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Wichita Falls nonprofit aims to rename highway for late Hispanic leader

Wichita Falls nonprofit aims to rename highway for late Hispanic leader

Yahoo07-04-2025

WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Wichita Falls nonprofit is working to rename the Southbound US Highway 82 flyover after Ray Gonzalez Jr.
The Mexican American Veterans Association is in the process of honoring the ground-breaking leader.
The nonprofit has support from former Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom and Mayor Tim Short.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hear from the group on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the MPEC. If approved, the recommendation will head to city councilors.
Gonzalez passed away in July 2021.
The Old High and MSU graduate served in the Army in Vietnam.
He was the first Hispanic to be elected to the Wichita County Commissioners Court. Serving from 2009 to 2016. He also served on the city council and became the first-ever Hispanic mayor pro-tem.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Tricky politics will greet Louisville's first Black school superintendent
Tricky politics will greet Louisville's first Black school superintendent

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Tricky politics will greet Louisville's first Black school superintendent

Brian Yearwood speaks during a community forum in Louisville in May. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) LOUISVILLE — As Brian Yearwood becomes the first Black superintendent of Kentucky's largest school system next month, he must navigate an already strained relationship between the district and the Republican supermajority in the state's legislature. 'It is no secret that Frankfort, for whatever reason, is hyper-concerned with the going-ons of Louisville. Doesn't always make sense to most of us, but it is a reality,' said Lyndon Pryor, the president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, a civil rights organization. 'Whoever the new superintendent was going to be, was going to have to go out and be able to build relationships with legislators in Frankfort.' Besides educating the most students — 94,000-plus — Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) also is Kentucky's most racially and ethnically diverse school district. In the current political climate, Yearwood and other Louisville educators face an especially narrow and slippery path — between meeting the needs of their diverse student population and satisfying anti-diversity mandates from the Trump administration and possibly Republicans in Frankfort. Statewide just 11% of students in Kentucky public schools are Black and 10% are Hispanic or Latino. More than 70% are white. In Jefferson County, Black and white students each account for a little over a third of the enrollment in public schools. Hispanic or Latino students make up 19% and Asian students about 5%. About 6% are students of two or more races, according to Kentucky Department of Education data from 2023-24. About 21% of JCPS students are multilingual. Louisville is also a high-poverty district. About 65% of students in the public schools are economically disadvantaged, slightly higher than the 61% statewide. Students are classified as economically disadvantaged based on eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. By contrast, in neighboring Oldham County, where many residents commute to jobs in Louisville, just 24% of students are economically disadvantaged and fewer than 3% are Black, according to state data. One Republican lawmaker, Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, is already anticipating a fight with the Louisville district over her plans for banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Kentucky's public schools. The legislature banned DEI from Kentucky's public universities and colleges earlier this year. Tichenor's bill to end DEI in K-12 schools did not get a committee hearing in the 2025 session but she plans to introduce it again next year. Tichenor, who represents Oldham and Trimble counties and part of northern Jefferson County, pointed to recent refusals by Jefferson County Public Schools and Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington to sign a form from the U.S. Department of Education to certify their compliance with the Trump administration's anti-DEI interpretations of civil rights law. Superintendents of Jefferson and Fayette instead provided documents saying they are in compliance with federal and state laws. Said Tichenor: 'The fact that the board has also said they will not change course on DEI tells us they they need to be forced to stop these practices because they're discriminatory, they're unconstitutional, they're against the Civil Rights Act, and we need to focus on equal opportunities for our students, and anything outside of that that's contrary, that's discriminatory, needs to stop.' Tichenor said the district's academic performance also points to the need for change. 'We've seen that across JCPS, their focus on DEI over the decades has not improved educational outcomes for their students,' Tichenor said. 'It just hasn't. More of the same will get more of the same results.' According to KDE data from 2023-24, a smaller share of JCPS students than those statewide scored proficient or distinguished on state academic assessments. Among third-graders, 36% of Jefferson County students scored proficient in reading compared with 47% statewide. Among eighth-graders, 24% of Jefferson County students were proficient in math compared with 37% statewide. Meanwhile, a Democratic lawmaker from Louisville said she hopes Yearwood and the district will challenge Republican efforts to uproot DEI programs from public schools. 'We need to do whatever we can to help every student be successful,' said Rep. Tina Bojanowski, who is also a teacher in the school district. She is concerned that some of the tools to provide that help may become illegal — ultimately impacting student success. 'What is the end goal? Is it to take away any additional supports that a certain group of students end up needing?' Bojanowski said the diversity and needs of Louisville students require a full array of teaching tools and resources. 'We've got so many more kids in poverty, so many kids who've experienced trauma — are we going to have tools taken away that help us try to mitigate whatever concerns the kids have that then impact their ability to learn?' 'We need to stay in the frame of what our ultimate goal is — to make the district the best district in the nation for every child who attends the district, including kids in poverty, including kids who've experienced trauma, including kids who walked 1,000 miles in order to come to the U.S. and are afraid their parents are going to be picked up and not home when they get home,' Bojanowski said. The school district declined to make Yearwood available for an interview for this story. However, he has spoken publicly about how he would work with lawmakers while also protecting Louisville schools from attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion. In a community forum on May 20, Yearwood said he would focus on asking lawmakers for support to build up the district's academic success. 'They'll be my best friend. I will be in Frankfort, knocking on the doors, talking, inviting (them) to breakfast, lunch, whatever it takes, so that they can understand the great things happening here in JCPS,' he said. Asked how he would protect DEI, Yearwood said he did not view education as 'one size fits all' because students can have unique personalities and learning styles. 'If you don't have a diversity lens, if you don't have equitable practices within your school district, then there will be the haves and the have nots,' he said. 'And that's not happening.' Yearwood moved to the United States when he was 17 years old. He was born in Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago to parents who were both educators. 'Success isn't defined by where you start but how hard you are willing to work and how deeply you truly believe in your own potential,' he said in a recent district press release. Yearwood, who was formerly the superintendent of Columbia Public Schools in Missouri, will replace Superintendent Marty Pollio starting July 1. Yearwood left the district after taking a separation agreement from the school board, which included a clause to not publicly criticize the school district. Pollio announced he planned to retire from JCPS in September in a letter to school district employees. In recent years, JCPS has seen increasing oversight from Republican lawmakers, including an interim session task force that focused on the governance of the school district. 'Although there have been challenges over my tenure, no one can ever question my passion, fight, and love for Jefferson County Public Schools,' Pollio wrote at the time. Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana said in April that Pollio would become the institution's next president following his retirement from JCPS. Michael Frazier, the executive director of the Kentucky Student Rights Coalition who testified in favor of this year's bill to eliminate DEI in higher education, told the Lantern that he viewed Yearwood's answer on DEI to be 'the same goal as the state.' Frazier said the board's choice to appoint Yearwood over Ben Shuldiner, superintendent of Lansing School District in Michigan, was 'more intentional than what people are giving credit.' Frazier added that choosing Shuldiner would have been 'intentionally antagonistic' to Frankfort. Shuldiner, when asked about DEI in his forum, fiercely defended such initiatives, saying that the key to having DEI is 'making it part of everything you do so you actually can't just get rid of it.' Surveys conducted by JCPS' search firm and the Jefferson County Teachers Association found that community members and staff favored Shuldiner over Yearwood. Pryor, the Urban League leader, said that Yearwood has 'to do everything that he can to protect' DEI initiatives and ultimately the desired educational outcomes. Otherwise, 'he's going to be deemed a failure by everybody.' 'He's going to have to have to be innovative in this new world order,' Pryor said. 'He's going to have to be thoughtful and considerate. He's going to have to be collaborative to make it happen because of these attacks. But it's still doable, and it is a worthy and necessary cause for our kids and, quite frankly, for our community.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

‘An abundance of pessimism': New England voters are down on Trump, the economy — and even Democrats, Suffolk/Globe poll finds
‘An abundance of pessimism': New England voters are down on Trump, the economy — and even Democrats, Suffolk/Globe poll finds

Boston Globe

time3 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

‘An abundance of pessimism': New England voters are down on Trump, the economy — and even Democrats, Suffolk/Globe poll finds

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they do not like the job Trump is doing, with most voters across the three states — 55 percent — saying they strongly disapprove of his performance. Advertisement Even in New Hampshire, where Trump has been more competitive across three elections, his ratings were far underwater: Just 35 percent said they approve of what he's done, compared to 64 percent who said they disapprove. Overall, 68 percent said the country is on the 'wrong track,' a portion that held steady when looking at results in the three individual states. The majority of those polled said they also have dim views of national Democratic leaders. And just one in four voters said the economy is in good or excellent shape. That's a notable drop from the fall. Roughly 41 percent of voters in Massachusetts Advertisement The opinions about the economy aren't driven solely along ideological lines. Just 4 percent of Republicans in those three states view the economy as 'excellent,' the poll found. @media (min-width: 500px) { .datawrapper-charts { display: grid; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr; grid-gap: 20px; width: 100%; } .datawrapper-chart iframe { width: 50%; min-width: 50%; } } '[Trump] said from day one that he's going to fix all of these problems: drive down inflation and bring the stock market to record highs. And he's done the exact opposite,' said Michael Hilliard, a 58-year-old Taunton resident and field technician for a telecommunications company. A registered Democrat, Hilliard said he's had a few friends laid off from work in recent months. It's a sign, he said, that companies and the economy are beginning to pull back. 'He's destroying the country from the inside out,' Hilliard said of Trump. 'The next president is going to have to put everything back together again.' Despite that darkening economic outlook, voters across the three states seemed relatively sanguine about their own financial situations. Nearly 58 percent said they believe their job is secure, and even more said they could easily find a job if they needed to. A plurality of those surveyed — about 44 percent — said they believe their 'household financial situation' will remain the same over the next year. Voters expressed deeply negative views on a range of Trump's specific policies. Two-thirds said they oppose the Advertisement By far, the most unpopular of Trump's decisions was his move to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in medical and research funding to universities and hospitals, a A vast majority — some 70 percent — said they also disapprove of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has handled arrests and deportations under the Trump administration. Black voters (89 percent) and Hispanic voters (72 percent) viewed the tactics even more negatively. 'It started off with people who were strictly criminal. Now they've taken it too far and are deporting everyone,' said Diana Mendoza, a 32-year-old Roxbury resident and administrative assistant for an elderly day-care program. A single mother of two, she said she voted for Trump last November in part because of his 'economy talk.' She said she's reserving judgment so far on his economic policies, but said she soured on his approach to immigration 'when they started pulling people apart and children are literally in the street screaming for their parents.' 'Or the kid who recently A strong majority of those polled also similarly denounced the Trump administration's approach in the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts PhD student whom a Advertisement It's not only Trump with whom voters are unhappy. When asked to rate the performance of national Democratic leaders in addressing key issues, 56 percent of voters said it was 'poor,' while not even 10 percent rated it 'excellent' or 'good.' That number is striking because while Trump's approval ratings are likely to be lower around New England than in other parts of the country — and 'The assumption is ... if people are anti-Trump, they're going to be more bullish on Democratic leaders. And that's not really the case at all,' he said. 'There is an abundance of pessimism.' Voters differed, however, on exactly how Democrats should respond. About half of those surveyed said they wanted their senators or representatives in Congress — all of whom are Democrats in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts — to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to support or oppose Trump. Another 29 percent said they should 'resist Trump and his administration however possible.' 'We're in the midst of a fascist takeover, and if that isn't apparent, then one of us is in denial,' said Meg Newman, a 69-year-old registered Democrat and retired physician in Lebanon, N.H. She said she doesn't view Democrats as the problem, but said she wishes they 'would push back even more.' 'We need to be explicit about what is happening, and call it what it is,' she said. 'But that doesn't mean you don't show up for votes and try to rally your colleagues, particularly your Republican colleagues, to do the right thing.' Advertisement Some who voted for Trump said they have mixed feelings about the results so far. Joan Kelly, a 57-year-old nurse practitioner and registered independent voter from Bedford, said she's 'thrilled' with Trump's But she said there's also growing instability in international relations, to the point it 'feels like we're on the brink of World War III.' 'I have a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old. I worry about their longevity and their future. And as a parent, I'm sitting here saying, 'I have guilt bringing them into the world,'' Kelly said. 'I don't know if the world is going to be here in the long term.' The Suffolk/Globe poll was conducted over five days, from June 1 to June 5, and its margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Live callers reached respondents via mobile and landline phones. Matt Stout can be reached at

Pasco graduation disrupted by student yelling ‘should have started with English'
Pasco graduation disrupted by student yelling ‘should have started with English'

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Pasco graduation disrupted by student yelling ‘should have started with English'

A Pasco High School graduate and his family will be meeting with administrators this week after he disrupted the school's commencement ceremony with comments that criticized the principal's use of Spanish. As Bulldogs from the class of 2025 were handed their diplomas Saturday at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium, one student reportedly spoke into a microphone, 'This is America. You should've started with English.' His comments appeared to be in reference to Principal Veronica Machado's welcome speech, which was given first in Spanish and then in English. The school and broader community have a large Spanish-speaking population. More than 80% of the school's population come from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds, and more than half of Pasco residents overall speak a language other than English at home. The district appears to have edited out the student's comments from the livestream on Sunday, and on Monday took the video down to add edits to clarify students' names. The interruption was caught by audience members and has been shared thousands of times across social media. 'We are disappointed and saddened that a Pasco High School student chose to disrupt the graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 7, 2025, by making a personal statement that does not reflect the values of our school district,' Pasco School District administrators said in a statement. 'Before participating in graduation ceremonies, all students are required to sign an agreement to uphold standards of appropriate conduct. The student's decision to move into the personal space of the name readers and speak over their microphone was a clear departure from that agreement and selfishly took attention away from the achievements of all graduates being celebrated. The district will take steps to prevent disruption of speakers on stage at all future events,' the statement continued. An administrator reportedly addressed the disruption on stage and after the ceremony. The district plans to hold a series of meetings and listening sessions this week with students, staff and families who were impacted. While district and school admin plan to meet with the student and his family, it's unclear if he will face any discipline or repercussions. School Board President Amanda Brown said in a statement on her personal social media account that it's important all students and families know they belong in their schools, that their languages and cultures are valued, and that Pasco continues to strive toward an inclusive environment. 'While every student is entitled to their voice and lived experience, I do not condone the manner or message in which this moment unfolded,' Brown said. 'I believe it is important to reaffirm that Pasco is a diverse and inclusive community, and our schools should reflect and celebrate that diversity. Language is a powerful expression of identity, and the use of Spanish during the ceremony was a meaningful way to honor our bilingual students, families and staff,' she continued. The school district is home to the state's largest dual language program, educating more than 2,000 multi-lingual students with instruction in Spanish and Russian in addition to English. The district says this program promotes bilingualism, biliteracy, socio-economic competency and high academic achievement. About 509 students graduated from Pasco High School over the weekend.

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