Seattle Forward

Preschool Next Steps and Community Meetings

I joined Mayor Murray and Superintendent Nyland at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club today to announce the next steps for development of the Seattle Preschool Program.

The City will be forming an advisory committee of providers, parents, teachers, advocates, union representatives, early learning experts and other stakeholders to provide recommendations for a more detailed implementation plan that is due to the Council in February.

The City is also hosting six community meetings over the next few weeks, starting with two this Saturday. Each meeting has a different topic area and is in a different area of the city. 

Below are the remarks I prepared for the press conference this morning:

Community Meetings on Housing Affordability

The 28-member Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory Committee established by the City Council and Mayor Murray is now up and running. In the next few weeks there will be three community meetings where you can provide input into their deliberations. At each meeting the doors open at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 6:30 p.m.

South Seattle - Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Ethiopian Community Center
8323 Rainier Ave S
6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Central District - Thursday, November 20, 2014
Garfield Community Center
2323 E Cherry St
6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Northgate - Thursday, December 04, 2014
Olympic View Elementary School
504 NE 95th St
6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

More details about the committee's process are available here. More information about recent Council action on affordable housing can be found here.

National Progress in Reducing Homelessness

Laura Green Zeilinger, the Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, recently shared encouraging news about successes in reducing homelessness around the country when evidence-based practices like Housing First, permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing are employed.

Overall homelessness is down nearly 10 percent from 4 years ago. Unsheltered homelessness is down 25 percent. Veteran homelessness is down by 33 percent.

Here is the press release, and the video below is worth watching too.

Proof Point: The 2014 Point-in-Time Count Shows that Homelessness Is a Solvable Problem from USICH on Vimeo.

Thank You Voters for Choosing the Seattle Preschool Program

The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here.

Seattle voters had a clear choice on how to benefit the future generations of Seattle. I am very happy they selected the Seattle Preschool Program (Proposition 1B) crafted by Mayor Ed Murray, the City Council, early learning experts, and a wide variety of local stakeholders.

Yesterday’s vote means we will take a strong first step toward universal, voluntary, high-quality and affordable preschool for Seattle’s children. It is one of the best investments we can make.

The Seattle Preschool Program is based on extensive research on how to best prepare children for kindergarten and a life of learning. We reviewed the evidence of what works, we visited preschools throughout Seattle, we talked with teachers and parents, and we visited other cities to see how they provide universal preschool. At every step in development of the program, we were keenly committed to a critical principle: Quality.

Only quality benefits children for a lifetime. Only quality delivers an impressive return on investment for taxpayers. Only quality will enable our city to leverage dollars from the State and federal governments to provide even more preschool options for Seattle families.

Still Time to Vote!

It's Election Day and you still have time to drop your ballots into the mail or a ballot drop box.

Here is a list of the locations in Seattle where you can drop off your ballot until 8 p.m. today:

-Downtown at the King County Administration Building (4th and James)
-Ballard Library
-Magnuson Park
-Rainier Community Center
-University of Washington's Red Square
-West Seattle Stadium

More details are on the County's website.