We would like to extend our appreciation to our staff, parents and community partners for your hard work and dedication to our students. We wish everyone a prosperous 2024 filled with health, joy and peace.
WJUSD Board of Trustees Carrie Green, Joedy Michael, Kristin Trott, Everardo Zaragoza and Sterling Davis
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including tax
WFoL’s Quiz Show competition returns News, Page 2
Wrotens celebrate 10 years of ownership Features, Page 1
Volume 140, Number 47 — Locally-owned since 1884
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, December 20, 2023
The hometown paper of Dave and Diane Bosse
School district to partner with community to develop Ethnic Studies program By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief
EXPRESS
Superintendent Rody Boonchouy announced that Winters Joint Unified School District is looking to partner with residents to develop an Ethnic Studies program that reflects the history, stories and contributions of the diverse community that has called Winters their home. Boonchouy is seeking community members and local stakeholders to participate in the school district’s Ethnic Studies Task Force. Creating the task force is step one in the two-year timeline of developing what the state-mandated Ethnic Studies courses will look like at Winters JUSD. At the Dec. 14, Winters JUSD Board of Trustees meeting, Boonchouy presented California’s journey of developing a school curriculum to include Ethnic Studies for students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Boonchouy said Ethnic Studies has a 60 year history in education that has evolved from early
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Winters Joint Unified School District believes it will create a successful Ethni Studies program by the state’s deadine by partnering with community stakeholder. root efforts in literature of early 20th century activists and authors, to the desegregation of schools, and the development of the first Ethnic Studies programs in the 1960s at San Francisco State Univiversity and UC Berkeley, primarily led by African American, Chicano, Native American and Asian American students. In California, Ethnic Studies legislation began in 2016 when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2016 to develop an Ethnic Studies model curriculum intended to serve as a resource for educators to support Ethnic Studies courses or curriculum. Further state legislative efforts included AB 2772 and AB 331 to make Ethnic Studies a graduation requirement — with
both bills being vetoed. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 101 into law making Ethnic Studies a graduation requirement for students in the state of California. AB 101 requires that all state school districts have — at minimum — a semester-long Ethnic Studies course by 2025– 2026 and the graduation requirement applied to students in the graduating class of 2030. “Although there are about eight other states have enacted measures to promote Ethnic Studies, California was the first state to make Ethnic Studies a requirement,” Boonchouy said. He included the civil rights movement efforts in the history.
See PROGRAM, Page 5
Index Features ........................ B-1
We at he r Date
Rain
High
Dec. 13
.00
68˚
35˚
Dec. 14
.00
64˚
32˚
Dec. 15
.00
61˚
35˚
Dec. 16
.00
63˚
33˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
Dec. 17
.00
67˚
39˚
Dec. 18
.75”
58˚
48˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Dec. 19
1.04”
57˚
48˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 1.79 in. Season’s total: 3.95 in. Last sn. to date: 6.50 in.
Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-2
Sports ........................... B-7
Low
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/23. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
Amelia Biscardi/Winters Express
Mayor Pro Tempore Albert Vallecillo, Council member Carol Scianna, Supervisor Lucas Frerichs, Valley Clean Energy Executive Director Mitch Sears, Council member Jesse Loren and Mayor Bill Biasi unveil the new electric charger across from City Hall.
New EV charging station brings a greener future to Winters By Amelia Biscardi Express staff writer Across the street from city hall, Winters now has new charging stations for electric cars. Taking another step towards more renewable energy, city council members and staff met for the ribbon cutting with members of Valley Clean Energy. Valley Clean Energy is a local electricity provider servicing Yolo County. Through its hard work and funding from the Sacramento Area Council of Government
See UNVEIL, Page 5
Amelia Biscardi/Winters Express
Council member Jesse Loren speaks before the unveiling of a new electric car charger located at 317 First St.
Winters PD investigate reports of suspicious circumstance, firearms By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Winters Police officers underwent a busy last few days as reports of a suspicious circumstance outside of the intermediate school and reports of firearms were called in.
Rominger incident On Monday evening, Winters Joint Unified
School District alerted families about an unidentified male who had offered rides earlier in the afternoon to two students near Shirley Rominger Intermediate School. Winters Police Department reported the incident occurred at 2:55 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 18. Chief John P. Miller said that a man
had pulled over and offered two students a ride in his vehicle after school. Miller said that a crime hadn’t occurred and Winters PD was investigating the incident as a suspicious circumstance to make sure there wasn’t an attempted crime. “The guy rolled
See POLICE, Page 5
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