week. Concord PTA president Susie Clark (who is also a teacher, at Madison Middle School) explains, “The dual language program is unique in that is gives our native Spanish speakers a chance to learn reading and writing in Spanish and our native English speakers have the opportunity to learn Spanish starting in kindergarten with 30% of their day in Spanish and increasing to 70% by the time they are in 5th grade.” Susie sent along the informational brochure – it’s in two parts, here and here. Interested families are welcome to attend next week’s meeting, 6:30 pm January 21, 723 Concord Street (map). Susie is also happy to answer questions (e-mail her at sgclark@seattleschools.org).

On December 2nd Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound are hosting Big Night Out, a fundraiser for the orginization taking place at area retailers, restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys. Full Tilt will be hosting an event that night for Big Brothers Big Sisters, but in the meantime they are looking for some local help.

Lamonte’ needs a big brother. If you can help, please contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound today at 877-700-BIGS or www.bbbsps.org.

“I want a Big Brother to hang out with, have fun, and learn how to play sports with.”

– 7 year old Lamonté

Lamonté is an outgoing, energetic 7 year old who lives in White Center with his mom. Because he does not have any siblings or a father figure in his life, Lamonté’s mom is looking to find a good role model for her son through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Lamonté loves sports, and he says that he is looking forward to learning how to play sports and going to sports games with his Big Brother. Lamonté is also interested in animals, computers, art, and music. When he signed up to become a Little Brother, Lamonté said, “I want to see how it feels to have a Big Brother.” Lamonté’s mom says that she knows it’s hard for her son to grow up without a dad or siblings, and she wants someone in his life that he can look up in addition to her. If you have a few hours on the weekends to hang out, play catch, or go to the zoo with a local child like Lamonté, please contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound today at 877-700-BIGS or www.bbbsps.org.

The White Center Community Development Association and Trusted Advocates will host the 2008 Community Summit this Saturday, November 8th at Mount View Elementary School.  The event starts at 8:00 am and ends at 3:00 p.m.  Please come and offer your input on the future of your community.   Mount View is located at 10811 12th Avenue SW.

This year’s community summit will gather families, government agencies and local community-based/non-profit organizations in a fun family-friendly environment.  Live cultural performances, ethnic foods, door prizes and children’s activities are just a taste of what the summit has to offer!

Come learn about the issues affecting your community and how you can be involved in a positive way.  There will be info booths and workshops on health, education, jobs, housing, annexation, immigration and more.  Translation services will be provided in Cambodian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tigrinya, Somali, Amharic, Samoan, Arabic and English (other languages upon request).  Childcare will be provided.

For more info:  Ebony Davis: (206) 694-1082 ext.  168 – ebony@wccda.org or Ian Dapiaoen:  (206) 694-1082 ext. 175 or ian@wccda.org.

Old news to many, perhaps, but we hadn’t really heard a lot about the Technology Access Foundation‘s plans for a learning center in Lakewood Park until a conversation with Friends of Hicks Lake’s Dick Thurnau, following up on some other issues he had surfaced recently, both at the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting and during the annual Hicks Lake cleanup (more later on what he and I discussed). His group enthusiastically supports this plan, which you can read all about on the TAF website. TAF is still in the midst of fundraising and hoping now to break ground in summer of next year. The TAF site says that as of this past May they’d raised about a third of the $15 million they need; we’ll check in with them soon to see where things stand now.

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Bill Gates‘ dad, William H. Gates Jr. (the younger Gates is actually III), was one of the speakers at today’s groundbreaking for the Educare Learning Center at Greenbridge, next to White Center Heights Elementary – as you can hear, he opened with a quick joke about his legendary offspring, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he was there to represent. We have a few more video clips from the event, just ahead: Read the rest of this entry »

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After a series of speeches under a big (and yet standing-room-only) tent next to White Center Heights Elementary, those preschoolers from Learning Way helped U.S. Senator Patty Murray – one of the speakers – ceremonially break ground this morning for the Educare Learning Center at Greenbridge. (Official construction work starts tomorrow, according to WCH Elementary principal David Darling.) Lots more video and info to come.

White Center Now was invited to check out the start of the Burien City Council meeting tonight, to be on hand for a special presentation – on behalf of a program that may be setting a national precedent. Twenty Highline Public Schools teachers are getting financial help for rental housing in Burien, but they don’t have to teach in Burien – and in fact, five of the first 12 chosen for the program are teaching in the White Center/North Highline area, according to Jenn Ramirez Robson from the office of Burien City Manager Mike Martin; Ramirez Robson explains, “To our knowledge we have not been able to find a similar program anywhere in the United States. Many states offer mortgage assistance but I have yet to find anything that relates to grants or subsidies toward rental housing.”. Several of those teachers are in the front row of the group shot we caught candidly above; speakers included State House Speaker Frank Chopp (the state played a role in this too) and Highline Public Schools Superintendent John Welch, who ceremonially accepted the quarter-million dollar grant from Burien Mayor Joan McGilton tonight. Welch explained how the grant is helping with teacher recruiting in the areas where the district needs help the most (he introduces the teachers during this section of his speech, too):

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34th District State Rep. Eileen Cody was there for the occasion too, along with 33rd District Rep. Dave Upthegrove, mentioned when Chopp alluded to the money’s origins in the long and difficult Lora Lake Apartments saga:

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Here are a few more details about the program, from a City of Burien document: Read the rest of this entry »

We posted a reminder a few days back, and now the big day’s here. Still looking for info? Here’s the Highline Public Schools website; here’s the one for Seattle Public Schools. And it’s time for drivers to keep an eye out for school zones and buses, too. (Any back-to-school pix? E-mail us!)

Last Friday, we showed you scenes (like the one above) from the Back-to-School Block Party on 12th SW … today, we have an update from executive director Pat Thompson at the YES Foundation of White Center, who says ALMOST A THOUSAND KIDS – 950, to be precise – got backpacks filled with school supplies, as a result! She also wants to thank World Vision and its partner Washington Mutual for generously supporting White Center kids by providing the backpacks. (First day of school – 13 days away!)

By Kyla Woodall, New Start student

Over the course of six weeks, my classmates and I worked together to learn about the world around us. We discovered all about invasive plant life and how they affect our community. We broadened our minds in learning about new ways to help our environment by composting, recycling, and picking up the garbage that litters the streets. Even during the summer Samantha Rost came up to Ann Magyar (a teacher at New Start) and said “You know I am almost annoyed with you because now that I learned about native and invasive plants I really see them everywhere”, It was an engaging experience that helped us to develop an interest for improving our community. I feel that by attending this program, we have become more aware of our surroundings and how we make an impact on our global community and the future for our children and our children’s children.

This all started when Mark Farrell, a King County Education Employment Specialist and New Start partner, received a grant from the King County Natural Resource Stewardship Network with funds from The King Conservation District, the Forest Service and King County. As a class, we identified the invasive plants in Salmon Creek Park and removed them. Besides removing the invasive plants, we also did a lot of our own planting in our school’s raised bed planters. Soon New Start and its neighbors will have a crop of tomatoes, bush beans, turnips, beets, and other produce. Throughout the program we worked with people whose careers focus on the environment. People who came to see our final presentation stated, “In the beginning it looked as if it would take five years to finish what you guys accomplished in 6 weeks.” I feel that we really did quality work. We did everything by hand; it was very hard but rewarding at the same time.

Also in the class, we learned about this wonderful thing called compost. Before the program many of us had no prior knowledge as to what compost was, and after completing the program, we were all motivated to have our own compost at home. It was satisfying knowing that we could help to improve our environment just by separating our garbage. We did our part by reusing plastic bottles to drink water from, and when we were down at Salmon Creek Park we looked for trash to separate and recycle.

Some of us are going to return this summer and help build the native plant nursery, to help benefit the community even more than we already have. The New Start nursery will be part of the classes, and the plants will be transplanted to Salmon Creek Park. The students are also going to be doing a composting program on the school campus.

This program has really helped to shape us as individuals, as well as team members. It was a very engaging and worthwhile course that opened our eyes to new experiences and different ways that we could help our community, in more ways that we ever thought possible.

From Youngstown, a benefit for after-school programs on August 21, 2008.
SKIFFLE: A BENEFIT FOR YOUNGSTOWN’S ALL ACCESS PROGRAM
August 21
Doors open at 6 PM; show at 7 PM
$25 suggested donation

What’s a skiffle? Skiffle, an antiquated slang term for “rent party,” is derived from the fringe American art form comparable to jug band music. “Skiffle” music was developed during the early 1900s in New Orleans. Here in Seattle in 2008, Skiffle means an opportunity for local artists to come together, jam out and present collaborative visual art and musical performances to raise money for Youngstown All-Access, our after school programming in partnership with Rock School, Arts Corps and the Service Board.

During the day, eight teams comprised of community members, local artists and bands will create a work of art out of a blank canvas including guitars and basses. These masterpieces will be auctioned off the same night and accompany performances from The Boogilistics, Camille Bloom & Recovery, Scribes, and very special guests Bison, featuring members from Pearl Jam, The Presidents of the United States of America, Guns N’ Roses, and the Dusty 45’s, as well as artists and students from Arts Corps, Rock School and the Service Board.

Presenting agency Blank Canvas seeks to inspire self-expression and impact communities through art and collaboration, producing “Artist Throwdown” events to bring communities together to create spontaneous and collaborative paintings all in one day, in one place, in the service of charity.

We just got a note from Roxanne announcing a Back-to-School Block Party this Friday, 3-7 pm at Mt. View Elementary and Mt. View Presbyterian Church, on 12th SW between SW 108th and 110th. Families are invited to come enjoy the party and get school supplies, with a limited number of backpacks available too, courtesy of these community organizations: Yes Foundation of White Center, World Vision, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, Child Care Resources, White Center Community Development Association, Family Connection, Mount View PTA, North Highline Fire Department, Mt. View Presbyterian Church.