Dow Constantine talks "Sustainability" with Explorer West Students

Each year, The Explorer West school community chooses a sustainability issue to focus on and this year's theme is, "What makes a society sustainable?" Last Thursday at an Explorer West all-school assembly, Dow Constantine, King County Executive, gave a short presentation on his perspective of this question and then participated in a Q&A. The students’ questions ranged from “What is the state of public health in King County?” to “What is your role in the event of a major natural disaster?” to “What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?”

Some highlights from Mr. Constantine’s program:

• As a child, he loved a local greenspace that was slated for development. This motivated him to get involved in community organizing at an early age and they were successful in saving it.


• Environmental sustainability is his passion, but he sees that without a healthy economy we cannot effectively invest in reclaiming and protecting the environment.


• He is excited about King County's "Equity and Social Justice" initiative to develop opportunity and access for the underserved.


• The hardest part of his job is cutting essential services and jobs due to the recession and budget cuts.


• The best part of his job is seeing all the good work that county employees do.


• He was impressed and happy to hear that Explorer West has a well-developed emergency response plan and that the school practices with full-blown simulations.
  

Judith Arvidson, an Explorer West parent, acquired this speaking engagement at the Southwest Youth and Family Service auction last fall. She decided to pass along this unique opportunity to her daughter's school to give the middle school students a chance to interact with one of their local governmental leaders.

The West Seattle Blog also posted about the visit: http://westseattleblog.com/2011/02/west-seattle-schools-king-county-executive-explorer-west