RECIPIENT OF THE DC BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION 2023 LEGACY AWARD DECEMBER 2023 HEALTH WELLNESS & NUTRITION SUPPLEMENT
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Serving Our Community in the DMV
School Lottery Season Starts Amid Questions about Enrollment and Equity
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Amid rumors about John Philip Sousa Middle School’s closure, hundreds of students, teachers, faculty, parents, and alumni converged on the campus last week to attend a school boundary and student assignment meeting that the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) hosted. That meeting, initially about potential recommendations coming out of an ongoing boundary study, quickly pivoted to a conversation about Sousa. For more than an hour on Dec. 6, community members expressed their thoughts about the Southeast middle school and how its closure, or movement to Winston Education Campus
in Southeast, would detrimentally affect students in the surrounding community. While Dr. Marla Dean, chair of the Ward 7 Education Council, one of 26 advisory committee members, acknowledged the cause for concern about Sousa, she said that a bevy of schools east of the Anacostia River (not just Sousa) face enrollment challenges that jeopardize the future of Ward 7’s public education infrastructure. With Ward 7 parents sending their children to nearby charter schools or schools west of the Anacostia River early in their child’s school career, neighborhood elementary and middle
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Vol 59 No 9..., December 14 - 20, 2023
WI Health Supplement / Center Section
5 Officer R.I. Rogers shopping with Markell and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith with Jayce Boyd during the annual Shop with a Cop event held in partnership with the DC Police Foundation and Walmart in Northeast on December 6. ( Robert R. Roberts/ The Washington Informer)
UN Climate Conference Closes; D.C. Ramps Up Carbon Free Vision
After Delay, D.C. Council Conducts Hearing on Chronic Absenteeism
By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Reporter
Chairman Mendelson Postpones Government Witness Portion for Another Date By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
The D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole recently conducted a public hearing about chronic absenteeism -- a topic of great concern to parents, teachers, government officials, and the law enforcement community. The Tues., Dec. 12 hearing, originally intended to ascertain why D.C. government agencies haven’t been able to 5The D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole recently curb chronic absenteeism, began more than two hours after conducted a public hearing about chronic absenteeism, a major concern for many parents, teachers, law its scheduled start time. enforcement and government officials alike. (Courtesy
TRUANCY Page 27 Photo)
The annual United Nations meeting about climate change, known as the Conference of Parties or COP, wrapped up this week with nations agreeing an unprecedented deal to phase out fossil fuel use. The 28th international climate convening began Nov. 30 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and tense negotiations required more than a full day of overtime talks after meetings were supposed to end Dec. 12. Mayor Muriel Bowser attended several days of COP28 early in the month, and her administration released a long-awaited finalized plan to become a carbon-free city by 2045 while she was there. The move signals D.C.’s continued efforts to stand out as a climate leader nationally and internationally. “They say all politics are local — it’s the same thing with the climate crisis,” said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., head of the national climate justice group Hip Hop Caucus. “What happens in D.C. has an impact for other cities,
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