Former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, now CEO, Seattle Foundation, was the keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Gathering of the Neighbors event held in the dramatic new Galleria of Chief Sealth High School, sponsored by the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA) and Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

"Wrap-around services are really what Delridge and DNDA is all about, making sure that it isn't just what you do in the classroom, but what the community does to support that child," said Rice, (...) making sure that parents are engaged and involved in that process whenever they can be, making sure that people reaching out and really understand that they have a role to play and that all of our children are our children, and if we are not thinking that way we can't build a community.

"What you have here is what offsets cutbacks a lot, the communities working together. When we think of things collectively we are a voice and we're very powerful making change."

Rice spoke with the West Seattle Herald on his concerns regarding cutbacks at South Seattle Community College and others. His wife, Constance, is the Chairman of the Board of the Seattle Community College District.

"I think we're going to feel it big time," Rice said of the budget issues afflicting the community college system. "It's hard to see a strategy yet. Everybody is going to have to tighten their belts, but in some ways they didn't get hurt as much as others. I think they are in a good position to be a shining light in the system because every legislator has a community college in their district, and so they can relate to that.

"Sometimes I worry about higher education as the legislators don't always relate to that as well. The UW, WSU, they're economic engines also. They bring in a lot of jobs, money in research and opportunities so we've got to make sure that we don't kill the beast. We've got to figure out new ways to feed it."

Rice himself is a community college success story. He dropped out of the University of Colorado and eventually attended Highline Community College to get back on track.

"And the rest is history," he said with a wide grin. "It's easy to talk about (dropping out) once you've been successful. It's another thing if I was still bumming around thinking about what to do. The community college was the right place for me to be. It's a good place for re-entry, for size and scale to make that journey to higher ed, four-year college."