Yes it can!

On Saturday, over 100 students and volunteers showed up at the Boathouse at Greenlake to rally for the renewal of Propositions 1 & 2 (the school levies!) These are funds that make-up 23% of the Seattle School district’s operating budget. We’re talking stuff like basic building maintenance and technology upgrades, as well as teacher salaries! Without these levies, the school district would not be able to fund a 6^th period in the school day. Whew, big deal.

Below are a few pictures from young voters in action:

One volunteer and UW student, Rocio Woods, would like to remind us all that this year’s all mail-in election comes at a slight cost to the voters: 44 cents!

“Apathy can undermine our best intentions to ensure that Seattle Public Schools receive the funds that they need for their daily operations and capital expenditures. That’s if we don’t pick up the necessary postage to get our ballots in!”

UW students volunteering on the levy campaign are taking steps to ensure that apathy doesn’t get the best of us—they are passing out stamps on campus. Here they are below phone banking at campaign headquarters:

Don’t forget: tomorrow (Feb. 9^th) is the LAST day to post-mark your ballot for it to count! Your public schools need your support!

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Want to know what students can do to help the Seattle school levies? Well, here’s what we’ve been doing! Several students have given short presentations at a couple different community events this past week to let people know that passing the levy is important to us! We had the ears of the good people at the 46th Legislative District Democrats on January 21^st, presentations to local preschools, at school community meetings and one student is reaching out to the Kenyan Community here in Seattle. A few of us have been volunteering hours from the campaign headquarters by working on translating some of the levy literature into Somali and Spanish.

We’ve also been going behind the scenes with our very own camera team, covering the events where the levy is being highlighted. Our Communications Specialists have been keeping their fingers in motion as well, contacting newspapers and community papers to keep the levies on the forefront of everyone’s mind.

And then there’s phone banking! Nope that’s not where you deposit your phone for safekeeping – it’s all about putting your cell phones to good use! Students have come into the Schools First Headquarters (on 524 Dexter Avenue, N. in Seattle) and joined up with community organizations around the city reminding people that their votes matters! We may have also shown up for the free PIZZA! More phone banks are scheduled so if you want to join in on all the fun send us an e-mail to let us know when you can make it (and how many slices they should plan for)!

The last bit of big news is that Schools First is having a rally! This Saturday (the 6^th) from 12:00 to 1:00pm at Green Lake Boathouse (5900 West Green Lake Way N). Students (as we speak) are hard at work on getting this event planned and off the ground. Come join us and be a part of this student-led rally to get out the vote to renew Seattle’s levies!

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