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SAN BERNARDINO, CA— San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) Superintendent Doc Ervin announced Tuesday, May 3 that he will retire at the end of this school year. In making the announcement, Ervin praised the educational community for putting students first during what he called “the most unprecedented time for public education.”

“When I joined the SBCUSD team, my goal was twofold. First to reopen schools to in-person learning after the pandemic pushed classes online for a year, and second to set us on a transformational path toward becoming a high-performing public school district,” said Ervin. “I am proud to say we accomplished the first and have good curricular, instructional, and assessment systems and structures in place to support the second.”

Ervin was hired one year ago, with the Board of Education unanimously appointing him for a three-year assignment. According to Ervin, he made the decision to retire earlier than expected after carefully considering family, health, and progress toward his professional goals here.

“Superintendent Ervin came to SBCUSD, listened to our community, and led us through reopening our schools with an emphasis on doing what’s best for kids,” said Dr. Scott Wyatt, President of the Board of Education. “While his tenure will be brief, his impact on our system has helped us see new opportunities to help scholars excel and move our District on a trajectory toward becoming a high performing district of excellence.”

Ervin spent several months gathering input from the community through his Listening & Learning Tour. He shared his findings with the District’s leadership team who developed five overarching goals to strengthen student outcomes. Then at Mr. Ervin’s urging parents, students, teachers, community leaders, principals, District administrators, and Board members joined a task force to build on these overarching goals and create a new strategic plan known as Framework for Excellence: Vision 2025. Nearly complete, the Framework will provide SBCUSD with a roadmap to guide its success in the future.

Ervin noted that he appreciates the support he’s received from members of the District’s Board of Education. He added that he hopes they will embrace the collaboratively designed Framework before the next school year begins and will come together to select a new leader who is aligned with their educational philosophy.

“As I have said since I started my role here, SBCUSD has everything it needs to be a high-performing, urban public school system,” said Ervin. “I believe in the plans our team developed together with input from our school community. I believe they can be successful regardless of my decision to step away because this District is an educational community that wants transformational change. Success is possible if everyone stays focused on making decisions in the best interests of kids.”

In addition to reopening schools and preparing the Framework for Excellence, Mr. Ervin also led the District in many other accomplishments including:
• Implementation of a robust COVID-19 management system that protected SBCUSD students, staff, and community to the greatest extent possible.
• Establishing a District division to focus on Equity, Access and Innovation and ensure all students are met with the support and opportunity they need to be successful.
• Implementation of a system-wide digitized 4-year plan to guide high school students toward graduation and improve college readiness.
• Adoption of the NWEA assessment systems to provide meaningful insights for teaching and learning that will help educators improve their effectiveness.
• Establishment of a Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee to ensure representation and improved communication with parents and guardians from all 73 schools.
• Improvement of communication between the District and its various stakeholders through the deployment of ParentSquare and several electronic newsletters.
• Achievement of three new Linked Learning Gold Certified Career Pathways and the state’s first Linked Learning Gold High School.
• Launching of a pilot program for a Learning Labs as a model to scale Districtwide in support of academic success in literacy and math.
• Initiation of teacher-led efforts to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment systems to provide uniformity, continuity, and consistency across all schools.

Mr. Ervin’s last day as Superintendent will be July 1, 2022. The Board of Education will discuss the process of identifying the District’s next superintendent at a future board meeting.

YUCAIPA, CA— Eight senior students within the Chaffey Joint Union High School District have been awarded with Chaffey College Trust Fund Scholarships.

The Chaffey Trust, established in 1882, created the scholarship program in 1967 to provide awards to outstanding students in the Chaffey District. Every year, scholarships are awarded to seniors at each of the Chaffey District’s eight comprehensive high schools for their academic record, participation in student activities and potential for collegiate success. Each scholarship is named after a former Chaffey District superintendent.

The recipients are:

Emily Barrera, Chaffey High School, the Bette Harrison Scholarship ($2,000). Barrera plans to attend the University of La Verne and major in education.

Navnit Kaur, Ontario High School, the Barry W. Cadwallader Scholarship ($1,900). Kaur plans to attend the University of California Irvine and major in biology/public health.

Rhema Hooper, Colony High School, the Merton E. Hill Scholarship ($1,800). Hooper plans to attend the Lehigh University and major in humanities and medicine.

Aidan Daniel, Alta Loma High School, the Gardiner W. Spring Scholarship ($1,700). Daniel plans to attend Cal Poly Pomona and major in aerospace engineering.

Annie Pan, Los Osos High School, the Daniel B. Milliken Scholarship ($1,600). Pan plans to attend UCLA or Vanderbilt University and major in applied mathematics.

Hanna Mann, Rancho Cucamonga High School, the Allan G. Smith Scholarship ($1,500). Mann plans to attend UCLA and major in psychobiology.

Richard Nguyen, Ontario High School, the Mike Dirksen Scholarship ($1,400). Nguyen plans to attend the University of California Irvine and major in nursing.

Meghann Domond, Los Osos High School, the Dean Smothers Scholarship ($1,300). Domond plans to attend the California State University Fullerton or the University of California San Diego and major in business legal studies.

The scholarship candidacies were reviewed by Bob Beck, Gary Ovitt, Susan Petrocelli, George Johnson and Joey Collisson.

Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield will visit with San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) students who are interested in medical careers during a May 17 visit.

Redfield, a virologist and infectious disease clinician, joined the AM LLC executive team as senior medical advisor and his visit is part of the company’s work to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 around the country. SBCUSD hired AM LLC as a consultant in 2021 as the District was preparing for the return of students to in-person instruction.

SBCUSD high school students who are enrolled in health and medical pathways at Cajon High, Indian Springs High, Pacific High, San Andreas High, Sierra High, and San Gorgonio High Schools will participate in this special event.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Less than a month before California’s June 7 Primary Election, Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton claims reports concerning a civil case filed against her husband’s church are being misrepresented by her opponents.

An unnamed alleged victim has filed a lawsuit in Contra Costa County against the Rev. Alvin C. Bernstine, pastor of Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Richmond and a former church employee. The men are accused of sexual abuse of a 14-year-old. The lawyers for the victim say the crime took place about 10 years ago.

Becton, who is the county’s first Black district attorney has been married to Bernstine since 2020.

“The safety of Contra Costa residents, including women and girls, is my highest priority,” Becton said in a statement to California Black Media. “The church where my husband is a pastor has been the subject of misleading news articles that are distorting the facts. The civil case is going to work its way through the courts, and I am confident the truth will come to light.”

Becton, a former Contra Costa County Superior Court judge, was appointed the county’s 25th District Attorney by the county’s supervisors in 2017. The following year, she ran and was elected to the position.

She is currently running for reelection in the June 7 election against prosecutor Mary Knox.

The allegations of sex abuse center around Jesse Armstrong, a former youth choir director at the church, hired by Bernstine.

The victim’s lawyers allege that Armstrong is a registered sex offender in the state of California and is serving a two-year and eight-month prison sentence for the abuse that allegedly took place over a four-month period.

The lawsuit also claims that Armstrong was twice convicted of sexually abusing at least five minor girls before working at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church.

“(Armstrong) used his position as choir youth director to meet, groom and reportedly sexually assault Jane SD Doe,” the victim’s attorneys say. “The sexual abuse mentioned in the lawsuit occurred at various locations, including but not limited to, between classes at the plaintiff’s school, and at hotels, oftentimes immediately following choir practice or other church events.”

The victim’s attorney questioned Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church’s hiring process, arguing that “a minimal background check would have revealed” that Armstrong was a sexual predator.

“Either they hired him with no background check, which is the height of negligence, or they knew of his criminal background and hired him anyway which could expose them to criminal liability,” the attorneys’ stated.

Becton’s spokesperson Ted Asregadoo said, “the events listed in this civil suit occurred in 2012” and “these civil claims substantially predate” Becton’s and Bernstine’s marriage.

Becton recently told CBM that her priority is keeping the 1.1 million residents of Contra Costa County safe from dangerous and violent criminals.

The reports of the civil lawsuit involving a teenage girl surfaced after Becton, 70, received key endorsements for her reelection campaign and her office was recognized for its involvement in closing a decades-old cold case.

On April 23, Becton, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and Richmond Acting Police Chief Louie Tirona announced that they identified a man who killed a 28-year-old woman in 1999. The culprit, who died 11 days after the crime, was identified through DNA left at the scene.

Becton has also received backlash from some members of law enforcement for her stance in another case. In April 2021, she announced charges for felony voluntary manslaughter, felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm and unreasonable force against Andrew Hall, a White Danville police officer and deputy. In October 2021, Hall was convicted for assault with a firearm in the 2018 shooting of Laudemer Arboleda, a 33-year-old Filipino American man.

In March, a Contra Costa Superior Court judge sentenced Hall to six years in prison.

Knox, a registered Democrat who has served as a Contra Costa County prosecutor for 37 years, is running against Becton.

Becton blames the timing of the current reports on her opponent.

“It is outrageous that my opponent is using this case to try to score political points and for political gain days before ballots get into the hands of voters. I won’t be doing the same,” Becton stated.

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media
“I really don’t understand how the price of gas can rise so drastically in California,” said a Black woman and 55-year-old Rancho Cucamonga resident who agreed to be interviewed for this article but asked to not be identified.

“Unfortunately, we need to purchase it regardless of the prices and that’s one of reasons, I believe, it continues to increase,” she complained. “Weekly, it is costing me approximately $75 to commute to and from work, which is $35 more than I used to pay.”

The woman, who is a collections officer with a lead abatement company, said filling her tank often means she has to forgo another obligation.

As of Friday, the average gas price per gallon was $5.82 in the state.

Now, news that the state is tacking an extra 3 cent tax on every gallon purchased – which will not be a significant increase – is still absurd, says the woman, considering that California already has the highest gas prices in the nation.

Because Gov. Gavin Newsom and the State Legislature missed the May 1 deadline to suspend an inflationary gas tax increase that is scheduled for July 1, it will still take effect.

Policymakers would have had to act 60 days in advance to avert the increase.
Democratic lawmakers, backed by environmentalists, are digging their heels in, defending their decision not to suspend the inflationary tax increase that they fought hard to approve when they voted to pass Senate Bill 1 in 2017.
“As we’ve said before, suspending the gas tax would reduce critical funds available for road repair and improvement projects,” Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood said in a joint statement.
“Additionally, as oil companies continue to rake in record-high profits, there is no guarantee this relief would be passed onto consumers,” Atkins and Rendon continued.
With the tax hike, the average excise tax price per gallon in the state will go from about 51cents per gallon to 54 cents per gallon.
Last month, with the May 1 deadline looming, Newsom’s office acknowledged that it would not be able to convince lawmakers in the state Senate and Assembly to suspend the tax increase.
Instead, Newsom’s spokesperson Alex Stack released a statement suggesting that the Governor’s office was turning its attention to providing relief to Californians as the cost of gas, food and other commodities continue to skyrocket.
“We look forward to working with lawmakers on the governor’s proposal for direct payments to Californians wrestling with rising prices,” Stack said in a statement. “Helping offset the impact of inflation on California residents remains a top priority for the governor.”
Legislative Republicans blasted their Democratic colleagues for their “inaction” on the gas tax increase.
“Californians are desperate for any relief at the pump while paying the highest gas prices in the nation, but Democrats have decided to run out the clock and increase the state’s gas tax instead,” read a statement the state Republican Party released earlier this month.
Gov. Newsom and lawmakers in both chambers of the Legislature have still not agreed on how to address the excessive cost of gas in the state.

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media
After serving a 22-year sentence in a California prison, James Morgan, 51, found himself facing a world of opportunities that he did not imagine he would have as an ex-convict once sentenced to life for attempted murder.

Morgan, a Carson Native, says he is grateful for a second chance at life, and he has taken full advantage of opportunities presented him through California state reentry and rehabilitation programs.

After completing mental health care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Morgan was released from prison and granted parole in 2018.

“I did not expect what I found when I got out,” Morgan told California Black Media (CBM), explaining that he was fortunate to participate in a program for the formerly incarcerated in San Francisco.

“I was mandated by the courts to spend a year in transitional housing,” said Morgan. “Those guys walked us through everything. They made it really easy. It was all people I could relate to, and they knew how to talk to me because they used to be in the prison population — and they were from where we were from.”

Morgan says he also took lessons on anger management and time management.

Now, he is currently an apprentice in Local 300 Laborers Union, specializing in construction, after he participated in a pre-apprenticeship program through ARC (the Anti-Recidivism Coalition).

“Right now, I’m supporting my family,” Morgan said. “I’d say I’m doing pretty good because I hooked up with the right people.”

Supporters of criminal justice reform say Morgan’s success story in California is particularly encouraging.

Black men in the Golden State are imprisoned nearly 10 times the rate of their White counterparts, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. And just a little over a decade ago in 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered California to reduce the number of inmates in its overcrowded prison system by 33,000. Of that population, nearly 30% were Black men even though they account for about 5 % of the state’s population.

To help more formerly incarcerated people like Morgan get back on their feet after paying their debt to society, last month, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the federal government is investing $145 million over the course of the next fiscal year to support reentry programs across the country.

The Biden-Harris Administration also announced plans to expand federal job opportunities and loan programs, expand access to health care and housing, and develop and amplify educational opportunities for the formerly and currently incarcerated.

“It’s not enough to just send someone home, it’s not enough to only help them with a job. There’s got to be a holistic approach,” said Chiraag Bains, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council on Racial Justice and Equity.

Bains told CBM that that reentry programs help establish an “incarceration-to-employment pipeline.”

The White House announced the programs late last month as President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 75 people and granted pardons to another three, including Abraham Bolden, the first Black Secret Service agent on White House detail.

Bolden was sentenced to 39 months in prison in 1964 for allegedly attempting to sell classified Secret Service documents. He has always maintained his innocence.

“Today, I granted pardons to three people and commuted the sentences of 75 people. America is a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation,” Biden tweeted April 26.

According to Bains, about half of the people the President pardoned are Black or Brown.

“The president has spoken repeatedly about the fact that we have too many people serving time in prison for nonviolent drug offenses and too many of those people are Black and Brown,” said Bains. “This is a racial equity issue.”

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have faced sharp criticisms in the past for supporting tough-on-crime policies as U.S. Senator and California Attorney General, respectively, that have had disproportionately targeted Blacks and other minorities.

According to a 2021 Stanford University Study, reentry programs in California have contributed to a 37 % decrease in the average re-arrest rate over the period of a year and a 92 % decrease during the same time.
Over the last decade, California has funded a number of initiatives supporting reentry and rehabilitation. In 2015, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation launched the Male Community Re-Entry Program (MCRP) that provides community-based rehabilitative services in Butte, Kern, Los Angeles and San Diego Counties. The Butte program services Tehama, Nevada, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Placer and Yuba counties.

A year later, Gov. Newsom’s office introduced the California Community Reinvestment Grant Program. The initiative funds community groups providing services like job placement, mental health treatment, housing and more to people, including the formerly incarcerated, who were impacted by the War on the Drugs.

Morgan spoke highly of programs that helped him reintegrate into society – both in prison and after he was released.

“In hindsight, I look back at it and I’m blown away by all of the ways that they’ve helped me,” Morgan said.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA — On Saturday, June 18 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at San Bernardino Valley College, the San Bernardino Juneteenth Committee will be hosting the ‘Juneteenth Classic Cars and Bikes Showcase’. San Bernardino Valley College is located at 701 S. Mt. Vernon in San Bernardino.

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media

Since 2017, there has been a 9.8% increase of new small businesses – firms with less than 500 employees — in the United States. Over the past two years alone, over 10 million applications were submitted to start new small businesses across the country, according to the Small Business Administration.

That growth trend is true for California, too, where there are about 4.1 million small businesses, the most in the country. Those companies make up 99.8% of all business in California and employ about 7.2 million people.

But for Black-owned and other minority owned small businesses across the country, there was a steep decline in numbers, almost 41%, due to the pandemic, a Census Population Survey found in 2020. During that same time, nearly 44% of minority-owned small businesses were at risk of shutting down, a Small Business Majority report found.

Although a number of reports suggest that the outlook has begun to be more positive as the U.S. economy continues bounce back defying the odds, and many Black businessowners have also become more optimistic, access to credit and technical support remain a challenge for many who had to dip into their own finances to keep their lights on.

Recognizing the outsized contribution small businesses make to the health of the California economy and the hit many of the smallest of small business have taken during the pandemic, the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) has been making grants of up to $25,000 to small business in the state.

In its latest round of funding called the Dream Fund, which is now accepting applications on a rolling basis, CalOSBA has partnered with Lendistry, a Los Angeles-based, minority-led small business and commercial real estate lender to administer the $35 million grant portion of its program. The fund provides $10,000 to each small business that qualifies.

To become eligible, California-based small businessowners will have to complete training at one of the centers run by the state’s Technical Assistance Expansion Program (TAEP) and receive a certificate.
“For the millions of Californians that have dreams of owning their own business, this grant coupled with one-on-one counseling and business expertise from hundreds of counselors at our eighty-seven Technical Assistance Centers, has the power to jumpstart their dreams,” says Tara Lynn Gray, Director of CalOSBA.
Jay King, President and CEO of the Sacramento-based California Black Chamber of Commerce, says he applauds Gov. Newsom for understanding the historic systemic challenges minority businesses face and for “doing something about it.”
But giving Black businesses grants are not a “cure-all,” he says.
“It is like putting a band aid on a bullet wound, if we don’t do more to really fix the problems small businesses face,” King explains. “Ninety six percent of Black businesses are mini or micro that means they make less than $100,000 or less than $35,000 a year, respectively,” King continued. “Only 4 % of our business earn more than $100,000 annually. We have to put more resources and technical support around these businesses.”
King says informing Black businessowners about opportunities like the Dream Fund and making sure they know how to apply for or access the funding is critical to making sure the people who need the help gets it.
“You have to get down into our communities,” he said. “You have to reach people through groups that are plugged into our communities to get the word out. We do not hear about these kinds of programs enough. We definitely don’t benefit from them enough.”
Everett K. Sands, the CEO of Lendistry, says he is excited to help California new businesses access the capital they need to “begin on their journeys.
“Over the past two years, almost 10 million new businesses have been created in the U.S.,” he says. “With record numbers of new small businesses entering the marketplace, many of which are owned by women and minorities, programs like California Dream Fund pave the way for a more robust and equitable economy as these new businesses make the leap from employing just their founders to employing their communities.”

By Lou Yeboah

… And let him tell my five brothers not to come to this place! [Luke 16:27-31].

Listen, the man in Hell was very specific about the message he wanted to send to his brothers. He pleaded with Abraham, ‘I beg you, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house, I have five brothers that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. He said, ‘Oh No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.

There is a powerful warning here for every person who has not repented. The rich man had many opportunities to repent before he died. However, he did not and had to face the consequences. I can only think of one thing worse than going to Hell; and that would be to go to Hell with Heaven on your mind.

I tell you, wisdom is the principal thing, but in all your getting, get an understanding. [Proverbs 4:7]. Hell is a place of outer darkness, eternal weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Hell is a place where there is eternal torment and pain in unquenchable flames. Hell is a place of terrible memories and horrible thirst. Hell is a place prepared for the devil and his angels, and all those who reject Jesus as their Savior. Hell is a place of eternal separation from the presence of God. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. Two Gates: Two Paths, only Two destinies before every man, and each of us must choose one or the other. A Point of Decision. Which will it be? Heaven or Hell? The door is open now. Soon it will be too late!

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me. [Revelation 3:20].

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from. [Luke 13:24].

The rains came, the ark was sealed, in desperation people sought, begged, cried, but it was too late. [Genesis 7:10; Matthew 25:10].