Watch or listen to all three parts of episode four featuring a California administrator, parent and coach as each expresses the challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic
Administrator Tracey E. Jenkins of Tulare City School District explains what happened to them during the pandemic, and how they are succeeding through the aftermath
In “Brewing Within” episode 4, it explains in three parts the challenges that California administrators, parents and teachers went through during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tulare County, named for Tulare Lake because it was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes; the lake since then has been drained for agricultural development, and is now in Kings County, which was created in 1893 from the western portion of the formerly larger Tulare County.
The predominant rural community, according to PolicyLink’s 2013 study “California Unincorporated: Mapping Disadvantaged Communities in the San Joaquin Valley,” found that over 300,000 people live in small, unincorporated communities spread across rural valleys where California’s agricultural wealth is produced.
According to a Visalia Times Delta times article, the farm-worker communities in Tulare County were particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 when the pandemic started at a much greater rate than people living in urban areas. By August 2020 Tulare County’s COVID-19 infection rate (1.96% of the population infected) was much greater, per capita, than that of large cities like San Francisco or Sacramento. The news article also stated that a study by Kissam in September 2020 showed that COVID-19 cases in 25 farm-worker communities overall were about 2.5 times higher than the state average.
Also due to the high cost of living in California and the extreme poverty (averages around 19%) in Tulare County, many people of color live together in nuclear or extended families and friends to save money on rent or house mortgages–this easily added to the spread of the coronavirus among such communities in Tulare County.
In episode 4 part 1, ONME News, Julia Dudley Najieb has a candid, one-on-one interview with Tulare City School District principal, Mr. Tracey E. Jenkins about the disruptive COVID-19 experience his school district had to manage before and after–they are still succeeding against all odds.
Central Valley parent Kimberly Belmontez-McKinney reflects on key things noticed changed during the COVID-19 pandemic; one thing was the grocery bill
In episode 4 part 2, ONME News, Dudley Najieb talks with Central Valley parent and foster parent, Kimberly Belmontez-McKinney who expresses the challenges she went through during the COVID-19 pandemic while trying to manage eight children in her household. The children ranged from elementary school to high school; she witnessed the social behavioral changes from the beginning of the pandemic to the aftermath, which she is managing to this day.
Central Valley coach, Todd Henderson, explains how the COVID-19 pandemic was an accidental beneficial experience for some of his athletes
In episode 4 part 3, ONME News, Dudley Najieb talks with Central Valley coach and teacher, Todd Henderson, who reveals a different perspective of some of the positive outcomes for his athletes that happened during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.He acknowledges the struggles he had as a teacher during that time, but he expresses his level of optimism for student athletes who got an extra year of playing time or field time; however, this situation was not so good for his seniors, who missed this opportunity when the state of California shutdown in 2020.
