Community

As Schools Reopen, Gov. Newsom Invests $123.9 Billion to Address Financial and Safety Concerns

“On August 3 in Perris, California – a Riverside County city located about 70 miles east of Los Angeles — Lincoln Cooper and Fortunate Hove Cooper handed out free backpacks full of school supplies and hand sanitizers to struggling families during a triple-digit heat wave.

Published

3 years ago

August 14, 2021

Christy Price

Back To School/iStock

“This is the biggest back-to-school event we’ve ever had,” said Lincoln Cooper, president and founder of the community outreach organization the Concerned Family (TCF). “We’ve had a lot of support and we’re really thankful and grateful that we were able to help the community.”

The faith-based, Black-led community outreach organization, founded in 1993 and run out of an old fire station in Perris, has organized back-to-school events in the past; but none quite on this scale, the group’s leaders say. According to Lincoln, they received over 750 backpacks filled to the brim with useful supplies.

“What we had planned, initially, was not the backpacks. The plan was to remember those who lost their relatives in the COVID-19 pandemic and have a memorial for them and then assure the kids that they’re still being heard, and we are not just passing them by while they are grieving,” said TCF Co-Founder Fortunate Hove Cooper.

The Coopers are not alone in their concern for struggling Black families with children returning to school this fall as uncertainty about the coronavirus and its new variants lingers.

For many Black California families, especially lower-income ones, having their children resume in-person classes amid an ongoing pandemic remains both a financial and public health challenge. But during a visit to Juanita B. Jones Elementary School in San Bernardino on August 6, Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out a roadmap for the state’s safe return to in-person instruction.

During the press conference, Newsom spoke about the California Comeback Plan, a COVID-19 recovery budget that includes $123.9 billion in investments in education.

He was joined by Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-San Bernardino), Assemblymember James Ramos (D-Highland), Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Gwendolyn Dowdy-Rodgers, a San Bernardino County education advocate and school board member, among others.

]“Our school year started Monday and we’ve had a great week,” Dr. Gwen Dowdy-Rogers, the San Bernardino City Unified School District school board president, said at the beginning of the press conference.

“Families sent 95% of all students back to our campuses for the first time in over a year for in-person instruction,” she continued.

Newsom addressed some of the pandemic-related financial issues students and families like those at the Concerned Family back-to-school event face.

“By the way, $650 million went into this unprecedented first of the nation effort to provide free nutritious meals for our kids,” Newsom said. “Supervisor Baca would be upset with me if I didn’t remind everybody about all the support that we’re providing these kids,” he continued.

The governor also reassured that this “full reopening of schools” during a pandemic will be safe.

However, Lincoln and Fortunate are still concerned about COVID-19 safety for Pre-K and K-12 students.

“There’s so much going on with the pandemic and even young kids are dying. Initially it was older people,” Lincoln said.

“So, I’d advise them to make sure they’re wearing their face masks and be cautious,” he continued.

Newsom claimed that many of the problems surrounding pandemic safety in schools could be solved by following safety protocols and getting vaccinated.

He also addressed the inequities in education and healthcare in the state and what he plans to do to tackle that issue.

“We continue to focus on partnerships with community-based organizations in the African American community and in the Latino community to do more, to get more people vaccinated and address the concerns and anxieties that persist in terms of vaccine hesitancy,” Newsom said.

“And that’s profoundly important, the health of our diverse communities. And I want folks to know that we (are working with) 480 community-based organizations, barber shops, faith-based communities, the Black press, ethnic media, crossing the spectrum to provide additional outreach,” he continued.

Newsom says that the California Comeback Plan is a comprehensive one that took healthcare into consideration.

“A big part of our community school strategy is to integrate and to reimagine a whole person care framework as it relates to not only quality public education but to address the health needs as well as the nutrition needs of our public kids,” Newsom said.

California Black Media’s coverage of COVID-19 is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

Christy Price

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Activism

WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

22 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Vivian Coit, 98

Vivian Coit, a proud Dallas, Texas native made her way to the great state of California in 1943. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother.

Published

22 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Vivian Coit

Celebrating A Life Well Lived

Sept. 15, 1925 ~ March 30, 2024

Vivian Coit, a proud Dallas, Texas native made her way to the great state of California in 1943. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother.

In her 98 years, she had various jobs – San Francisco Naval Shipyard, elevator operator, housekeeping, a salesclerk, and supervisor for the United States Postal Service. After 27 years of service with the United States Postal Service, she retired with numerous commendations. She was a lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women. and a devoted member of the Washington/Lincoln Alumni Association of Dallas, Texas.

On April 20 at 10:00 a.m., a life well-lived will be celebrated at Beebe Memorial Cathedral CME Church, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA under the leadership of Rev. Antoine Shyne.

Oakland Post

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Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

22 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!