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S.B. SBCUSD New School Initiatives

PRECINCT REPORTER GROUP NEWS — Laptops available with free internet for local students to take home is not a secret, but it might as well be. Many parents are still not aware that they can get Chromebooks and free hotspot hookup for their students at San Bernardino City Unified School District just for the asking.

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Photo by: precinctreporter.com

By Dianne Anderson

Laptops available with free internet for local students to take home is not a secret, but it might as well be.

Many parents are still not aware that they can get Chromebooks and free hotspot hookup for their students at San Bernardino City Unified School District just for the asking.

It’s one of several ways the district is helping parents help their students make the grade this coming school year.  Parents can also look forward to two new initiatives, one for literacy, and the other for free breakfast and lunch to give kids the energy they need to focus.

Tasha Doizan, SBCUSD director of Elementary Instruction, said the district’s literacy community task force starts this Fall to build momentum around reading, and outreach to the community.

“We offer many ways to get books in the hands of our students through the schools, community partners and our district Chromebook initiative in which many schools have digital libraries,” she said.

Doizan said they want to especially reach students by third grade, a critical time when young minds are at risk of falling behind.

The good news is that students of all ages easily embrace technology, she said.  The district’s literacy and Chromebook initiative use the love of apps to help students with the love of reading.

With laptops, they can download fun educational apps, and all the free books they can read online.

“Families in the district can come and get a Chromebook with no charge, and they also get wi-fi access,” Doizan said. “Our families can take advantage of that, and have a Chromebook checked out so students can do their homework.”

Some students still enjoy turning actual pages, and parents are also welcome to start accounts to check out books at their school libraries, which is important for families that lack transportation to get to larger libraries.

Doizan, a past principal at Arrowhead Elementary School and Emmerton Elementary, said she is excited to bring the community together around literacy.

Kindergarten through third grade also represents an important time to get parents involved in reading with their children. “We have a district-wide back to school night in August, but you can never get the word out too much,” she said. “We want parents to know that resources are available to them.”

Also new this school year is free breakfast, lunch, snack and sometimes dinner for all students.

Jason Evylnn, assistant director of SBCUSD Nutrition Services, said 92% of the district’s students qualify under free or reduced status, which means that they exceed the required 62.5 threshold, and all the district’s students now eat for free.

When they first started four years ago, he said 50 school sites qualified, and last year, 67 schools qualified.  For 2019, every school at their 84 locations qualifies for breakfast, lunch and free snack.

Initially, they had six previous snack sites that are now converted to 22 supper sites. Students enrolled at select school sites and enrolled in the after school program can get a full dinner meal.  Some sites have up to 200 participating students, and he said getting food to students is a major part of learning.

Over the years, he’s attended several seminars showing the link between nutrition and brain activity. He said lack of concentration leads to behavioral issues. “Kids that don’t eat breakfast start getting hungry and they can’t focus,” he said.  “There have been cases where some kids were labeled as bad kids. They weren’t bad, they were just hungry kids.”

The district was dealing with a high level of classroom disruption, and decided to step up nutrition services and trainings. At all of their staff trainings, Evlynn highlights the need to get all students sufficiently fed so they can concentrate on their studies instead of their next meal.

“The one kid you think is misbehaving, even if you pull him aside and feed him, you’re going to see a behavior change,” he said

Students can also look forward to a somewhat sophisticated menu under Evylnn, a certified classically trained chef, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu. He takes pride that about 65 percent of their menu is scratch-made.

“We make all of our sauces, chili, spaghetti turkey gravy that we make here are from scratch, he said, adding that to his knowledge, the district has the only kitchen with a central chill facility in the Inland Empire. Their building is 63,000 square feet.

While the kids always love packaged foods, like pizza and chicken nuggets, he said the district’s packaged food is better than anything off the shelf.

“We get the same name brands as the grocery store, but we’re like 400% healthier, when it comes to calorie sodium level and sugar,” he said.

For many of the kids, he said the only real meal they get in a day is from school.

“On nights and weekends, they’re struggling to find food. That’s why we try to feed everyone we can,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The Precinct Reporter News Group.

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

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By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

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By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

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Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

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By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.

The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.

“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”

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