White Center Now: The blog about White Center

White Center’s Cascade Middle School is getting a boost from a new grant, along with other middle schools in Highline Public Schools. Here’s the official announcement made today:

Highline Public Schools has been awarded a grant to expand community schools programs at Chinook and Cascade middle schools and establish programs at Sylvester and Pacific middle schools. The initial $200,000 award is part of a five-year $1 million grant funded by The Seattle Foundation and the Raikes Foundation.

Highline partners with the non-profit Community Schools Collaboration to provide academic and enrichment programs to students after school, as well as other support services to student and their families. The partnership will use the grant funds to create a support system that will help students achieve their maximum potential in school, work and life, including programs that ease the elementary school-to-middle school and middle school-to-high school transitions.

“This initiative helps schools connect to nonprofits and other neighborhood resources in ways that really make a difference for middle-schoolers in our community,” Michael Brown, vice president of community leadership at The Seattle Foundation.

“We are grateful for the Seattle Foundation’s investment in Highline and the prospect of a long-term partnership,” said John Welch, superintendent of Highline Public Schools. “Thanks to the Foundation’s funding, many of our students will benefit from academic support and enrichment programs that will effectively extend their school day and their opportunities for learning.”

The Seattle Foundation is the oldest and largest community foundation in the region. It’s mission is create a healthy community through engaged philanthropy, community knowledge and leadership.

The Raikes Foundation is a private family foundation focused on support for young adolescents so that they can grow up to be healthy, contributing members of society.

Two quick notes tonight: First, Full Tilt Ice Cream reports a TV crew will be there to do a story next Tuesday (October 20th) around 3 pm, and they’d love to have customers there for the occasion. Second: This may or may not be new, but it’s the first time I’ve happened onto it – Brewsky’s is listed for sale.

Two weeks ago, we brought you Eliza Junkerman‘s request for musical instruments to be donated to White Center Heights Elementary. Tonight, a followup – she says the donation drive was a success!

We have had an amazing turnout and some extremely generous people from West Seattle, White Center and beyond.

I just wanted to give you a quick recap of what we have collected so far (or have set a time to pick up):

26 recorders
1 flute
1 piccolo
2 oboes
1 Cello
4 guitars
1 set of Congo drums
1 Clarinet
1 Alto Saxophone
1 Violin
1 Trombone

This is really way more than we could have ever expected! Thank you to everyone who helped – spreading the word, donating, and just supporting!!

White Center Heights will be holding an Assembly to honor the donors and talk about what encompasses a community, on October 30th from 1:20-1:55. All donors are invited to attend!!

Thank you so much for your help!

Crime/safety concerns? This is the meeting not to miss – one week from tonight. Here’s the draft agenda just made public today:

The White Center-South Delridge Community Safety Coalition Meeting
Thursday, October 22, 6-8 pm,
St. James Place, 9421 18th Avenue SW

6:00-6:10 Welcome, introductions
6:10-6:25 Police Reports – KCSO and SPD
6:25-6:50 Collaborative Actions (formerly Crime & Nuisance Hotspots)
7:00-7:40 Guest Trainer: Nancy Amidei, “Influencing legislative change: WE can make a difference!
7:40-7:50 Announcements
7:50-8:00 Open Forum

WHO/QUIEN

Champion is a white male toy poodle with lightly tinted brown ears lost on Thursday, October 8th. He is young but not a puppy. Last seen wearing a blue collar with leash. Champion is very friendly. His elderly owner is devasted and hopes you can help. She is offering $100 dollar reward. No questions asked.

Perdido! Perro [macho] tipo toy poodle color blanco con las orejas ten~idas con cafe claro. El pelo lo tiene ligeramente chinito. Desaparecio Jueves, 8 de Octobre. Llevaba un collar azul con correa. Es joven y pero no cachorro. Se llama CHAMPION. Es compan~ero de una sen~ora mayor de edad que esta devastada por su perdida. Espera que pueda ayudar a recuperarlo. Ofrece una recompensa de $100 dolares en efectivo sin hacer preguntas.

WHERE/LUGAR
Last seen on 7th ave SW and SW Roxbury Street.
Ultima vez visto en la avenida 7 y calle Roxbury

CONTACT/COMUNICARSE CON
Ana 206-920-8616 o anaalvarez@yahoo.com

Got a note from local writer Brian Barr. He lives in White Center, just two blocks away from the former home of local poet legend Richard Hugo. While there’s the Hugo House in another part of the area, in White Center, Barr was sad to discover, there’s little evidence of his existence. Read what he wrote on his own website, and see if you’d like to join his quest to change that.

Just published on White Center for the Arts’ Facebook page – who/what you’ll see during next Saturday’s Art Walk, 5-9 pm October 17th: At Salvadorean Bakery, photography by Raina Anderson; at Cafe Rozella, paintings by Robert Houk, Jr.; at Proletariat Pizza, mixed media by Amanda Helmick; at D’Zul, tattoo and airbrush urban art; at Full Tilt Ice Cream, Onion Carillo and Jodi Luna Robinson; at Big Al Brewing all month, photography by Julio Castro.

Two notes re: King County government – First, Monday is the next “furlough day,” so most offices will be closed. More details here about what’s open and what’s not. Second, Wednesday is when King County Elections plans to mail ballots for the November 3rd election – so voting will start as soon as the end of the week. Election info is online now.

Ken Gollesrud sent this invite:

Everyone is invited to this bilingual free event with refreshments. Los Flacos will be joined by two dancers performing traditional Latin American Dances. Los Flacos does a great job of explaining the music and dances as they perform.

Evento del Mes de la Herencia Hispana: Con Los Flacos! / Hispanic Heritage Month Event: Performed by Los Flacos! at the South Park Branch
Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm PDT

Like most school districts, Highline has no classes today – it’s an “in-service” day for teachers.

White Center for the Arts has announced it’s set the date for its next Third Saturday Art Walk – October 17, 5-9 pm, more details to come. WCFTA is on Twitter, too – @WCFTA.

Via the White Center CDA site, we discover a donation drive is under way for Samoan tsunami victims, with an event October 24th at Evergreen High School, 9 am-1 pm, sponsored by World Vision. They’re collecting items for relief operations, as listed in the flyer you see above – you can find out more about how to help even sooner, at worldvision.org.

Eliza e-mailed to say she’s organizing a music-instrument-donation drive for White Center Heights Elementary – her mom works there and, as Eliza puts it, the school “just got a really amazing music teacher” but has more students interested in taking the music class than they have instruments. Eliza explains, “The school doesn’t have the budget to buy new instruments and the parents can’t afford to rent them or buy them for the kids.” So, she says, “If you have any old/used/formerly loved instruments you could donate that would be so much appreciated!! I will pick them up, I will come to you, I would just like to get these kids a chance to learn a skill they might otherwise miss out on. Please feel free to email me at egjunkerman@yahoo.com or give me a call, 206.818.7376.”

Four weeks till Election Day, but voting starts a lot sooner, and if you want to be part of this election but aren’t registered yet, Monday is the deadline to do it by mail — this King County page has all the info you need on getting registered.

Thanks to Evergreen’s Alfred Johnson for the update:

It’s Homecoming Time!

This Saturday, 1:30pm @ Highline Stadium, Evergreen High School celebrates Homecoming 2009 with the Homecoming Football game against the Mt. Si Wildcats.

All Alumni and friends of Evergreen High School are encouraged to come on out to support the team and meet up with old friends and make new ones.

EHS Booster club members will be around to serve Hot Chocolate and man the Alumni Registry; there will be EHS paraphernalia available for sale also.

The team’s coming off a win over Tyee last week. Good luck, EHS!

From Sgt. John Urquhart at King County Sheriff’s Office:

A 41 year-old woman shot her 55 year-old boyfriend at least twice with a handgun last night (October 1st). He was taken to Harborview Hospital with non life- threatening injuries.

The incident occurred about 10:30 PM in the 800 block of SW 117th in unincorporated King County, just to the north of Burien.

The pair live with the man’s brother and the woman’s 15 year-old son, both of whom were home at the time of the shooting.

The son called 9-1-1 and everyone except the suspect made their way out of the house as deputies arrived.

The woman refused to come out of the house or communicate with deputies. Eventually the Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team entered the residence and took the woman into custody just before 2:00 AM. No one was injured.

The suspect was booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Assault 1st Degree. A small caliber handgun was recovered inside the house.

Seattle Magazine just published a little article about neighborhood-news websites. While we are always honored to see our bigger site West Seattle Blog mentioned, we were pleasantly surprised to see White Center Now included! There were no interviews conducted for this story, totally the writer’s observations, so we didn’t know this was coming till we saw a link go by a few minutes ago via Twitter. Here’s the page mentioning WCN. (Our “best of” list would include a few more, but we’re also glad to see the magazine mention quirky Blogging Georgetown and longtime Tacoma staple Exit 133.) Thanks to the growing number of people who are reading this site and even more importantly, sending us information to share.

Just in:

PRUDENTIAL GLOBAL VOLUNTEER DAY! FOOD DRIVE

Prudential West Seattle is conducting a food drive for the West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. Food and Cash contributions may be made at the West Seattle office at 4700 42nd Avenue, Suite 600, or through your Prudential Agent. Look for our collection teams on October 3rd from 10am to 2pm at all three of the local Safeway Stores [Roxbury, Jefferson Square, Admiral], the Morgan Street Thriftway and Albertsons in White Center! Please call us at 206-932-4500 if you have questions or would like a donation pick-up! YOUR DONATIONS WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

The King County Council‘s budget committee has just begun its first public meeting specifically to talk about next year’s budget, and one of those who will testify is Sheriff Sue Rahr. According to her spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart, her talking points will include a contention that County Executive Kurt Triplett‘s budget proposal is not as rosy for her department as it sounds – she says it will cut patrol power in areas like White Center and Boulevard Park by as much as 75 percent. You can watch the testimony live right now through the Council’s online player. (Along with Rahr, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg and other criminal-justice leaders are presenting.) UPDATE: “The budget, as presented, is not what it seems. It does not shield public safety,” Sheriff Rahr has told the council in opening remarks that she described as “short and sweet.” She says the budget, for example, overcompensates for the Burien annexation of south North Highline and would leave her with one deputy per shift in White Center. ADDED 1:12 PM: Sgt. Urquhart has provided the full text of Sheriff Rahr’s remarks to the committee:

The budget, as presented, isn’t what it seems.

It does not “prioritize” public safety.

It does not “shield criminal justice”.

It does not only cut “criminal justice by 1%”.

The Sheriff’s Office unincorporated budget alone will be cut by almost 6%.

A $3.5 million dollar cut is attributed to the Burien annexation. The appropriate reduction due to workload for the annexed area is only seven deputies. However this budget proposes cutting an additional 27 deputies due to the annexation.

From which unincorporated neighborhoods should those additional 27 deputies be cut?

After the seven deputies are cut from the new annexation area, there will only be 38 left to serve all of White Center, Skyway, South Park, Boulevard Park, and Vashon Island. From that small pool I should cut 27 deputies, a 75% cut in police protection to the highest crime neighborhoods in King County? That’s would leave enough to maintain one deputy per shift to cover all of White Center and Boulevard Park, one deputy in Skyway, no deputies on Vashon island, and no storefront deputies.

If that’s not acceptable, which neighborhood in north and east King County should pay for this annexation with a reduction in their police service?

For the record, we were already forced to cut 86 positions in the last year and half, most of those deputy positions. This will put us up to 113 cuts in less than two years.

Enough about the cuts…let’s talk about what appear to be adds to my budget.

The budget proposal transfers 34 civilian security screeners from the Facilities Management Division to the Sheriff’s Office, along with $2.1 million to pay for them.

This transfer includes no money for supervision of these 34 screeners. They will be supervised by the two court security sergeants who already supervise 30 marshals and court deputies. This proposed budget would have the same two sergeants supervising 64 people in thirteen different locations. These are employees who provide a critical service for the safety of everyone entering a courthouse in King County.

In addition, this budget provides no monies to train the screeners, insufficient overtime funds, and over $100,000 in negative contras.

This $2.1 million “increase” to our budget masks the real cuts to public safety and makes it appear that the Sheriff’s Office isn’t being cut as much as it really is.

Bottom line, I will not take the screeners into the Sheriff’s Office and accept responsibility for a service that cannot be operated safely.

In summary, this budget cuts the Sheriff’s Office for unincorporated King County by $4.1 million, or nearly 6%. This is unsafe and it’s unacceptable, especially in light of several recent surveys that show overwhelmingly that public safety is the number one priority for the citizens of King County.”

A news release we received from the county this morning – important information regarding keeping construction sites from becoming a problem during the rainy season – if you’re involved with construction, read on: Read the rest of this entry »