ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 6, 2020) Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Paul Villaruz, right, from Chino Hills, California, assigned to the “Sunliners” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 81, tests oxygen flow in pilot gear in a paraloft aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) in the Arabian Sea Jan. 6, 2020. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kaysee Lohmann)   

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Local non-profit organization, SistersWe (SW), has received two grants from the Arbor Day Foundation in conjunction with BNSF Railway (BNSF) for environmental beautification projects in San Bernardino.  They will be holding a celebration on Friday, January 10, 2020 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Viva La Boba and Breezeway located at 475-479 W. 4^th Street in San Bernardino.

Working with the owners of Viva La Boba, David Friedman and Tansu Philip, “The Historic Downtown San Bernardino Living Pocket Park Project” will turn the side of a building on 4^th Street into a “Living Wall” complete with an original sculpture created by local artist Nathaniel Gelston.  Surrounded by historic buildings, this block has the highest concentration of old buildings still standing in San Bernardino.  Succulents and other plants that help sequester oxygen will be planted on the wall using a hydroponics system; the adjacent alley way and courtyard will be developed into a community event space. Trees and shrubs will complete this urban green space, providing health and environmental benefits to the entire community.

“The Muscoy Pocket Park Project” will add an additional 15 trees to an existing SistersWe project on a donated property located at the corners of California and Nolan Streets.  The trees will line the walkway leading to a circular seating area in the center of the pocket park.  The planted trees will be monitored by SW for three years for growth and health conditions as part of a statewide “Urban Forest” project.  Future plans include adding 20 raised-bed family garden plots, a Farmer’s Market, movie nights and other family activities throughout the year.  

The mission of SW is to provide Inland Empire residents and communities with cleaner air, healthier eating options and a healthier environment.  They will accomplish that by donating and planting trees to provide a beautiful canopy, and sequester carbon in our cities and neighborhoods. Other community gardens will be established at various locations throughout the IE.  Founded in December 2018, SW is the brain child of biological sisters Nedra Myricks, Vanessa Dean and Adrienne Thomas.  Vanessa and Adrienne are graduates of the “Green Infrastructure” training program and wanted to bring the knowledge and skills they acquired to their community and others.  Adrienne also recently received her Master Gardner certification.  Nedra is a retired Administrative Professional and functions as Executive Assistant for the group.  The sisters are natives of San Bernardino and have a long history of supporting community activities in the art and music fields.

Please join them as they announce the development of these two new Pocket Park projects and take a tour of the future “Living Wall” site.  Several sample concepts of Nathaniel Gelston’s artwork will be on display for the public to vote for their favorite. Don’t miss out on your chance to vote! 

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

Kim Kardashian West will likely check “Black or African American” on the US 2020 Census form when marking the race of her children.

In several interviews with various media outlets, the famous media personality and businesswoman, who lives in the San Fernando Valley near Calabasas, has said she’s very conscious of race when it comes to her and rapper Kanye West’s four children.

Kardashian, who is half-White and half-Armenian, has said she identifies the race of her children as “Black” and says the advocacy she has recently been involved in: addressing racial inequities in the criminal justice system – is partly inspired by the race of her children.

On this year’s census form, Kardashian’s other option for checking the race box to identify her children would be to select “Other.” That’s if she chooses to count them as bi-racial or mixed race.

Race and ethnicity have often been – and continue to be – controversial and misunderstood census categories. Experts suggest that some people might be confused about the difference between the two.

On the 2020 census forms,  there will be six ways people can identify their race: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; White; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and Other.

Options will also be available for respondents to include an ethnic identification, too. For instance, a Trinidadian-American of African descent may select “Black or African American” under the racial category and write in “Trinidadian” under the ethnic category.

According to the Census Bureau, “Overlap of race and Hispanic ethnicity is the main comparability issue.” For example, the U.S. Census Bureau includes Black Hispanics in both the number of Blacks and in the number of Hispanics.

Dr. Walter Hawkins, former California State University San Bernardino Director of Research and Policy Analysis, helped clear some of that confusion by detailing the numerous ways people can self-identify on US 2020 Census forms, mentioning the “100 percent count.”

“Under the Census Bureau, in order to get the 100 percent count, they have to use what’s called the ‘Hispanic exclusive method’ because a person who is Hispanic can be any race. So, if you do not take that into consideration, you end up with over 100 percent,” said Hawkins.

Hawkins stated that this distinction affects the overall count for African Americans in California.

“The Black alone ‘non-Hispanic’ population in California is about 2.2 million compared to about 2.7 million if all racial and ethnic combinations are included,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins noted that much of the complication with racial self-identification originated from an old census rule called “head of household.”

“If you marked ‘Black,’ your whole house was Black. And if you marked ‘White,’ your whole house was White,” Hawkins said.

Data collected during national censuses, which the federal government conducts every 10 years, directly impacts not only the availability but also the quality of services in communities, according to Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, Executive Director of the Mervyn Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute (MDAAPEI) at California State University Dominguez Hills.

Inaccurate census counts can lead to billions of dollars lost in government funding for states and local communities. That loss of cash can be critical for already under-served neighborhoods that rely on federal and state tax dollars for social programs, healthcare, infrastructure, schools and other local public services. Census counts also determine the number of representatives a state is allotted in the US Congress.

“Cultural identity is important to every community. First, in understanding presence. Second, in understanding population growth,” Samad said. “Every ethnicity faces this challenge in the upcoming census, including Latinos and Asian Pacific Islanders, because demographic descriptions speak to a particular community’s service needs.”

According to Samad, African Americans have been at a disadvantage in this regard.

“For the last three censuses, there have been African-American undercounts,” Samad said. “The only ethnicity with larger undercounts have been Native Americans, largely due to their populations being on sovereign lands that limit census-taker access.”

According to the Census Bureau, the population of Black or African-American people who did not identify with any other race in 2018 counted for 6.5 percent of the overall population in California. Whereas, the population of people who identified as mixed race made up 3.9 percent of the state’s overall population.

The mixed population counts as its own category, making it unclear how many of these people have African lineage.

Samad pointed to another factor that might skew the amount of African Americans being accounted for in the Census: Fear.

“Black people have legitimate fears for sharing information with the federal government for numerous reasons,” Samad said. “However, there hasn’t been sufficient education tying the Census to the community’s welfare.”

Dr. Tecoy Porter, Sacramento President of the National Action Network, shares this concern.

“One of the reasons African Americans are undercounted are our household situations. We  tend to not want to reveal all of our information or we do not trust the government,” Porter said. “We think that information could be applied against us.”

Hawkins says he understands those fears. However, he believes that they should not prevent people from wanting to be counted.

“Most of the time if a person is skeptical, they won’t fill out the form at all,” Hawkins said. “But the Census information is completely confidential.”

While some experts underscored the importance of an individual selecting a specific race on his or her census questionnaire, others pointed to the significance of participants choosing how they want to identify themselves.

Lanae Norwood, Strategic Communications Director of the California Black Census and Redistricting Hub “My Black Counts,” stated that while educating African Americans on their options when identifying themselves during the 2020 Census is their goal, individual expression is equally important to her organization.

“Our civic engagement program is about educating and encouraging the Black community to be part of the census count. We are not telling blacks – or anybody for that matter – how to self- identify in the census or what box to check,” Norwood said. “we recognize that Black is not a monolith and contains much racial and ethnic diversity. We trust people to select the racial or ethnic identity that most represents them.”

COLTON, CA—- Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) recently hosted several high school students in the Marketing, Nutrition Services and Medical Imaging departments. In 2018, ARMC was the pilot location for the GenerationGo! Career Pathways Program, which was established by the San Bernardino County Workforce Development Department in collaboration with other county agencies, K12, community colleges, and private businesses. GenerationGo! is a career pathway program providing on-the-job training for high school students.

“GenerationGo! is a rewarding program for us because we get to train the best and the brightest and help retain talent in the Inland Empire,” said Hospital Director, William Gilbert.

Bloomington High School student Alexis Ascencio, 17, recently worked in the hospital’s Marketing and Public Relations Department and learned how to write press releases, design graphics and posters, and prepare spreadsheets and reports.

“Participating in the GenerationGo! program helped me realize that I wanted to go to college to learn about marketing,” said Ascencio. “I enjoyed the work environment and learned about all the different jobs in the hospital.”

GenerationGo! students have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of careers in the medical field and in the support, offices depending on their specific interest. For example, Ascencio was originally interested in the medical imaging field, but after learning about hospital marketing, she was drawn to the new career option.

For more information about GenerationGo! call 800-451-JOBS or visit http://wp.sbcounty.gov/workforce/youth/

RCHF and the City of Riverside provide a year-long fitness challenge for the Riverside community to promote health.  

Riverside, CA – Riverside Community Health Foundation (RCHF) in partnership with the City of Riverside, will present a year-long opportunity for Riverside residents to adopt healthy behaviors with health education classes and physical activity opportunities through the Start RIGHT (Riverside Is Getting Healthy Together), End Strong Challenge. 

The Start R.I.G.H.T. (Riverside Is Getting Healthy Together), End Strong kick-off on Saturday, January 25, 2020 from 10:00am to 2:00pm at Ryan Bonaminio Park (5000 Tequesquite Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506) will be an exciting time for participants to learn more about the opportunities RCHF has planned for the year. 

“I walk, I hike and bike and there is usually ‘Connect with the Mayor’ in partnership with Riverside Community Health Foundation and others” said Mayor Rusty Bailey during his Riverside Monthly on RiversideTV interview with Terri Akens, Director of Community Health Programs for RCHF and Amia Henderson, Senior Health Educator for RCHF. “I am out there [to] lead by example, [because] we are fit, fresh and fun in Riverside and this [Start RIGHT, End Strong] is an example of that.” 

 
The expo at this year’s Kick-Off event will include vendors from RUHS Mobile Health Clinic, BreckenFit, IEHP, Inland Regional Center, Boys & Girls Club, La Bufadora Food Truck and more. Information on health education classes and physical activity sessions will also be provided. 
  

Anita Inzunza, past Start RIGHT, End Strong participant and winner says the challenge helped her to maintain her health.”It wasn’t about winning for me,” said Anita, “satisfaction came from maintaining my weight. The classes helped me to understand how much and what I am supposed to be eating.” 

 
Classes, events and exercise sessions throughout the year include: Mental Health 101, Stress Management, Diabetes Cooking Class, monthly fitness challenges created by a local physician, Zumba Fitness, RIPPED, POP Pilates, Tai Chi, Aqua Aerobics, a Heart Healthy Seminar. Classes and events are provided at no cost! 

Getting fit during this year’s Start RIGHT challenge starts at the tip of your fingers through the new RCHF app, now available for download on all your mobile devices through your iOS App Store or Google Play Store.  Participants will “End Strong” in December 2020 during the Foundation’s grand finale of the healthy lifestyle change program. The celebration will include a recognition ceremony for the milestones reached in health by all participants and a grand prize will be offered to the top three participants with the highest accumulation of points. 

For more information about the Start R.I.G.H.T., End Strong challenge or how to register, please contact Amia Henderson at amia@rchf.org or call (951) 788-3471 ext. 135. Sign-up via Eventbrite at www.RCHF.org/StartRight

By Khalil Abdullah, Ethnic Media Services

PHOENIX, AZ. — In the conference room of the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center, a chair sat empty at a recent convening of community media and stakeholders to promote Arizona’s 2020 census.

Lizbeth Luna, regional director for NALEO’s Arizona census initiative, abruptly cancelled as a speaker, learning her father had been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). The intersection of immigration and the census was one of several topics at the convening, but the empty chair spoke to the tenuous netherworld of immigrant status in the United States.

In June, the Supreme Court barred Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from adding a question on citizenship to the Census 2020 form. The ruling was applauded by Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State, who supports a permanent ban on such an initiative. After the question’s dismissal, advocates continue to fear diminished participation in the census, particularly from the Latino community. Worries are the current administration will not respect the confidentiality of personal information, despite laws and fines discouraging the sharing of individual census responses among federal agencies.

At the convening, co-hosted by Ethnic Media Services, OneArizona, the Arizona Community Foundation and the Leadership Conference Education Fund, EMS executive director, Sandy Close encouraged attendees to collaborate in their messaging and outreach on Census 2020. Citing the decrease of traditional community media as one motivation, Close said the driving impetus for collaboration should be concern about the potential loss of census data-based funding for federal programs that contribute to children’s well-being. Children are the most likely to be undercounted and highly vulnerable to funding reductions.

“We, as media, need you, as community organizations, to extend your communication outreach, especially to populations that don’t have media outlets,” Close said. “Today’s meeting is an effort to forge a consensus across ethnic groups, community organizations, state and local government groups and other stakeholders. Do it for the kids.”

Jim Chang, state demographer, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, provided an overview of the state’s racial demographics. He projects that the decreasing and aging white population, currently comprising 54%, and the increasing, younger Latino one, now at 32%, would reach relative numerical parity by 2050 at 45% and 40% respectively. The balance of the population, with no cohort above 5%, is comprised of Asians, blacks, Native Americans and others.

“A lot of people I talk to believe that, right now, the births to Hispanic mothers are higher than the births to non-Hispanic whites,” Chang said, “but that was true only one year, 2007.” Since then, white, non-Hispanic women have led their Latina counterparts with no anticipated change through 2050. Importantly, Chang has seen estimates of Arizona’s 2010 census undercount of children at 4%, 7% and as high as 10%. “Every method has its flaws,” Chang said, but overall, compared to other states, Arizona did fairly well in its total population 2010 census assessment.

Alec Thompson, representing the Arizona governor’s office, acknowledged hard-to-count communities within the state where undercount percentages have been higher than those for children. Though the state legislature rejected his budget request to fund census public education initiatives, he said Gov. Doug Ducey has about $1.5 million for paid media advertising.

“We are hoping to grow that number,” Thompson said, with media outreach as part of a plan that includes a complete count committee’s credible messengers to reach diverse communities.  Government agencies will be directed to contact the customers they serve, for example, the state’s 6,000 foster parents will receive an email about the census.

Thompson said Arizona had spent no state money for 2010 census outreach due to fiscal caution after 2008’s recession. A key motivation to encourage 2020 census participation is a calculation that “a 1% undercount is a direct loss of $62 million to the state.”

Whitney Walker, director of communications and public policy for Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition, (PAFCO), spoke to the need for more state level advocacy to bolster the housing trust fund and domestic violence shelters, among other initiatives that ameliorate “the cycle of poverty vulnerable Arizona families are facing.”

To her point, the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book on the status of American children living in poverty ranks Arizona at only 43rd in overall wellbeing for children.

In Arizona, immigration is a highly contested issue. Walker said the political climate can interfere with the dissemination of clear and concise information. She didn’t dispute the assessment of Arizona’s 2010 census efforts, but noted that there was “a 30% undercount for Maricopa County, which now has a population of over four million people.”

Janice Palmer of the Helios Education Foundation, which focuses on Latino students’ academic success, underscored Walker’s observations: “Maricopa County had the second largest undercount of Latino children.” Using 7% as the projected undercount,  she estimated, in that county alone, 27,000 Latino children were omitted from census 2010 data.

The Native American and Alaskan Native populations pose unique challenges to the census, according to Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today.

“The primary problem for us is that it comes down to self-identification, and when you’re dealing with tribal communities, you’re talking about citizenship and a more complex way of looking at identity,” Trahant explained. He added that ICT has been reporting for three years that the 2020 census has been in trouble, partly due to underfunding. In Alaska, he noted, two field tests were cancelled to save funds and, overall, a dearth of linguists available to translate census instructions and information into local languages.

For Trahant, paramount is how to transform Native American presence into political representation. Even with the recent election of Native Americans to Congress, he calculates they constitute less than three-quarters of one percent of that body, assuming Native Americans represent 2% of the population, which is itself “probably an undercount.”

To achieve accuracy, the Census Bureau will have to contend with Native Americans’ lack of broadband access and the difficulty of determining addresses in remote communities. Additionally, Trahant said tribal identification will be “a demographer’s nightmare” because many Native Americans have multiple tribal identifications in their family trees. How will resources be fairly allocated, he mused?

D.L. White, reporting for The Arizona Informant, also raised the issue of accountability, asking state Rep. Diego Rodriguez – the convening’s final speaker — how an undercount could negatively affect funding for minority groups and refugee communities. Rodriguez responded that allocating funds is a result of horse trading at the heart of the budgeting process.

“We all agree that the budget represents your values,” Rodriguez said, but “we have to make sure our numbers are counted so that we get adequate representation.”

Acknowledging representatives from Somali, Congolese and other emerging refugee groups at the briefing, as well as from Native American, black and Latino populations, Tameka Spence of Arizona Community For Change emphasized that the first step is addressing the trauma many have experienced. “In trying to help folks understand why the census is important, we’re asking them to confront that trauma and we need to acknowledge that it’s there, it’s real.”

Though the empty chair attested to the Luna family’s immediate trauma, the Indial School Visitor Center venue exuded optimism. Once the site of a federally run school to socially re-engineer Native American students, Center director Rosalie Talahonva – herself an alumna — recalled how students were drawn from different tribes often deeply at odds with each other as well as the U.S. government. Whether antagonisms were ancient or personal, new or imagined, the students persevered, forging consensus and cooperation among themselves — an inspiration for Arizona’s mosaic of stakeholders striving to achieve an accurate census count.

By Curt Hagman

A new decade has dawned and with it will come several important community events this year that will shape our future.

Among these 2020 events are the March 3 Presidential Primary Election and the November 3 Presidential General Election.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Registrar of Voters encourages all eligible citizens to be #VoteReady ahead of these two national elections. Don’t wait until Election Day to make sure your vote counts.

The Registrar of Voters and California Secretary of State offer several resources to help citizens exercise their right to vote.

If you are one of the 25 percent of eligible residents not currently registered to vote, you may register online at SBCountyElections.com or RegisterToVote.ca.gov.

Voter registration applications are also available at the Registrar of Voters office in San Bernardino and throughout the county at post offices, city clerks’ offices, county libraries, and the Department of Motor Vehicles. A map of these locations is available on the Registrar of Voters website.

The deadline for registering to vote in the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election is February 18, 2020.

After that date, eligible citizens may conditionally register and vote by visiting the Registrar of Voters’ office, one of five early voting sites in the county during the week before the election, or any polling place on Election Day.

If you are still 17 years old today but will turn 18 by Election Day, you may pre-register to vote online or with a paper application.

If you are already registered to vote, the Board of Supervisors and Registrar of Voters encourages you to verify your registration status, including your political party preference, by using the My Elections Gateway tool on the Registrar of Voters website or the Secretary of State’s VoterStatus.sos.ca.gov website.

Your party preference will generally determine how you vote for candidates for U.S. President in the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election.

If you are registered with one of the six qualified political parties in California, you will receive a primary ballot with only your party’s candidates for President.

If you are not registered with a qualified political party but want to vote for President in the primary, you have two choices you can make.

1. The American Independent, Democratic, and Libertarian political parties have agreed to allow you to vote in their presidential primary contest without requiring you to re-register with their party.

You can apply to receive a mail ballot containing the presidential candidates for one of these three parties by returning a postcard the Registrar of Voters mailed to all permanent mail ballot voters in early December or by calling (909) 387-8300 or (800) 881-VOTE (8683) no later than February 25, 2020.

If you vote at a polling place on Election Day, you can request a ballot from one of these three parties when you show up to vote.

• The Green, Peace and Freedom, and Republican parties have chosen to only allow their party members to vote in their presidential primary contests.

If you wish to vote in the primary for the presidential candidates for one of these three parties, you will need to re-register to vote and choose that political party as your party preference.

If you are not registered with a qualified political party and do not request a party ballot or re-register with a qualified party, you will receive a nonpartisan ballot for the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election that does not include any candidates for U.S. President.

All primary ballots will still include contests for other federal, state and local offices for which you are eligible to vote based upon your residential address.

The winner of each party’s presidential primary will represent that party in the November 3, 2020 Presidential General Election, when all voters, regardless of party preference, can vote for U.S. President.

For more information about how to vote for U.S. President, visit HowToVoteForPresident.sos.ca.gov.

For more information about registering, re-registering or pre-registering to vote, visit the Registrar of Voters website at SBCountyElections.com, or call (909) 387-8300.

Be #VoteReady and help make sure #SBCountyCounts.

UPLAND, CA – National Football League linebacking legend Dick Butkus paid a surprise visit to Upland High School on Monday to present his namesake award to Highlander standout Justin Flowe.

One of the most heralded linebackers to come out of California in recent years, Flowe can now add Butkus Award winner to an impressive resume that includes his ranking as the top linebacker recruit in the nation.

Flowe was unaware that Butkus was on campus or that he had even won the award – given to the top high school linebacker in the country. When the moment arrived, in a quickly arranged ceremony at the high school library, Flowe was stunned, but grateful – and showed the humor and grace that have marked his four years at Upland High.

“I thought I’d gotten in trouble,” he said of getting pulled out of class earlier in the day, only to find his parents, teammates, coaches and staff all waiting for him.

Butkus, whose Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Bears earned him the distinction as one of the fiercest competitors ever to have played the game, said the choice was easy.

“Justin completely ran away with the award,” he said. “I would be honored to play with a guy like this.”

Where Flowe will play next is unclear; he’s still determining where he will go to college.

“Wherever he goes, that school will be getting an extraordinary player, and an awesome kid,” said John McNally, Upland High’s athletic director.

Justin’s father, Johnny, said he knew at an early age that his son had a gift for football.

“He was so intimidating at the age of 9 that the other teams (in youth football) would refuse to play if he played,” Mr. Flowe said.

The Butkus Award was instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, and is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, college and professional levels. Although the award recognizes prowess on the playing field, winning it is about more than football, Butkus said.

“I like to see their excitement and sincerity about winning the award,” the former linebacker said. “We hope that he understands that ‘OK, I’m the best of the best but I have a responsibility to give back to other people.’”

Flowe said he appreciates the opportunity.

“Thank you for giving me this award. It’s really a blessing. God’s watching over me.”

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- The community is invited to celebrate the Grand Opening of the second phase of The Shops at University Park, this Saturday, January 11, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Located at 1725 -1775 W. Northpark Boulevard, at University Parkway across the street from California State University San Bernardino, The Shops at University Park offers an array of convenient dining and services for CSUSB and the surrounding communities.  

Developed by JR Watson & Associates Development Corp., the center will celebrate the recent openings of Afters Ice Cream, FireWings, Asian Fusion Eatery, Poketology and VCA Northside Animal Hospital, which join eateries Wayback Burger, Jimmy Johns, Jamba Juice, and Dickey’s Barbecue Pit. It’s Boba Time will also open soon.

Visitors will enjoy a free afternoon of family fun, including a ribbon cutting ceremony, entertainment by the Cajon High School Band, a DJ from CSUSB’s Coyote Radio, face painting, a balloon artist, food samples, life-size games and giveaways. Tours of the adjacent student housing The Glen at University Park will also be available.

“We are looking forward to introducing the Shops at University Park to shoppers and exceeding their expectations,” said James R. Watson, President of JR Watson & Associates Development Corp. “I would like to thank the President and staff at CSUSB and the City Council, Planning Commission and entire staff at the City of San Bernardino for their tremendous support and all their efforts in making this shopping center a reality,” commented Jim Watson.

“Watson and Associates are committed to making a difference in the communities they serve,” said Judy Watson, who has been instrumental in spearheading the Judy Rodriguez Art program on campus. Much of the art seen in the areas surrounding the campus has been funded by this program.

Follow @TheShopsatUniversityPark on Facebook and Instagram for more information on the event and its tenants.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- A spirit of collaboration among teachers, a principal who nurtures relationships with her staff, and students eager to learn are the ingredients that landed Manuel Salinas Creative Arts Elementary School on the coveted list of 2020 California Distinguished Schools.

The California Department of Education selected Salinas, a magnet school with a focus on visual and performing arts, for the award because of its success in closing the achievement gap, a term that refers to academic disparities between different groups of students. Salinas is one of just 19 San Bernardino County elementary schools to earn the honor.

Principal Heather Regalado, who has lead Salinas since 2015, said the award is the result of years of focused work on the part of teachers, who work together to meet the academic and social needs of students.

“This is all possible because of my teachers and staff,” Regalado said. “They’re the ones who keep our students engaged and wanting to come to school so they can be confident and successful.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond applauded the work of the more than 300 Distinguished Schools across California.

“These outstanding schools don’t just educate students; they also provide the young people of California the tools they need to be successful after graduation,” Thurmond said. “Thanks go to all the staff at these schools—teachers, administrators, classified employees—and parents, who are working together to provide high-quality educational experiences for all of their students.”

For Regalado, success comes down to human interaction. When she became Salinas’ principal almost five years ago, Regalado made it her goal to build and nurture genuine relationships with teachers, giving them freedom to think outside the boundaries of the classroom. That resulted in greater innovation and collaboration between teachers. With the introduction of performing arts like theater and band, students became more engaged in academics and attendance improved, both essential to boosting student learning.

Now one of the highest-performing elementary schools in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, Salinas has an average yearly attendance close to 97 percent. More importantly, greater numbers of students from various subgroups, including Hispanic and African American, are achieving academically in English-language arts and math.

“We’ve seen so much academic growth in our students,” Regalado said. “At Salinas Elementary, there’s no boundaries to what our teachers and our students can do.”

Salinas and other California Distinguished Schools will be honored on February 10, 2020, during an awards ceremony at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.