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Ednalieze Figueroa, 5, who attends Wiggins School in Camden, protests the closure of her school on Fabruary 6, 2021 with an assist from activist Victoria Pellot. (April Saul for WHYY)
Camden school officials have announced the closure in the fall of three of four schools District Superintendent Katrina McCombs planned to shutter because of budgetary concerns.
Set to close are Harry C. Sharp Elementary School, Cramer Elementary School, and Ulysses Wiggins School. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Acting Commissioner of Education Angelica Allen-McMillan vowed to make the necessary repairs to keep the fourth school, Yorkship Family in Fairview, open.
“With the support of state and local officials, and with input gathered over the course of six months, Camden City School District is now poised to implement a plan that will improve the quality of education offered by our district and place the district on solid financial footing,” Superintendent McCombs said in a statement
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On March 5, 2021, at her warming center in the Yorkship Family School gym, Tawanda Jones, right, tries to convince a patron known as Sarah Ann to allow Jones to help her rent a room at a boarding house. Sarah Ann had told Jones that if there was nowhere else to go that night, she would sleep in Camden s Evergreen Cemetery. (Photo by April Saul for WHYY)
The woman they call “Wawa” should have seen it coming. Tawanda Jones should have known that after housing up to 70 homeless individuals for almost a month at a makeshift warming center providing hot meals, fresh clothing, assistance with long-term housing, employment and detox programs, and boundless affection they wouldn’t want to leave.
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At the warming center at Yorkship Elementary School on Feb. 11, 2021, Tawanda Jones rests in what she calls her apartment strategically-placed blankets that she said hide her from the patrons view when she sleeps in the gym. (April Saul for WHYY)
It was the morning of Jan. 28 when Connie Kellum saw the weather report for Camden and called Tawanda “Wawa” Jones, her longtime friend.
“I said, ‘What are we doing for Code Blue? We got five hours, the storm’s in Buffalo, and it’s coming.”
Jones founder of the Camden Sophisticated Sisters drill team and the Masked Melanin Market, which showcases Black-owned businesses had been thinking the same thing.
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The Cumberland County Jail. (April Saul for WHYY)
After months of claims by incarcerated people and staffers that the Cumberland County Jail had botched its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, prisoners are now suing county officials in U.S District Court.
The lawsuit, which is scheduled for a hearing this month, asks for a monitor “to report on conditions within Cumberland Jail and make recommendations to the court consistent with CDC guidance on best practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
It also requests that the jail immediately give prisoners masks, hygiene products, and cleaning supplies, and also provide for physical distancing, routine testing, quarantining in a non-punitive setting, and proper nutrition.