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OMAHA STAR
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Proudly Serving Our Community for Over 80 Years Dedicated to the Service of the People that NO Good Cause Shall Lack a Champion and that Evil Shall Not Go Unopposed
Nebraska’s Only Black Owned Newspaper Vol. 82 - No. 19 Omaha, Nebraska
Friday, September 18, 2020
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Family of the Week The Willis Family
Greetings Omaha Public Schools Community,
The Willis family are busy in the city and our community. From front to back: Leo, 3; Titus 7; Ciecly 9; all attend Fullerton Elementary School. Krisite Willis is a Native Omahan and she is holding Spike, who is older than all the children. Sherman is the patriarch of the family and is a native of Houston Texas. Sherman is an attorney and a State Farm Insurance agent. He is also an adjunct professor at Metropolitan Community College and is also a professor in the Creighton University Law School. Sherman’s hobbies include being a grille master with meats and being a master baker. Kristie is a hobbiest and a “beast” with her Cricut machine. Kristie is very active in the Fullerton PTA. Sherman also serves as the Chairman of the Mildred D. Brown Memorial Study Center Board.
From the iPublisher’s Pen By Terri D. Sanders Covid 19 is still with us! Despite all life rolls on. Our elections are less than 50 days away. Our right to vote has been sealed, but do YOU have a plan to have your vote counted? The 19th Amendment guaranteed the right for women to vote, and that was 100 years ago (August 18, 1920), but that amendment was not inclusive of African Americans. While we were not included we still organized and marched along with other suffragettes to gain this right. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a federal legislation signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. This secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country. One of the most effective David Turnbo Photography pieces of federal civil rights legislation. So who are you to choose NOT to vote? Forty-five years after the majority culture was given the right to vote, then African Americans and other minorities were included. Between that time was bloodshed, hangings, murders, dog attacks on women and children, and many other crimes against humanity. Today in our society those same atrocities are coming up against minorities in our country. It took many years to overcome and we are not done… Do not let this opportunity pass you by, VOTE. That brings me to another right that we had better exercise. Register with the Census. (www. census2020.gov) The Census ends on September 30, 2020. The census numbers determine congressional representation for the next ten years. It will determine federal funding, effects more than 100 federal programs including but not limited to lunch programs, highway construction and education. This number will also include hospitals and fire departments and other services. This means count EVERYBODY in the house. Have you ever researched your ancestory? Many of those records tell you where your great great grandfather lived was derived from the Census records. Yes Black Lives Matter and what better way to support the movement than to vote and be counted! Your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it.
On Tuesday, Sept. 8, our district held a special board meeting to update our families on the current status of our 100% remote instructional model and to discuss next steps toward a safe return to in-person learning. A significant portion of our update focused on the metrics we’re monitoring to inform our phased approach to return in-person. Health experts shared that Douglas County rates have surpassed the 5% positivity rate in community testing, a threshold that public health experts would like to see for a 100% return in-person. Test positivity rates are at 20% and above in some zip codes. With the help of our community, through actions like consistently wearing masks, avoiding crowds and social distancing, we are hopeful that positivity rates can decline between now and the start of the second quarter. With the help of our public health officials, we’re planning for a phased approach to begin in-person instruction and move into our Family 3/2 model. Our staff and families can look for a timeline on that phased approach in the week to come. Of course, as we have shared throughout the summer and fall, it is important to note that rapidly evolving conditions can affect our next steps. Our team stands ready. Our Student Transportation Services team can begin transporting our students with as little as two weeks’ notice. We’ve made adjustments to our school’s airhandling systems, which will circulate fresh air throughout our facilities more frequently throughout the day. We’ve practiced enhanced disinfectant and sanitation practices and we remain vigilant as our staff work inside schools, teaching through
remote learning sessions each day. Those safety practices will continue when our students return in-person. Most importantly, we’ve made early arrangements for rapid results testing, to have access to real-time data regarding positivity rates and patterns within our individual school communities. The experiences of other school districts have indicated that once we return to in-person learning, we should expect cases to be identified and to anticipate temporary school closures to combat the risk of wider spread. Moving forward will require support, patience and flexibility from our families. Like many of our families, we’re eager for our students return to in-person learning. We want to do that responsibly. Our ability to track virus trends will position us to make swift decisions to protect the health, safety and well-being of our students, staff and families. We will continue to look to case trend data, positivity rates and guidance from our community partners and health experts as the second quarter of our school year approaches. In the meantime, we will keep our families and the community informed. Cordially Yours, Cheryl J. Logan, Ed.D. Superintendent
Preston Love to be Democratic write-in candidate for U.S. Senate
Preston Love, longtime community leader and political advocate, announced Thursday that he will be the Democratic write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in the
Nov. 3 election. Love is endorsed by the Nebraska Democratic Party. Voters can simply write-in Love and fillin in the oval next to his name under the U.S. Senate portion of their ballot. “2020 has been a unique year. Many of our young people can’t go to school, many of our adults are not working, evictions are at an all-time high, disparities for people of color have finally become recognized, and our elderly are chronically at-risk,” Love said. “The 2020 election is also unique. We have a president who is telling us to illegally vote twice, who lies, is racist, misogynistic and divisive. Our Nebraska U.S. Sen-
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ator Ben Sasse, while sometimes verbally disagreeing with the president, continues to vote with him time after time and has yet to stand up to Trump for our Gold Star and Blue Star families or for the disadvantaged and minorities so hurt by COVID. I stand before you ready to serve. Love will combat hate. Love will begin to heal the hurt all across our state. All you need to do is write-in Love on your ballot.” Preston Love worked in the civil rights movement alongside many icons of the movement and has remained passionate about continuing that work in his hometown neighborhood of North Omaha. He is presently teaching Black Studies and Poli-
Next Issue: October 2, 2020 Information submission by September 24, 2020
tics at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, a author of 5 books and is the founder and CEO of the Black Votes Matter Institute of Community Engagement and 4Urban.org. Love was introduced Thursday by Alisha Shelton, Gladys Harrison, Kara Eastman and a student who attended a civil rights tour with Preston Love. “I fully support Mr. Love stepping up. He is the write-in candidate that we need. A person who actively led parts of the civil rights movement. A person who speaks up for the people,” Alisha Shelton said. “A person who identifies the common goal in every circumstance and believes we all Preston continued on page 2
Have you completed the Census www.census2020.gov