The Legislature is scheduled to conclude its regular legislative session this Sunday, April 28, but because it has been unable to complete all of its business to date, Governor Inslee is expected to call it back for one or more Special Sessions, most likely after a short break.  At this point, there is a $900 million divide between the Democratic House budget and the Majority Coalition Senate budget resulting from the House support for closing tax breaks and extending certain taxes in order to support K-12…

AmeriCorps transformed my life. As a college graduate, I lacked a clear vision of the contribution I wanted to make to my community. I joined AmeriCorps, also known as the domestic Peace Corps, and spent two years tutoring and mentoring students in Federal Way. Engaging with Federal Way’s Latino community inspired me to spend a subsequent year as a volunteer English teacher in Chile and solidified my career path in public service. Today, service remains a central part of my professional and personal…

It was the Doodle Bug and Noodle Bug Celebration at Renton Head Start and ECEAP (Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program) on Thursday, March 07, 2013!  Students, parents and staff gathered in the gym to celebrate their accomplishment of reading a total of 24,000 minutes!  Literacy is very important at Renton Head Start and ECEAP and to promote reading the children and parents have been keeping track of their minutes reading together at home.  Their goal was to make Doodle Bug’s tail grow — and…

Literacy was the theme at the Olympic Hills Head Start parent meeting on February 11^th.  Parents were first trained by Karen from Page Ahead on the importance of reading to your children at home.  She talked about asking open ended questions and engaging the children in dialogue.  The training is similar to what our Volunteer Readers receive.

After the training Early Learning Volunteer Coordinator Danielle Holing and Volunteer Reader Holly Weese informed parents about the Volunteer Reader Program, shared stories and distributed books.  Parents were…

United Ways of Washington’s Lobby Day on February 7 was a resounding success!  United Way of King County took a group of 27 people to Olympia, including 15 volunteers and 12 staff to meet with 24 state legislators representing districts throughout King County.  Volunteers were board members, former board members, impact council members, people from Workplace Giving campaigns and emerging leaders.

The main points emphasized during the day were:

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Thank you Amazom.com for donating $5000 to the Volunteer Reader Program (VRP) to help us connect with parents and engage them in reading and telling stories with their young children! The donation is being used to purchase books for a few of our VRP sites: Sherwood Forest Head Start in Federal Way, Olympic Hills Head Start in North Seattle, and Renton Head Start.  Books are going home with families as gifts to build home libraries and encourage more reading at…

On December 18, Governor Gregoire released one of her final documents while in office—the 2013-15 biennial budget for the state.  The Governor presented two budgets-one with existing revenue estimates (Book 1) and the other proposing new revenue sources (Book 2) that would make a $1 billion down payment on the McCleary decision (adequate funding of K-12).  See the governor’s budget letter here.

The revenue sources proposed in Book 2 include the following:

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On Friday, September 21st, during United Way of King County’s Day of Caring (http://www.uwkc.org/ways-to-volunteer/day-of-caring/), I visited the Shoreline Children’s Center in Shoreline, Washington. I arrived at the site about 11:00am on a not so sunny, somewhat chilly part of the day and was amazed at how many people were hard at work on the annual playground maintenance project! As soon as I arrived, I was introduced to Marilyn, a staff member of the Shoreline Children’s Center and the Day of Caring Playground Maintenance Staff…

More than half of all kindergartners in our state are entering school without the social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills they need to be successful. Research shows that those children who start behind often stay behind. We’re looking for friendly, dependable people to read with young children one-on-one (not group reading) at select preschools throughout King County.

To learn more about this opportunity, please visit our webpage. If you are able to commit to this opportunity reading one hour a week for…

Last week, Gov.-elect Jay Inslee appointed a three-person transition team and contacted individual legislators for their input on state issues. Yesterday, Gov.-elect Inslee made his first staff appointment: Mary Alice Heuschel, Renton Schools superintendent and a member of the transition team, will be his chief of staff. Education is one of the major issues facing the state in 2013, with state government under orders from the Supreme Court to improve public education so that it can meet its constitutional mandate. According to some estimates, that mandate could mean spending more than…