White Center is a community that is committed to the academic success of all our students. Through community wide programs offered by partners and the White Center CDA through Family Connections and Mount View Healthy Learners, locally relevant activities engage student and families in fun and learning.
Every year on or around March 2nd, the entire student body of our own White Center Heights Elementary School gets together for a community reading celebration. The students each make their own hat, indicating their favorite Dr. Seuss book. Mr. Dave, the school principal and biggest kid, leads the school in a “Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss” cheer.
The official Dr Seuss website is a really fun way for White Center kids to read, play and develop literacy skills. http://www.seussville.com/
The United Way is offering free tax prep all over King County. Here are the locations for White Center (you can also click on the thumbnails below to view the entire flyer):
Attention new business owners and existing business owners! If you interested on expanding your business or in the start of developing one this is the right time to attend our business seminar. Take the first step to become a successful business owner by joining our seminar and learning new ways to build your business the right way. There will be special guest speakers who will reveal shortcuts and useful resources on how to organize your strategy. Mark your calendars for March 7th this is something you do not want to miss out!
Via youtube: A parody of “Teach Me How to Dougie,” by Cali Swag District, made by teachers and staff at Denny International Middle School, in Seattle, WA.
The “Women in the Green Economy” project aims to learn from women and their families in SE Seattle about what they need and want from the green movement. The project will survey low-income women and women of color around four issues: green jobs; green home; access to healthy and fresh foods; and public transportation.
In White Center, the YES Foundation, along with Community Schools Collaboration, partnered up with Cascade Bicycle Club in 2009 to create the Major Taylor bike project, an “after-school cycling program for young people aged 11-18 integrating bicycle riding, healthy living, cycle maintenance, road safety awareness, and the importance of working toward individual goals” (link). The project continues to offer opportunities to youth in White Center involving bike riding that they couldn’t find anywhere else.
But who exactly is “Major Taylor”? For Black History Month, we’d like to offer a brief profile of this bicycling great.
Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor (26 November 1878 – 21 June 1932) was an American cyclist who won the world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination. Taylor was the first African-American athlete to achieve the level of world champion and only the second black man to win a world championship—after Canadian boxer George Dixon.
Taylor was the son of Gilbert Taylor, Civil War veteran and Saphronia Kelter, who had migrated from Louisville, Kentucky with their large family to a farm in rural Indiana. He was one of eight children, five girls and three boys. Taylor’s father was employed in the household of a wealthy Indiana family, the Southard’s, as a coachman, where Taylor was also raised and educated. When Taylor was a child, his father would bring him to work. The employer had a son, Dan Southard, who was the same age and the two boys became close friends. Taylor later moved in with the family and was able to live a more advantaged life than his parents could provide.
This period of living and learning at the Southard house lasted from the time he was eight until he was 12 when the Southard’s moved to Chicago and Taylor “was soon thrust into the real world.”
At age 12, Taylor received his first bicycle the Southard’s and became such an expert trick rider that a local bike shop owner, Tom Hay, hired him to stage exhibitions and perform cycling stunts outside his bicycle shop. The name of the shop was Hay and Willits. The compensation was $6 a week, plus a free bike worth $35. Taylor performed the stunts wearing a soldier’s uniform, hence the nickname “Major.”
When he was 13 in 1891, Taylor won his first race, an amateur event in Indianapolis. Two years later, in 1893 at age 15, Taylor beat the 1 mile (1.6 km) amateur track record where he was “hooted” and then barred from the track because of his color.
Although he was greatly celebrated abroad, particularly in France, Taylor’s career was still held back by racism, particularly in the Southern states where he was not permitted to compete against Caucasians. The League of American Wheelmen for a time excluded blacks from membership. Other prominent bicycle racers of the era, such as Tom Cooper and Eddie Bald, often cooperated to insure Taylor’s defeat. During his career he had ice water thrown at him during races and nails scattered in front of his wheels, and was often boxed in by other riders, preventing the sprints to the front of the pack at which he was so successful.
In his autobiography, he reports actually being tackled on the race track by another rider, who choked him into unconsciousness but received only a $50 fine as punishment. Nevertheless, he does not dwell on such events in the book; rather it is evident that he means it to serve as an inspiration to other African-Americans trying to overcome similar treatment. Taylor retired at age 32 in 1910, saying he was tired of the racism. His advice to African-American youths wishing to emulate him was that while bicycle racing was the appropriate route to success for him, he would not recommend it in general; and that individuals must find their own best talent.While Taylor was reported to have earned between $25,000 and $30,000 a week when he returned to Worcester at the end of his career, by the time of his death he had lost everything to bad investments (including self-publishing his autobiography), persistent illness, and the stock market crash. His marriage over, he died at age 53 on June 21, 1932-a pauper in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, in the charity ward of Cook County Hospital-to be buried in an unmarked grave. He was survived by his daughter.
In 1948 a group of former pro bike racers, with money donated by Schwinn Bicycle Co. (then) owner Frank W. Schwinn, organized the exhumation and relocation of Taylor’s remains to a more prominent part of Mount Glenwood Cemetery in Glenwood, Illinois, near Chicago. A monument to his memory stands in Worcester, and Indianapolis named the city’s bicycle trapock after Taylor.
The educational Levy’s voting results from this week’s special election are out, with 31% of voters reporting to the polls. Our partners at the Highline School District tell us how happy they are with the results.
“We are grateful to Highline voters for their remarkable show of support for their local schools,” says Catherine Carbone Rogers, Highline Public Schools director of Communication and Community Development. “The election results show that this community really values education and wants to invest in our children and schools.”
Below are the results as of February 9:
HIGHLINE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 401
Ballots Cast
Registered Voters
17892
56549
31.64% voters reported
Proposition No. 1 Replacement of Expiring Educational Programs and Operation Levy
More great news related to White Center continues in this article from The Seattle Times. Here is an excerpt:
ROGER TUCKER is in a booth at a White Center community summit, looking for votes. Not for himself, but for what color scheme people would like to see on an apartment complex going up nearby.
With a small dot, he records each person’s preference and asks them all why they chose what they did.
He’s especially impressed with the woman who likes the version where big sections of the buildings are dominated by different colors. If she lived there, she says, that would help her direct friends to her apartment. That’s a good thought, Tucker says, that no one else raised.
Most architects wouldn’t spend three hours on a Saturday talking paint with the public, but for Environmental Works, where Tucker is executive director, it’s part of the mission.
Read the rest of the article here, and make sure to check out the photos, the 5th one featuring our previous White Center CDA parent ambassadors, Patricia and Elisa!
The levy pays for basics not fully funded by the state, such as personnel, bus transportation, textbooks, and maintaining safe and healthy schools. About 80% of the levy pays for teachers and other staff. Levy funding makes up about one-fourth of the district’s operating budget.
Of every levy dollar, roughly:
70 cents pays for teacher and staff salaries and benefits.
12 cents pays for special education.
12 cents pays for instructional materials.
6 cents pays for bus transportation.
2. How much money will the levy raise for schools?
The levy would raise a set amount each year for four years. The table below shows the amount raised by the levy each year and an estimated tax rate. The tax rate will be adjusted as property values change in order to allow the district to collect the exact amount approved by voters-and no more.
Year: 2012
Amount collected: $46 million
Estimated rate/$1000 assessed home valuation: $3.44
Year 2013
Amount collected: $46 million
Estimated rate/$1000 assessed home valuation: $3.44
Year 2014
Amount collected: $47 million
Estimated rate/$1000 assessed home valuation: $3.44
Year 2015
Amount collected: $49 million
Estimated rate/$1000 assessed home valuation: $3.52
3. What happens if property rates increase?
If property rates go up, the tax rate is adjusted downward. The school district does not collect more revenue as property values increase.
4. Is this a tax increase?
This levy replaces a levy that is expiring, so it is not a new tax. The amount the district would collect under the new levy is slightly more than before. When the legislature cut state funding for schools last session, it gave districts permission to ask for a small increase from local voters. However, the increase will only make up for a fraction of the state cuts. The new levy would cost the average Highline homeowner about $14 more per month.
5. How will this tax impact senior citizens?
Low income seniors and people with disabilities may qualify for an exemption. To apply for this exemption, call the King County Tax Exemptions Office at 206-296-3920 or go to www.metrokc.gov/assessor.
6. Where can I vote?
This election is mail-only. Ballots will arrive in voters’ mailboxes around January 19. Completed ballots must be postmarked on or before February 8.
7. What is the difference between a school bond and a school levy?
Bonds are for building. Levies are for learning. Levies raise funds for school district operations, such as teachers, athletics and activities, and support services. When voters approve a levy, they are agreeing to pay taxes to fund these services. Bonds are pay for capital facilities needs. Voters approve a measure allowing the school district to borrow money for facilities improvements. The district issues bonds to raise the money up front. Similar to a home mortgage, the district repays the money (plus interest) in installments over time. Bond dollars can only be used for capital improvements.
8. Why has the school district continued to build schools when operating funds are so tight?
Voters approved a bond for school construction in 2006, and the district is committed - and is legally obligated-to spend that money only on the construction projects approved by voters. By law, the district cannot tap the capital budget for operating expenses.
