Richardson, Kerr implement new initiative to support schools, community in north Long Beach

Cory Bilicko
-Managing Editor-

It’s been a big week for education initiatives in Long Beach. Just one day after local education officials announced that the City of Long Beach will now join the unified school district, the community college and the university here as a partner in the College Promise to help ensure local students get into institutions of higher learning, two city leaders representing the northern section of Long Beach shared news of their own efforts to prioritize educational opportunities for students in that area.

Ninth District Councilmember Rex Richardson and 1st District School Board Member Megan Kerr hosted a press conference Tuesday morning at Jordan High School to announce their collaboration to implement the North Long Beach Whole Village Initiative— to establish an education foundation and a task force to support the area’s schools and community.

According to Richardson’s office, the initiative will use best practices to expand opportunity at pivotal moments in the lives of youth and will focus on four main areas to help students and families succeed: after-school programs, mentoring, college-readiness and jobs/internships.

“There are many current resources available through our local libraries, nonprofit organizations, community groups, the school district and faith communities, and I believe that communication and collaboration between them will be a great asset to all students,” Kerr said in an emailed response to the Signal Tribune after the conference. “The idea is to build on the great work already being done and find the gaps and try to address them.”

To support their initiative, Richardson and Kerr have formed the North Long Beach Education Foundation to raise funds for programs and activities that will directly affect the four areas of the initiative. A particular focus of the initiative will be on improving conditions and outcomes for boys and young men of color, which Richardson said is “an existing need.”

Kerr said that, from her perspective, the initiative is one that is inclusive of all students and families but the emphasis on males of color is to target the particular obstacles that demographic faces.
“There are current programs that serve students around the district, including parks, libraries [and] after-school programs, and, while programs like the Male and Female Academies target certain students during school hours, our hope is that by doing a full assessment of programs in the area, we can support programs that meet the needs of our very diverse student population in north Long Beach,” Kerr said. “The reason there are components in place that address boys and young men of color [is] to address the specific challenges facing this group— just as there are and will continue to be other areas of the initiative that address young women and other groups being served by the schools and our community in specific ways that address the challenges facing them.”

The task force that Richardson and Kerr have organized consists of “key stakeholders,” clergy, community organizations and local experts that will serve as advisors who will guide the work of the initiative. Their primary responsibility will be to conduct a program, asset and needs assessment. Based on that assessment, their second responsibility will be to develop recommendations to support positive outcomes for youth in the north Long Beach area. The councilmember and school board member have appointed former 9th District Councilmember Steve Neal to lead the task force.
“My entire career, I’ve believed that it really does take a whole village to raise a child,” Neal said. “I am proud to be able to continue to give back to my community.”

Kerr said that, during Neal’s tenure on the City Council, there was a great increase in community and neighborhood involvement across his district. “He has established relationships in the greater north Long Beach area, as well as many faith communities, and it seemed the best fit for the initial stages of the initiative,” she said.

Kerr said that she and Richardson determined the members of the task force by first brainstorming a list of people with experience in current programs who they thought could bring a collaborative energy to the project.

“The task force is still being built, and we will be adding some additional members over the next few weeks,” Kerr said. “It is important to me that we include those who are doing on-the-ground work with our students so that we have a clear idea of how best to meet student needs. This is meant to be a working group, not just generating ideas, but actively working to implement those ideas. I am excited to be working with such talented and dedicated people to support all students, and I am hopeful this will become a model that we can someday use with students and families across the district.”
The other members of the Task Force thus far are: Glenda Williams, director, Long Beach Public Library; Ben Castillo, assistant pastor, Light and Life Church; Pat Dixon, executive director, California Aquatic Therapy and Wellness Center; Laverne Duncan, executive director, Andy Street Community Association; Sean Duren, assistant manager, Uptown Property and Community Association; Dr. Crystal Howard-Johnson, north Long Beach resident and educational research analyst; Lorena Parker, manager, Uptown Property and Community Association; Dr. Sabrina Sanders, north Long Beach resident and education leader; Gregory Sanders, pastor, The ROCK Christian Fellowship; Erick Serrato, assistant director, Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network; Calvin Tatupu, pastor, Side by Side Community Church; Alexandra Torres Galancid, director, Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles (WINTER); Michelle Wilson, City of Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation & Marine; Dale Workman, Pastor, Community Grace Brethren Church; Doris Robinson, facilitator, LBUSD and CSULB Urban Math Scholars; Teresa Gomez, coordinator, City of Long Beach Human Dignity Program; Tracy Colunga, coordinator, City of Long Beach Violence Prevention Program; and Francisco Vargas, Youth Services officer, Long Beach Public Library.

During Tuesday’s announcement, Richardson described the initiative as being part of a “renaissance” underway in the area that includes a multi-phase modernization effort at the school, the recent groundbreaking for a new public library nearby and the design process on the new Houghton Park community center.

“From all over the country, we’ve seen the statistics and the examples that show that effective programs in these areas can really make a difference,” he said. “For example, students who participate in quality after-school programs have lower criminal activity. Students who participate in after-school programs have a significantly higher reading achievement and are rated by teachers as having a greater expectancy to succeed. Fifty-two percent of mentored students are less likely to skip school. Fifty-nine percent of mentored teens get better grades. So, you can see why we’re focusing on the things that we know that work.”

United States Rep. Janice Hahn (D—44th District) was also at the press conference, and she told the students there that she was one of the people there to be “your encourager, your supporter, and hopefully bring federal resources to this initiative.”

Hahn said her work in public service has been dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by increasing their opportunities for a better future. She explained that, when she served on the Los Angeles City Council, she started the Watts Gang Task Force because the community was losing young men and women to gang violence.
“We wanted to make a concerted effort to find ways to prevent our young people from joining gangs in the first place,” Hahn said. “But we realized that you can’t just tell our young people ‘say no, say no.’ We had to give them something to say yes to. And that is exactly what this initiative is doing. You’re giving these young men something to say yes to.”