Kern High School District holds first district-wide Black History Month program
The Kern High School Districtâs Black History Month program committee did not imagine theyâd be holding their first district-wide programming during a pandemic. They say theyâre making sure standout voices in the Black community locally are still being featured, even if itâs virtually.
and last updated 2021-02-04 16:12:04-05
Fuchsia Ward was born one of twelve on a plantation, in the midst of segregation in Arkansas and moved to Bakersfield and an integrated school system 60 years ago.
Sheâs spent the last few decades making a difference, first at the Bakersfield City School District, then at the Kern High School District. She has been an educator, then a volunteer, whether at KHSD, Friendship House or community school sites.
The COVID-19 pandemic touched and impacted everyoneâs life in some way, shape or form in 2020.
It began in mid-March, when the first case hit Kern County and Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order less than a week later.
And it continues today, with coronavirus raging across the county, sectors of the local economy hindered or shuttered all together, and education and religious services having a drastically altered appearance at the close of 2020.
Hereâs how the pandemic shaped the community over the past year:
SURGING CASES
There have been about 1,000 new COVID-19 infections reported each day for the past three weeks. There are more active infections than at any point previously this year and hospitals are stretched to the limits in their ability to care for the sick. Critical care beds are running out.
After 24 years with the district and six as superintendent, Norris School District superintendent Kelly Miller will be retiring at the end of the year. Board trustees didn t look far when choosing a new superintendent: Cy Silver, a recent Norris board trustee and Kern High School District administrator, will take the reins from Miller on Jan. 1.
The announcement that Miller would be stepping down from the northwest elementary district with 3,900 students and Silver would be stepping up was made at a Nov. 18 board meeting. At the meeting, president Amanda Frank said the board made the decision so that the district would have a smooth transition.