RECIPIENT OF THE DC BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION 2023 LEGACY AWARD March 2025 Health Wellness & Nutrition Supplement
Women in Health
Women’s Wellness Don't Miss Our Health Supplement! IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
Serving Our Community in the DMV
Vol 60 No 22
March 13 - 19, 2025
This Budget Season, Public School Officials Focus on Maintaining Teacher Workforce
3Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks in front of the U.S. Capitol on March 10 with D.C. Council members and other political leaders, standing up against a Continuing Resolution that threatens to decimate the local budgets. (Ja’Mon Jackson/The Washington Informer)
Ariel Horton, Milken Educator of the Year, Credits School Support for Her Success By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Ariel Horton received quite the surprise last week when local education officials and nonprofit leaders presented her with the 2024-2025 Milken Educator Award during an assembly at Noyes Elementary School in Northeast. On the morning of March 6, Horton received a $25,000 check, lifetime membership in the Milken National Educator Network, and an opportunity to participate in the Milken Educator Forum in Los Angeles next month. Upon accepting her award, a teary-eyed Horton, who knew nothing about her nomination, immediately recognized the teachers and admin-
BUDGET SEASON Page 48
Center Section
District Officials Stand Up AgainstContinuing Resolution that Decimates Local Budget Ward 8 Artist-Entrepreneur Keyonna Jones Reflects on Erasure of Black Lives Matter Mural 5DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee (at the podium) and Paul Kihn, D.C. deputy mayor for education, want to ensure that no District public school loses instructional staff, as intended by the Schools First in Budgeting Amendment Act, which the D.C. Council approved in 2023. They announced a sustainability fund that would allow school leaders to allocate, at their discretion, dollars toward the preservation of teaching positions. (WI File Photo/Ja’Mon Jackson)
Ward 8 Special Election Candidates Pledge Paradigm Shift
BLM PLAZA Page 20
By Hamil R. Harris WI Contributing Writer
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
ELECTION Page 47
In the days leading up to a House voteon a continuing resolution forcing more than $1 billion in local budget cuts and threatening the D.C. government, Belicia Reaves counted
among those patiently waiting to assess if and how developments at the federal level would affect operations at the District’s multi-campus Two Rivers Public Charter School (PCS). Amid the barrage of congressional at-
60 Years Since Selma: Religious, Political Leaders Talk Next Steps Ahead
Charnal Chaney, Khadijah Clark and Dion Jordan among Those Embracing a Grassroots Approach
This story is the second part of a series about the Ward 8 special election, scheduled for July 15, 2025. As the list of Ward 8 special election candidates approaches two dozen, many voters are questioning the sincerity of the aspirant council members, especially those claiming they can adequately represent Ward 8 without any recent Wilson Building experience. Some of the more frustrated members of the electorate have gone as far as threatening to write in Trayon White, whose D.C. Council expulsion triggered the special election, or avoid the ballot box altogether
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
5Khadijah Clark has lived in Ward 8 for six-plus decades. As a candidate for the Ward 8 Council seat, she wants to serve the people living in the ward where she experienced both trauma and triumph. (Courtesy Photo)
Although many freedom fighters and faith leaders make the yearly March pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama in commemoration of the hundreds of civil rights activists injured by police on March 7, 1965— a day better known as Bloody Sunday— the 2025 gathering was particularly important. This year’s convening was more than a 60th anniversary of the activists’ attempt to cross from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama,
Celebrating 60 years. Your credible and trusted source for Black news and information.
WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM / THE WASHINGTON INFORMER
5 Freedom fighters, activists and political leaders on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as part of the annual pilgrimage in March honoring those brutalized on Bloody Sunday in 1965. (Courtesy Photo)
SELMA Page 34 MARCH 13 - 19, 2025 1