These 2 cuties were the winners of A Little Beacon Blog’s 1st Juneteenth Art Contest last year. They have since left the district and are enjoying homeschool with their mama, Millenial Matriarch, creator of Village Homeschool.

One day before President Biden signed Juneteenth as a federal holiday - a holiday marking independence and liberation from slavery that has been celebrated by the African American community for over 150 years but generally not taught in public or private schools for the white community to know about or be encouraged to celebrate - Beacon City School District Superintendent Dr. Matthew Landahl sent an email to district families wishing everyone a Happy Juneteenth.

“Next year we are very excited that Juneteenth will be an official BCSD school holiday on our calendar,” he stated. The Beacon City School District has been working on equity and diversity work over the year, despite the shutdown, and he let families know that the work continues this summer.

“The Beacon City School District is partnering with Dutchess BOCES to have our entire administrative team participate in Undoing Racism workshops this summer. Some of our teachers will be participants in professional development workshops on developing a more equitable curriculum in our district. There are other professional development programs that we are putting together as well.”

Dr. Landahl is known to be a communicative leader, as he ended the note with an indication that the district would be kept updated as to developments to that professional work for teachers and administration.

In true educator fashion, Dr. Landahl included resources for people to learn more about Juneteenth, which are included below:

From the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture
https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/historical-legacy-juneteenth

Watch this local news link from Houston, TX about Juneteenth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz2ke1a-WiM

An article from National Geographic about Juneteenth:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/juneteenth

An article from the History Channel:
https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth