A group of nine young leaders from East Bay schools, organized and led by Regina Jackson of East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC), will participate in the “March for Our Lives” demonstration for an end to gun violence Saturday in Washington, D.C.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee urged Jackson to organize the delegation so that Oakland would have a presence in the historic march. Lee contributed money to pay for part of the trip, and a micro-grant covered the rest.
“Recently we did a listening session with Oakland Lee about gun violence. She asked me to coordinate the student delegation. I will be leading the group of students, who have all been affected by gun violence, ages 13-18,” said Jackson.
Members of the EOYDC delegation: Damoni Nears, senior at Moreau Catholic High; Destiny Shabazz, senior at McClymonds High; Devlynn Nolan, senior at Castlemont High; Jada White, 8th grader at Edna Brewer Middle; Khali Walker, freshman at Castlemont High; Kia Hanson, senior at Fremont High; Nala Lazimba, 8th grader at Alliance Academy; Rasheem Haskins, sophomore at Skyline High; and Ramaj Walker, junior at Envision Academy.
Organizers of the Washington D.C. march are students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and adults died.
The young Oakland leaders spoke about how gun violence has impacted their lives.
“I have first-hand experience with gun violence,” said Jada White, aged 13.
“I lost my father when I was just a baby. I am going to the march to share my experience and my hope for stronger gun education and policy.”
Seventeen-year-old Kia Hanson said, “I lost my brother to gun violence. My pain is real every day. I am going to the march to represent him and my hope that no one ever have to experience a tragedy like mine ever again.”
The young people plan to write a blog about the march after they return draft some language for bills to be considered at the state and federal level.
Over 800 rallies and marches are scheduled across the country Saturday in solidarity with the protest in Washington, D.C. In the Bay Areas, marches are planned for San Jose and San Francisco.
A rally will be held Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in front of City Hall in Oakland, and then attendees will go by BART to join forces with marchers in San Francisco.
Three icons of their respective industries were honored at the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s annual Torch Awards dinner at The Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), James Farmer of General Motors, and Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, a student of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco took home the coveted trophies which are bestowed upon those who demonstrate excellence in their chosen profession or endeavor.
This year’s honorees join a legacy of high-achieving, community-serving African Americans.
“The San Francisco Sun Reporter gave me a voice,” said Lee, as she accepted her award from NNPA National Chair Dorothy Leavell, NNPA President Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., and NNPA Foundation Chair Amelia Ashley-Ward, the publisher of the Sun Reporter.
Lee called Ashley-Ward, the publisher of the Sun Reporter, “truly a treasure,” before tearing into a recent secret FBI report that identified some activists in the Black community as “Black Identity Extremists.”
Farmer, whom Chavis praised as one of the most active advocates of the Black Press, completed more than 50 years of dedicated service to “not only his profession, but to the many organizations he served,” Chavis said.
A 1967 graduate of Central State University in Ohio, Farmer entered the automotive industry that year at Airtemp Division, Chrysler Corporation, as an advertising clerk, according to his biography.
There, he began a relationship with the only Black newspaper in Dayton, Ohio, the Dayton Black Express newspaper. After 10 years with Chrysler, Farmer took a position at General Motors where he continued to advocate and support the Black Press—a relationship that continues today.
Farmer said he appreciated the honor and will cherish it.
“This is a group that’s really in my heart,” he said of the Black Press. “If I gave up on the NNPA, I know corporate America could too.”
Brown, who also serves as president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP and was only one of eight students who took the only college class ever taught by King, said the Black Press has and remains vital in America.
“Again, and again, you have heard from this ‘Dream Team’…this five-star [leadership team],” Brown said of Chavis, Leavell, Ashley-Ward and the leadership of the Black Press. “What African American leaders ought to be about in this nation. You have the chemistry to relate to all people around the word with compassion and courage and I hope you will keep this ‘Dream Team’ intact.”
The ceremony included remarks from Houston Forward Times Publisher and NNPA Vice Chair Karen Carter Richards, who said it was important that the Black Press honor its own.
“If we don’t honor our own, who will? Tonight, we are here to honor distinguished individuals in their fields,” Richards said.
Jackson Caesar, the nephew of gospel great Shirley Caesar, performed two solo songs during the awards ceremony while the group, One Vision Band, provided the entertainment.
Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III, the Senior Pastor of the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, served as keynote speaker.
Alondra Alvarez lives about five minutes from her high school on Detroit’s southwest side but she drives there instead of walking because her mother fears for her safety. Once the 18-year-old enters the building, her surroundings take on a more secure feel almost immediately as she passes through a bank of closely monitored metal detectors.
“My mom has never been comfortable with me walking to school. My mom is really scared of street thugs,” said Alvarez, who attends Western International.
As schools around the U.S. look for ways to impose tougher security measures in the wake of last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead, they don’t have to look further than urban districts such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York that installed metal detectors and other security in the 1980s and 1990s to combat gang and drug violence.
Security experts believe these measures have made urban districts less prone to mass shootings, which have mostly occurred in suburban and rural districts.
Officials in some suburban and rural school districts are now considering detectors as they rethink their security plans after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz allegedly brought in a duffel bag containing an assault rifle and opened fire. He’s charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The massacre has galvanized thousands of students around the country who walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes — one for each Parkland victim — on March 14 to protest gun violence.
“I think urban schools are eons ahead. They’ve been dealing with violence a lot longer than suburban schools,” said Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association.
During the mid-1980s, Detroit was one of the first districts in the nation to put permanent, walk-through metal detectors in high schools and middle schools. New York schools also had them in some buildings.
By 1992, metal detectors had been installed in a few dozen Chicago high schools. And in 1993, under pressure to make schools safer, Los Angeles’ district announced that it would randomly search students with metal detectors.
Such measures “are designed to identify and hopefully deter anybody from bringing a weapon to school, but metal detectors alone portray an illusion of being safe,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the 50,000-student Detroit Public Schools Community District.
“Our schools need to be safer than they are,” Vitti said. “As a nation, we need to fully fund and make sure all districts can adequately staff school resource officers and also offer mental health and first-aid training to all educators.”
Security measures don’t always keep guns off school grounds. A 17-year-old high school senior was killed and another student wounded March 7 in a Birmingham, Alabama, classroom shooting. Metal detectors at the school were not in use that day. A 17-year-old student has been charged with manslaughter.
Two students were shot and three people suffered other injuries in February when a gun in a backpack accidentally fired inside a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school. The district does random metal-detector wand searches daily in middle schools and high schools. A 12-year-old girl has been charged with being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds.
In response to the Parkland shooting, Florida’s governor has said he wants to spend $500 million to increase law enforcement and mental health counselors at schools, to make buildings more secure with metal detectors and to create an anonymous tip line.
A package of legislation passed by the New York state Senate includes provisions for metal detectors and improved security technology in schools. A parent in Knox County, Kentucky, has said his law office would donate $25,000 for metal detectors in schools there.
Alvarez, the student at Detroit’s Western International, said she and others who attend the school go through metal detectors every morning. Her elementary and middle schools also had metal detectors.
“I’ve always seen it as something that made me feel safe,” she said, adding that all schools should have them and not just inner-city ones “so students don’t feel discriminated against.”
Metal detectors are seen as a symptom of a “stigma that already exists,” said Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s Racial Justice Project.
“There is a presumption that urban schools — particularly those with students of color — are violent places and security demands you have procedures in place that are intended to protect the safety of the students,” Fancher said.
But metal detectors, property searches, security guards and police in schools create conditions similar to those found in prisons, he said.
“Students, themselves, internalize these things,” Fancher said. “If you create a school that looks like a prison, the people who go there will pretty much decide that’s what is expected of them.”
Many urban districts have a greater awareness and sensitivity when it comes to students’ needs, said Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services, a K-12 security consulting firm.
“I think in urban schools, the approach of most of the educators, administrators and security personnel is, ‘We realize there are issues kids bring to school,’” said Trump, who has been in the school safety field for more than 30 years. “The people will tell you, ‘We are not in denial … we acknowledge our problems. We just don’t have enough resources to deal with it.’”
Suburban and rural administrators, parents and students often view themselves as different from their big-city counterparts, and that may impact how they treat school security, he said.
“There’s very often that divide of ‘There’s us and there’s them. We’re not the urban district. We are the alternative. We’re the place people go to get away from the urban district,’” he said.
LOS ANGELES — Not all schools in Los Angeles are created equal.
Raymond Ealy noticed that was true when it came to low-income, underrepresented students learning about science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). So he decided to change that.
In July 2014, Ealy launched STEAM:Coders in Pasadena to provide STEAM learning opportunities for kindergarten to 12th-grade students with limited access to technology.
“We work with students in Inglewood, South L.A., Long Beach, Pasadena and others … and we collaborate with colleges and school districts … with a focus on Title 1 schools,” said Ealy, founder and executive director of the nonprofit.
Since its inception, the organization has served more than 3,000 students in its after-school, weekend and weekly summer-camp classes teaching them skills they can apply to any field they choose to go into.
“We teach students logic, critical thinking and problem solving,” Ealy said. “We have to build a pipeline for students to not only get them ready for [STEAM] fields, but to give them the opportunity to see those areas.”
Its numerous partnerships with corporate, academic and nonprofit entities has allowed STEAM:Coders’ students to visit places where they can see technology in action and get involved. Field trips include locations like Google L.A., the California Science Center, Art Center College of Design, Apple, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.
These field trips are a way for underserved students to see that with the right skills, they can find a place for themselves in those places, Ealy said.
“When we take kids to Caltech, many of them have never been to a college campus before,” he said. “And many of their parents have never been to a college campus, either. So when we take them to a university, it plants a seed that they can go to college too, and hopefully inspires them to attend.”
Raymond Ealy
But before students get to college, the nonprofit tries to implant a different seed in them: the seed of imagination.
Many Title 1 schools don’t have a computer science curriculum, let alone a computer lab, Ealy said. Many of the same schools, he continued, no longer offer students art or music classes, which restricts their imaginations.
So STEAM:Coders tries to remedy that disadvantage by equipping them with “tools, training, teaching and coaching to get them exposed” to both the arts and classes that teach them subjects like computer science.
Offering introductory, intermediate and advanced STEAM courses, students are taught hands-on by staff and volunteers, many who are college students or professionals who teach the weekend classes.
Among the classes being taught this year are “Building Apps and Games using JavaScript” for fourth to eighth-grade students and an “Introduction to Coding” for students from second to fifth grade.
With these opportunities, Ealy believes that kids are learning invaluable skills and getting the hard-core support they need to rise above their circumstances.
And sometimes that support manifests itself into the form of a laptop. Made possible by its partnership with Warner Brothers, the nonprofit recently gave away more than 40 laptops to students. Getting equipment like that into the hands of kids who need it most was a very proud moment for the organization.
As for the next several years, Ealy hopes to support more students in places outside of California.
“We know there’s lots of talent out there, students just need the opportunity to show it,” he said.
Booking for the upcoming Transformational Leadership Conference is filling up faster than Shinay Bowman expected, but she’s not complaining.
Her phone has been ringing nonstop, and it’s grabbed the attention of top academic administrators across southern California.
“It surpassed our expectations because we only opened the conference at the end of January,” she said.
The event, to be held in Indian Wells from June 26-28, will cover several topics to task educators in leadership on reaching students and parents to make sure more kids don’t fall through the cracks. Bowman said they are hosting breakout sessions, and their superintendent’s panel discussion is about as multi-cultural as it gets.
“We invited diverse superintendents from across California and five have confirmed. We have a Latino, white, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander. What race didn’t we get?” she laughs.
Not everyone asks that question, but she feels they should.
The need for equity to reach students and parents is at a critical point. She said they want to ask the hard questions and get diverse perspectives about how school leaders are dealing with these difficult times.
“How they’re overcoming their struggles with English learner students, African American students, dealing with suicides and shootings. In the face of all that’s going on, how do they maintain moving forward for kids to be successful?” she said.
Bowman, also a certified suicide intervention trainer, hosts training throughout San Bernardino. Her own tragic encounter with a local suicide spurred her to get involved with prevention. She was then a teacher when an eighth-grade student killed himself. He wasn’t in her class, but she remembers him from her sixth-grade class, and it was devastating.
Superintendents, assistant superintendents and high-level cabinet members are coming to the event from as far away as Northern California and San Diego. However, she hopes more local teachers, and community members participate to stretch the dialogue for best approaches in education.
The cost of the three-day conference is comparable to other education conferences at $450. If that’s too steep, she said 20 volunteer slots with registration waivers are open for those that want to help work the event.
The Transformational Leadership Consortium comprises teachers, principals and county administrators, that work with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. She said the seven-member board was established four years ago, and has site leaders and program facilitators at area high schools.
“We are women of diversity, and we felt that there was a huge leadership crisis in education,” she said.
Bowman started out as a teacher at San Bernardino Shandin Hills Middle School, later a literacy coach, an assistant principal, and also an interim principal in Fontana. She works for San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools as a program manager.
There, she oversees implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support, a program in 15 school districts countywide. PBIS is credited with better alternatives to punishment, and helping reduce suspension and expulsion rates for kids of color.
TLC, a project apart from the county, is also strong on social justice and equity to meet the needs of Black and Brown kids, girls, and all students dealing with behavioral issues.
Educational leadership, youth empowerment, community engagement and creating efficient ways for organizations to work together is their main focus. She hopes the conference will remind educators of why they got into the field in the first place.
“We can’t be supermen or superwomen, but we can be a super-community,” she said. “I feel like a lot of individuals focus on their own ability to go up in education and forget that it’s really about the community and village.”
While the consortium isn’t a church, it may feel that way at times with the Master of Ceremonies, who is both an educational and spiritual leader. Derek Harris, the senior director of risk management at Rialto Unified School District, is also an ordained pastor scheduled to MC the event.
“We’re hoping that this is a weekend that rekindles spirits and hearts to do the right thing for kids,” she said.
Registration is open until May 18.
At the conference, Terrance Stone with Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy will be presenting on working with the youth and community building.
He hopes to get revitalized in being around like-minded nonprofits, educators and leaders that care about the kids and get great information.
“To put some fire under us for going out, working in the community, because it can be tiresome. People on the outside just don’t know how much work goes into community-saving,” he said.
Working in San Bernardino hasn’t been the easiest task, but he said community workers need to have these conversations to empower themselves and the youth.
“It’s kind of about energizing and re-educating ourselves also, so we can really work in a city such as San Bernardino,” Stone said.
For more information, call (909) 521-0790 or email http://thetlcway.com/
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) honored Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) with the 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award during Black Press Week. The Newsmaker event took place at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday, March 14.
“The Honorable Kamala Harris, the second African American woman and first South Asian American senator in U.S. history, is an outstanding choice for the NNPA’s 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award,” said Dorothy Leavell, chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Crusader Newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Ind.
The NNPA also celebrated the senator’s efforts to raise wages for working people, reform the criminal justice system, and expand healthcare access for all Americans.
“In all of my years of covering news in our community, Senator Harris has been one of the smartest, most fearless, steadfast and caring politicians that I have come to know,” said Amelia Ashley-Ward, NNPA Foundation chair and publisher of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. “She has a lot to offer the world…we are so fortunate to have her advocating on our behalf.”
The theme of this year’s Black Press Week is “Celebrating 191 Years of the Black Press of America: Publishing Truth to Empower.” Black publishers, media professionals, civil rights leaders and lawmakers from across the country attend the annual event, taking place March 14-16. On Friday, March 16, Democratic strategist and author Donna Brazile will deliver a keynote address on the state of the Black Press in America.
“When John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish printed that first issue of Freedom’s Journal they sought to empower Black people to determine their own destiny and to define themselves,” said Leavell. “How iconic, that in 2018, our theme still rings true: ‘Publishing Truth to Empower.’”
Black Press Week will also feature sessions on business development, education reform, and sickle cell disease. Outstanding leaders in the Black community will be honored during the Torch Awards Dinner.
The Torch Award recipients are: Dr. Amos Brown, pastor of the San Francisco Third Baptist Church; Rep. Barbara Jean Lee (D-Calif.); and James Farmer, a senior consultant for General Motors.
Ken Barrett, the global chief diversity officer for General Motors, said that “Jim” Farmer dedicated his career to transforming the automotive industry through diversity and community service.
“I am proud of the invaluable support Jim continues to provide GM and he is truly most deserving of this prestigious honor,” said Barrett.
Chairman Leavell agreed.
“The NNPA Foundation has chosen some of the most outstanding leaders and trailblazers in the Black community to receive Torch Awards, this year,” said Leavell.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA, said that the NNPA and the NNPA Foundation have joined together to celebrate the 191-year anniversary of the Black Press in America.
“This year, Black Press Week convenes at a time of profound opportunity and responsibility to ensure a record turnout for Black American voters in the upcoming midterm elections across the nation,” said Chavis. “The new strategic alliance between the NNPA and the NAACP bodes well to advance civil rights and the economic, political, and cultural empowerment of Black America.”
The National Newspaper Publishers Association represents more than 200 Black-owned media companies in the United States. The NNPA promotes the profession of journalism and the business of publishing, while celebrating the evolution of the Black Press in America.
A recent report produced by a pro-charter school policy organization says that the continued rapid expansion of charter schools in the Bay Area, including Oakland, has been significantly undercut by the shortage of affordable facilities in a region notorious for out-of-control real estate prices.
To counter the slowdown, the report proposes passing state laws to “require or incentivize” school districts to close or “consolidate” public school properties and turn them over to charter school operators.
The growth rate of Bay Area charters, which reached a highpoint of 18.2 percent in 2012-2013, has fallen to an estimated 3.8 percent in 2017-2018.
The 25-page report, “The Slowdown in Bay Area Charter School Growth: Causes and Solutions,” was released in January by Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). The research was funded by the Silicon Schools Fund and supported by the California Charter Schools Association, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
Among the report’s proposals:
Tighten the state law, called Prop. 39, which requires school district to provide space in public schools for charters that ask for it.
“Prop. 39 helps, but it doesn’t help enough,” the report said. New regulations, for example, could modify the current year-to-year lease agreements “allowing or requiring a multiyear Prop. 39 lease;”
Offer districts “consolidation grants” to close facilities and maximize use of classrooms at fewer school sites;
Require a district to “house charter students” before it is allowed to go to the voters to pass a school bond to build or renovate school facilities. An aggressive step would be to require districts to pay a tax to the state “as long as the district fails to consolidate or close under-enrolled district schools.”
Even more aggressively, the state could take “building ownership rights away from districts that fail to manage them efficiently.”
“The state could simply require that districts that fail to reduce costs responsibly get out of the property ownership business by having the state assume ownership, by placing the buildings into a third-party trust, or by establishing a cooperative to which charter schools have equal rights.”
An additional factor slowing charter growth may have to do with intensifying political backlash, nationally and locally, against charters, according to the report.
“Teacher unions…have stepped up their resistance strategies and are increasingly coordinating opposition campaigns,” the report said. Further, “school districts have become adept at limiting charter growth by blocking access to facilities.”
Contributing to the backlash is “the perceived (negative) fiscal impact of charter schools on local districts,” the report said.
In Oakland, there are currently about 14,000 students enrolled in 43 charter schools, compared with over 36,000 students in 86 district schools.
This means that about 39 percent of the total students in public schools attend charters, costing the district about $100 million a year in lost revenue, according to district figures.
To counter the political “backlash” against charters, pro-charter organizations – like GO Public Schools in Oakland the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) – are involved in charter advocacy and “running successful campaigns for school board races.”
The CCSA spent more than $12 million on candidates for school board and other races in 2016 and 2017, the report said.
The proposals backed by Oakland-based charter organizations are less blatantly argued than those of their state and national counterparts, but their goals are the same.
They want to close public schools so charters can acquire school real estate and students.
Utilizing the rhetoric of school reform, local charter groups have written that Oakland has 30-35 too many public schools and have recommended closing schools as way to improve the quality of education and strengthen the district’s precarious finances.
Trish Gorham, president of the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the teachers union, told the Oakland Post that she found the report similar to other charter plans to undermine public education.
“The only thing surprising is how blatant it is,” she said.
“This is the kind of playbook that charter school supporters are following to privatize public education,” she said. “Oakland has been their target for a long time.”
“The bottom line is they need more space, and the only way to do that is to close more public schools,” Gorham continued. “That has to be watched. We are not going to close schools just to give the property to charter schools.”
Adding to the school district’s difficulties in maintaining its independence and solvency, charter organizations are deeply embedded in Oakland, and the district and school board, therefore, finds it difficult to disentangle itself, according to Kim Davis of Parents United for Public Schools.
“We’re very interlaced with these charter folks,” going back to 2003, she said.
There are four main pro-charter organizations in Oakland: Educate78, GO Public Schools and its affiliated organizations, the Rogers Family Foundation and the Oakland Public Education Fund, which has its office in the district’s headquarters.
Additionally, the California Charter Schools Association plays a major role in the city, especially at election time.
Schools and classrooms across the country buzzed with excitement on February, 22, 2018 as thousands of educators and students celebrated the seventh annual Digital Learning Day (DLDay).
The celebrations have come to an end for now, but here are three things we learned from another great DLDay:
1. Technology is transforming America’s classrooms.
Each year, DLDay provides a powerful venue for education leaders to highlight great teaching practice and showcase innovative teachers, leaders, and instructional technology programs that are improving student outcomes. But it wasn’t always that simple.
When the Alliance for Excellent Education created Digital Learning Day in 2012, the idea of technology in the classroom was a new, even controversial idea. The first DLDay was about creating a safe place for educators to try something new with technology, to give up a little control and see what happened.
In the years since, many schools and school districts around the country have turned every day into a digital learning day. Technology is transforming classrooms. But the DLDay message remains clear: is not just about technology, it’s about learning and enhancing the role of the teacher in America’s classrooms.
2. It’s about the student, not the device.
This year, 2,000 local celebrations decorated the official DLDay map, providing a window into how education technology is incorporated into daily student learning. The key word here is incorporated. This is an important distinction. DLDay is not about putting devices in classrooms, it’s how they are used to advance student learning.
On DLDay, there were countless examples of devices being integrated into student projects and used to expand and enhance the learning experience.
Students in one school spent DLDay exercising, and tracking their miles using QR codes and apps. Others uploaded art projects into digital portfolios, or used stop motion animation to enhance a presentation, or conducted research and engaged in peer reviews using technology.
3. There are best practices for blending teaching and technology. Blending teaching and technology requires structure, planning, and research. But when implemented effectively, schools with a blended learning approach can personalize student learning, give students greater control of their experience, and enhance interactions between students and their teachers.
On DLDay, All4Ed and Future Ready Schools ® (FRS) held a webinar highlighting a California district that is using a blended learning approach to support a performance-based system of progression. Students move through instructional content at their own pace, advancing only once they have mastered all the standards from the previous content level.
In the webinar, leadership from Lindsay Unified School District shared their experience and best practices for blended learning. The webinar also featured the release of a new report, Blending Teaching and Technology: Simple Strategies for Improved Student Learning, which offers a collection of strategies aligned to the FRS framework that school district leaders can use to implement an instructional approach supported by blended learning. Watch the webinar below.
The student lunch debt has been wiped out for all 56 schools in the Saint Paul Public Schools district in Minnesota, the district Castile worked for, according to the charity, Philando Feeds the Children.
“That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” according to an update from the charity website. “Philando is still reaching into his pocket, and helping a kid out. One by one. With your help.”
Stacey Koppen, director of Nutrition Services at Saint Paul Public Schools, worked with Castile, and remembers him as a “kind and caring” person.
“This fundraiser honoring him and his memory couldn’t be more perfect,” said Koppen. “This is what he did. He did so without question or praise.”
Though all students of the district can receive free breakfast, only some students are eligible for free lunches depending on household income guidelines and district funding. That leaves some students with lunch debt if they can’t pay and don’t meet the requirements.
Philando Feeds the Children started as a college class project led by Metropolitan State University students. It has now reached approximately 3,500 donors and received over $130,000 in donations to feed the children of St. Paul. The organization said it is currently seeking official non-profit status with the state of Minnesota.
Now that Philando Feeds the Children has eliminated all of the school lunch debt in the district, charity organizer and Metro State University professor Pamela Fergus said the organization will use the rest of the money raised to help more students in the future.
Castile had a reputation at the school for caring about the students’ welfare.
“He remembered [students’] names,” Joan Edman, a recently retired paraprofessional at the school, told TIME shortly after Castile’s death. “He remembered who couldn’t have milk. He knew what they could have to eat and what they couldn’t.”
Known fondly by students as Mr. Phil, Castile had worked at J.J. Hill since he was 19 years old, and was promoted in 2014 to his position as a nutrition services supervisor, according to a statement by the Saint Paul Public Schools. Remembered as a cheerful presence in the cafeteria, he maintained close relationships with staff, students, and colleagues.
Castile’s death sparked nationwide protests and demonstrations against police brutality. He was shot five times in his car by a police officer who was later acquitted of manslaughter charges.
Keith Willis, incoming 100 BMIE president, said that he and the other volunteer mentors were taking late night calls from their boys, talking up and tweaking speeches until the last minute.
“They are very involved, very excited about the showcase. I’ve been on the phone, and they’ve been practicing,” he said.
The program, in partnership with the Pomona chapter Jack and Jill of America and the 100 BMIE Education Committee, helped the youth develop their presentations around some of the most significant civil rights heroes throughout Black history.
He said that “the 100” has been focused on outreach and broadening their students’ exposure to get out of the area to social events. They have been especially excited to collaborate with the Boy Scouts of America and in December, they took the boys to a leadership camp where they participated in a team-building exercise.
It was important to give students an opportunity that they wouldn’t ordinarily get in in the Inland Empire, he said.
The boys and youth also attended a young men’s conference sponsored by Jewett Walker, Div. President and Chairman of the Board of the 100 Black Men of Los Angeles.
“There were over 500 students there. It was an opportunity for our students to meet up with Los Angeles students and discuss issues that relate to growing up in America, in the climate that we have today. It was a very good exercise,” he said.
Wherever the 100 Black Men charters exist, part of the big picture is keeping students tight with local college campuses and formal higher education environments.
The organization provides strong academic support, but they especially want the boys grounded in a sense of self, with the cultural and social support they need for college success.
“It’s very important that students not feel like college is a foreign concept,” Willis said. “We want them to feel comfortable on campus, with various campus cultures so they can examine what is a good fit for them academically.”
Prior to coming on as president, Willis chaired the education committee, where his pet project was jump-starting the pilot program for the Saturday Academy at Cal Baptist University.
Their mentoring program at Chemawa Middle School, part of the Riverside Unified School District, is now in its second successful year. This week, in partnership with CBU, they are taking the middle school students out to the ball game for another fun day with higher education strategies hidden in the mix.
“It’s for a slice of college life,” he said. “We are also looking forward to building up a collaboration with University of California, Riverside, and the Black Student Union there to work on programs together.”
Willis said that he joined “the 100” because he was seeking a way to academically impact youth, which is part of the mission of the organization. Initially, he served on the mentoring committee with Chemawa Middle School, eventually transitioning into the Saturday Academy.
“I came, and I was immediately enamored because it was exactly what I wanted to do,” said Willis, formerly a social studies teacher, and now an attorney. “We’re able to provide support, and a consistent presence of mentoring there.”
As students aged out of the middle school, the organization piloted a program with CBU, which encompasses some students from area high schools. All those attending wear their signature 100 Black Men of the Inland Empire shirt and khaki pants for their regular bi-monthly meetings. Currently, they have about 30 regular students aged 12 to 18.
In the coming weeks, the organization is also pushing community support for its April 20 Annual Gulf Tournament fundraiser to help keep the local programming strong for the kids.
Much of the energy in recent years has been in getting their bearings as a new organization, and developing programs that are a good fit for the local boys. But the students who tend to be more involved also have strong parental support, he said. They make sure the boys come out to the meetings at the CBU campus.
As they’ve grown in the program, their boys and youth have developed persistence and staying power. One student recently missed a class, and he was clearly upset about it.
“Once they go consistently, they want to keep going. It’s really been a positive experience,” he said.
For more information on the golf tournament or to get involved, email 100bmie@gmail.com
By Dianne Anderson