Blog - Cherise Khaund

Thank you to all staff, teachers, parents, and students who promoted African American Awareness month as an integral part of our history and cultural identity during the month of February! Here are a few of the inspirational events, recognition and resources that I was fortunate to see. I want to share these out and remind everyone that though the awareness month of February has ended, African American history is something that we should all be incorporating into our lessons and activities all year long:

Concord student wins Humanitarian of the Year!
HBCU fair
Dr Carrie Frazier, Ruah Community Outreach
MDUSD Parents for Multicultural Education
Resources on Equity & Diversity
East County NAACP Membership & Scholarship Gala

Contra Costa Humanitarian of the Year – Christina Mazzi

Did you know that a student from MDUSD’s Concord High won a countywide recognition of her work? Yes! Christina Mazzi is a senior at Concord High who decided to build a more positive culture on Instagram by featuring successful women of color. Visit ProjectWOC to be inspired by women of color athletes, academics, artists, and more. https://www.instagram.com/projectwoc/

Not only that, she was named a 2018 Buck Scholar and has won a scholarship from Chevron. "In my 10 years working at Concord High School Christine is the first student that has left me speechless when I think of all that she has accomplished and how she is changing lives for women of color; I can honestly say that I have never worked with a more selfless teenager than Christine," said School Counselor Becky Heindlel.

HBCU Fair

Thanks to Brian Brown, college and career counselor at Mt Diablo High, our school district hosted the HBCU (historically black colleges & universities) Fair for the 2^nd year in a row at Mt Diablo High. Students from all over our district attended, and over $2 million in scholarships were awarded on the spot.

Dr. Carrie Frazier, Ruah Community Outreach

Ruáh Community Outreach is a non-profit, community service organization founded by Dr. Carrie Frazier. https://www.ruahoutreach.com/

Dr. Frazier has been bringing her African American history exposition each year to Bel Air Elementary! Here she is in action:

MDUSD Parents for Multicultural Education

Students and parents at Valhalla Elementary took the initiative to celebrate Black History Month by putting up posters around the school, and from there it grew into a full on event on Feb 28^th including activities, inventions, books & book marks! I recently met parents Cri and Michelle, who started a Facebook page to share out resources and ideas to all families, teachers and staff in Mt Diablo schools. Follow them here: https://www.facebook.com/multiculturalparents/

and here’s a resource list provided by them for teachers & parents:

Black Lives Matter at School

https://blacklivesmatteratschool.com/classroom-resources/

Zinned Project

https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/?cond%5B0%5D=themes_str:African+American&cond%5B1%5D=media_types_str:Teaching+Activities+(Free)&cond%5B2%5D=levels_str:Grades+3-5

Facing History

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library?f%5B0%5D=fh_search_api_search_type%3Acontent&f%5B1%5D=multi_field_subject%3A837

https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources

POC Online Classroom

http://www.poconlineclassroom.com/blog/2018/2/7/black-history-month-resouces?rq=black%20history

Education Post

https://educationpost.org/if-we-really-want-to-teach-black-history-in-schools-were-going-to-need-more-diverse-books/

Gender Spectrum

https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/books-and-media/

Raising Luminaries

https://booksforlittles.com/info/archives/

Embrace Race

https://www.embracerace.org/resources/action-guides

Teaching for Change

https://www.teachingforchange.org

Re-thinking Schools

https://www.rethinkingschools.org

Equity Literacy Institute

https://www.equityliteracy.org/educational-equity-resources

Race Conscious

http://www.raceconscious.org/2016/06/100-race-conscious-things-to-say-to-your-child-to-advance-racial-justice

Additional resources I find helpful

Build Culture, Conditions & Competence in Equity: National Equity Project

www.nationalequityproject.org

Teaching Tolerance – free resources to educators to help youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy

https://www.tolerance.org/

Resources for parents on how their choices impact school diversity:

https://integratedschools.org/resources/

“How Students Benefit from Diversity,” by Jeremy Adam Smith:

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_students_benefit_from_school_diversity

School to Prison Pipeline Reduction - Fact Sheets & Tools:

https://advancementproject.org/home/

Coming Soon: East County NAACP Membership & Scholarship Gala

Save the date for the NAACP Unity Gala, April 25th! For information & tickets, email [email protected]

Please keep sharing your actions & resources with me and with each other! Next up, Women's History Month.

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March 9th board mtg - budget reductions vote

Posted by · March 04, 2020 4:26 PM

Thank you to all who spoke at Monday's meeting or emailed us with your perspective on the budget reductions! The list is now being adjusted based on the Board direction that was given that night.

What's next?

Our School Board is meeting next Monday, March 9th at 7pm. You are welcome to attend, speak, or watch online. Agenda will be posted here: https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes

We will vote on:

1. a list of budget reductions by item type and cost, to add up to a total of $21.1 million
2. the final PKS list - this is the list of "particular kinds of service" - certificated positions that could be removed for the 2020-21 school year.

As was explained, our board MUST identify all $21.1 million in reductions before the county office of education will agree to approve our ratifying the Tentative Bargaining Agreement with our teachers union.

Feel free to email the board and superintendent with your feedback, or speak at the board meeting. Together we'll prioritize as best we can for students!

What else can you do to help?

Please call the governor and all state legislators who represent our district, to ask them to significantly increase funding for public education immediately. Here is a phone list from the grassroots Contra Costa Coalition to Fund Education Now - bit.ly/FENWcallscript

(follow CCCFEN on Twitter @cccfunded #FundCAEd )

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Budget Reductions mtg Monday March 2nd

Posted by · March 01, 2020 3:11 PM

Please note we added a Special Board meeting for this Monday, March 2nd at 6pm. You are welcome to attend, speak, or watch online.

Agenda is posted here: https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes

It includes:

1. a list of possible budget reductions by item and cost
2. a draft PKS list - this is the list of positions to receive pink slips

(What is a pink slip? the state of CA requires all certificated employees to receive a "pink slip" notification by March 15th. This tells the teacher/staff that his/her position "might" be lost due to reductions for next school year. It is not a final decision, as the state doesn't give their final budget until May, and then school districts vote on their final budget for 2020-21 in June)

Our districtwide budget reductions are targeted at $21.1 million for 2020-21. See the Budget Presentation and recommended list here, and feel free to email the board and superintendent with your feedback, or speak at the board meeting.

You'll see on slide 15 that after additional administrative and departmental cuts, the remaining target is now $14.5 million.

Together we'll prioritize as best we can for students!

p.s. I was at a school board training on Friday, where I heard from so many other districts that are also needing to make massive cuts right now, and some are even consolidating schools. It was clear that this is truly a statewide issue of vastly underfunding public education.

What else can you do to help? Please call the governor and all state legislators who represent our district, to ask them to significantly increase funding for public education immediately.

Here is a phone list from the grassroots Contra Costa Coalition to Fund Education Now - bit.ly/FENWcallscript

(follow them on Twitter @cccfunded - Frustrated with cuts in your school district? Seeing them in nearby districts too? Enough is enough. Call the Governor TODAY plus every state legislator that represents MDUSD: bit.ly/FENWcallscript #FundCAEd )

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