WELCOME
Black Lives Matter
The Cedar Way Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (CWE PTO) supports the highest goals of the school, bridging the gap between the school and parents, unifying the community to further the development of our children, and contributing to the public greater good.
At this time, and in support of that mission, the CWE PTO Board finds it is necessary to vocalize our support of the belief that the conditions that cause children and youth to be at risk must be recognized, reduced, and eliminated. The CWE PTO stands in solidarity with our BIPOC community members and with all those who are protesting to inspire change. We encourage our members to raise their voices in support of equity, inclusion and the end of systemic racism.
Here’s what the PTO board is doing and we encourage other CWE families to also find ways to combat racism and create a better future for Black youth:
1. Supporting and attending Black-led events. Seattle-King County NAACP, Community Passageways, and Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County are all Black-led organizations holding events over the next few weeks, and members of our board will be in attendance.
The PTO would like to invite all our families to join us as we support the Black Lives Matter movement and the MLTHS Black Student Union by marching on Juneteenth from College Place Middle to the ESD district office.
2. Educating ourselves.
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Reading So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo, How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, and other books that explore anti-racism and the history of race in America.
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Listening to Black-led podcasts such as Code Switch and Still Processing that address the issue of race in America.
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Watching the documentaries 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay and Race-- The Power of An Illusion.
3. Talking with our kids about race and justice. Even the youngest kids understand what is fair and not fair and can start building skills to think critically about racial inequity. We are exploring the Black Lives Matter 2020 Curriculum Resource Guide, which has resources for every grade level.
We are learning from the organization Embrace Race, which has articles and webinars about raising kids who are thoughtful and informed about race. We are reading our children books by Black authors that can facilitate conversations with children about racism, including:
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Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy
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Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
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Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
4. Supporting Black-led organizations doing long-term work for justice. These organizations include:
We also want to acknowledge the lack of diversity on our board. We have several open positions and would like to ask anyone interested in joining the PTO board to attend our zoom meeting on June 10th at 6:30pm. The link to join will be posted on this website.
As always, we welcome feedback from our community! If you have any comments, concerns, or ideas, or are interested in joining the board, please contact us at .
Food Pantry Needs
The next (and last for the 2019/2020 school year) CWE food pantry is Tuesday, June 16th, 2020. Donations are still needed. All non-expired shelf stable foods and clean used paper bags are appreciated.
Most needed items:
Spaghetti sauce
Rice
Boxes of cereal
Canned fruit and vegetables
Personal care products
Cleaning products
Dishwasher or laundry pods
For the drop-off location, please e-mail board@cedarwaypto.org
The Eagle Has A Name!
Hello my name is... (drumroll, please) ... Hal! Thank you all so much for participating in my naming journey. In total, we had 265 votes! It was an incredibly close race!
The final tally of top voted names (after keeping the polls open for an additional day due to a tie!) the results are as follows:
Hal (short for Haliaeetus Leucocephalus, the scientific name for bald eagles) 34 (12.9%)
Baldy 33 (12.5%)
Beaker 32 (12.1%)
Mr Eagleston 29 (11%)
Ace 24 (9.1%)
Spirit (a write in!) 24 (9.1%)
MLT 5K Cancelled
It is with a heavy heart that the Cedar Way PTO Board has voted to cancel this year's Mountlake Terrace 5K Fun Run & Walk. With the current social distancing rules, school closures, and economic uncertainty, the critical work of securing sponsors and promoting the race is not possible. This, combined with the challenges of predicting what the guidelines will be in July for large events, and the risk of spending money on an even that may not be able to happen, has made us choose to cancel this year's event. We have looked into other possibilities, including a virtual race, and the return on the investment of our time and resources would not make it worth the effort. For those of you who had committed to sponsoring or volunteering with the race this year, we appreciate your help and hope to have your support again next year!
We will be refunding all registrations and sponsorships that we had already received. As you know, the money raised from the 5K accounts for about half of the Cedar Way PTO's budget and we will be strategizing on ways to help adjust and make up for this change. If you had planned to be a sponsor or participate in the race and are able to make a donation instead, we really appreciate your support.
This race is a success largely because of the generous sponsors, most of which are small businesses in our community. We encourage you to support them during this difficult time!
Start thinking about 2021- we hope to come back next year stronger than ever!
