[IMC] Imminent Eviction of Black Community Education Center by SPD

[More 4 Mann]

Imminent Eviction of Black Community Education Center by SPD



The Seattle Police Department has issued a notice to the Africatown Center
for Education & Innovation to remove this needed community resource from
its location at the Horace Mann School as soon as 6pm tonight, November 8,
2013. The Seattle School Board has refused to negotiate in good faith with
Seattle’s Black community to preserve necessary programming at Horace Mann,
Africatown’s only location, which benefits cross-cultural communities of
color in Seattle’s Central District.



The Seattle School District has, in spite of comment from Seattle’s Black
community, chosen to return the NOVA Alternative School to Horace Mann.
Overwhelming community support in the Central District and among the Black
community for continuing ACEI’s mission has been ignored by the Seattle
School District’s push to relocate NOVA from its current spacious and
sufficient location central to its student body on 20th Ave E.



ACEI has put down roots in reclaiming Horace Mann School *for* the Black
community and has brought in cross-cultural programs that benefit many
Seattle children, from bilingual Spanish/English education for grade
schoolers through the Seattle Amistad School’s summer program at ACEI to
fostering shared community responsibility through the Africatown Center
Children’s Collective where we bring the proverbial village together to
promote an Afrocentric curriculum for young minds.



It is imperative for Seattle’s Black community that we retain this resource
and that the School Board speak to us in good faith about discussing future
possibilities for Africatown at Horace Mann. We can work with the Seattle
School District to create a better, Afrocentric focus for Horace Mann
School, a school in the very heart of the Central District and we are more
than willing to do so. However, the Seattle School District has given ACEI
nothing but bad faith and now impending eviction.



For more information on the programs offered by Africatown Center for
Education & Innovation, please see
http://www.africatownseattle.org/africatown-center/.



PRESS CONTACT: Ms. Nikkita Oliver, 206-850-8802 or email
nikkita.oliver at gmail.com
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