- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- Look at this.

You get this?

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn't have been better!

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- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Steve, Adubato here.

More importantly, let's talk education with a guy who knows it.

And he is Patrick Wall, Senior Reporter at Chalkbeat Newark.

Good to see you Patrick.

- Hi, thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Let let everyone know what Chalkbeat is.

- We're a news outlet that covers education.

Ah, we're in different places across the country.

And I cover schools in New Jersey, specifically focused on Newark.

- And by the way, the Chalkbeat website will be up for people to find out more.

Let's talk learning loss.

We're doing this program late in September, going into the end of 2021, into 2022.

How bad is the learning loss?

Particularly in a city like Newark, my hometown, "Brick City," given the 19 months into this pandemic, as we speak, how bad is the learning loss?

"A", and then we'll talk about what it means.

- Sure.

It's, it's pretty bad.

And this is something that students across the country have faced, and across New Jersey.

So, it's certainly not just Newark.

I think there were some additional challenges here that made it especially severe for a lot of students.

They were out of school longer than some other places.

Even when Newark started reopening classrooms last April, less than half of students came back.

So most students, when they came back this September, had been out of school for 18 months.

And so being out of school was, was obviously a big issue.

Internet challenges, devices, not being able to log on at the beginning.

And then all the things going on at home.

Families, you know, out of jobs in some cases, or dealing with illness.

So, students have had so much going on.

So, the impact is that when students took tests last spring to kind of measure where they were, um, only 9% had met state expectations in math in the elementary grades two to eight, and about 11% in reading.

And then among high school students, not that many even took the SATs or AC, or AP tests.

Partly 'cause they, they weren't required to get to graduate.

But, but of those who did, only one in four passed the AP tests.

And on the SATs, I think it was about 472 was average math score out of 800.

So overall, a lot of different measures.

There was, there was definitely a pretty severe academic impact on kids.

Yeah let's, let's complicate it more.

Um, if you watch NJ Spotlight News, our great public television program every night, with Briana Vannozzi, you'll see, and Patrick's spin on it, one of the other issues they're covering there, extensively, is a teacher shortage.

In Newark, the teacher shortage see, shortage seems to be worse.

A, am I correct?

B, Why is that?

- It is definitely pretty bad here.

Again, it's an issue that we're seeing across the country, across different districts.

Newark already had that issue even before the pandemic.

There's is a lot of turnover here.

Sometimes teachers will go to other districts for better pay and other reasons.

So that was already an issue.

But it's gotten worse.

Some people think it's because of people leaving because of all the stress, and, and challenges, and risks of COVID.

But what we've seen that when schools opened in Sep-- the beginning of this month, there were 120 unfilled positions.

And so what means is that kids were coming into their classes, in a lot of cases, and finding a substitute teacher.

Or there are more students in their room because they had to combine classes.

And so, that has a real impact on kids throughout the school year.

- You know, again, Patrick's talking about Newark.

You can extrapolate, not that it's apples to apples, or exactly the same, Camden, Jersey city, Trenton, East Orange, New York, whether you're talking about the Brooklyn or Bronx, Brooklyn or the Bronx, I mean, these issues are not that much different.

But Newark does have some unique challenges.

You know, I don't know why I thought about this, but the learning loss issue, go back to it again.

There's been learning loss across the board, but um, Livingston, I believe, is five or six miles from Newark.

There's Livingston learning loss for kids.

And there's Newark learning loss.

How much worse is it in Newark than it is in Livingston, which is a wealthier, whiter community with more resources?

- No, you're absolutely right.

Again, research nationally has shown that students of color, black and, and LatinX students, and low-income students were most severely impacted by learning loss.

You know, they were starting behind in some, in some cases, of more affluent students.

And then they fell further behind during the pandemic.

And again, going back to some of those reasons, in a lot of cases, kids in lower income households didn't have as much access to technology, and so, couldn't do remote learning, had more stuff going on at home.

Just all kinds of compounding issues.

And like you said, schools having fewer resources.

And so it, it, Newark was hit harder than other places.

But so were other districts that serve a lot of students of color and low-income kids.

- So, so Patrick let's, let's try this.

Um, academic loss, um, educational challenges, all serious, important, significant.

But the other thing that I want to follow-up on is emotional and mental health issues.

Talk to me about the, the toll on Newark students and their families from a behavioral health perspective as it relates to COVID, and what that has to do with education.

- Yeah.

I mean, I just heard this time and again when I was talking to students over the past year-and-a-half during this.

You could just hear that they were so stressed out.

Their parents were saying this too, and their teachers.

You know partly, it's just the boredom of being at home, and learning on a computer, being away from their friends and teachers, not having a normal outlets like sports, and arts programs, and clubs.

And then, like I mentioned, all the other stuff that, that was going on outside of the house, including, you know, the killing of George Floyd, and our debates over race.

That obviously had a huge impact on, on kids' mental state.

And so, that led, again, nationwide increases in anxiety, depression were showing up.

More emergency room visits for kids were due to mental health crises.

And so, it was having a real impact.

And that definitely affects learningú because, you know, educators will tell you kids can't learn if they don't feel safe, secure, if they're distracted.

And so what I've heard from a lot of folks, and from the district, is that they plan to start this year, and they did start this year, focusing on trying to get kids just feeling comfortable, secure, safe.

- But how?

Are, I'm sorry for interrupting.

- No.

- Um, in the interest of time, are there mental health professionals?

Are there enough of them in urban communities to be helpful to these children and their families?

- It's a, it's a big challenge.

You know, in Newark, before this, there were some, I think more than 550 students per counselor, which is twice the national average.

That kind of caseload, you really can't do individual counseling.

And so, they're going to have to staff up.

What they're doing in the meantime, they're having teachers talk to kids about strategies they can use, like meditation and deep breathing.

But you're right.

I mean, it's a resource issue too.

They need more people to help.

- Before I let you go, um, teachers.

There's a vaccine mandate for teachers and staff in public schools.

But it's combined, as we speak right now, if you don't have the vaccine, there's a regular testing procedure.

What, "A", impact has that had on the educational process, or the system in Newark?

And also, as we speak, and hopefully when this program airs, and after, students younger than 12 will be able to get the vaccine.

put those together.

And talk about its impact on education.

- Newark has done pretty well in terms of staff members.

More than 70% were, are already vaccinated.

And so, that is a positive.

And so, the remaining staff members are going to have to get tested weekly if they don't decide to get vaccinated.

And students actually have been a bright spot here in Newark.

Um, in July, only about 30% of eligible kids were vaccinated, which is very low.

But then they did a really intense outreach campaign, started opening clinics in schools.

And now 55% at the start of the year were vaccinated.

And they're hoping to get that up.

And so, - But that's over 12 as we do this program.

- Yeah.

So the, - And we have that, - Yeah.

Once they, once they make younger kids eligible, then they're going to have to do another push.

But they now have a kind of infrastructure to, to give them in school.

So hopefully that'll help.

- Yeah.

Hey Patrick Wall, you and your colleagues are doing important work at Chalkbeat.

I want to thank you so much for adding to the conversation about education, particularly in our most vulnerable communities.

Thank you, Patrick.

- Thank you so much, Steve.

I appreciate it.

- That's Patrick Wall, Senior Reporter Chalkbeat Newark.

Check them out on their website.

We'll be right back right after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're now joined by Julienne Cherry, who is the Executive Director of Summit Health Cares and also Dr. Hari Nadiminti, who is Chairman of Dermatology at Summit Health, and a board member of Summit Health Cares.

Thank you both for joining us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Cherry, to put in perspective, what is Summit Health Cares?

- Sure, Summit Health Cares, we actually are, this is our rebranded name.

We were actually founded as Summit Medical Group Foundation in 2013 as the charitable arm of Summit Medical Group.

As you know, Summit Medical Group has changed their name to now "Summit Health".

We were built on the premise of everyone deserves access to health and to live a healthier life.

So although we've changed our name, we're still providing care and transforming lives.

- And, Dr. Let me ask you the primary focus of the foundation and clearly Summit Health is one of the many healthcare organizations that support what we do in terms of healthcare, programming and awareness.

Dr. Nadiminti, the key elements, let's break this down, what your colleague said, what are the key areas that the foundation is focused on?

- Thanks for bringing attention to us.

Our main priorities of the foundation are to provide healthcare to all of our communities.

With Summit Health, we provide healthcare to our local communities and with Summit Health Cares, we try and provide health care to the communities that we don't reach through, Summit Health.

And Julienne can speak a little bit more about that piece.

- Yeah, so we're built on four pillars.

Our first pillar is really just empowering our communities and removing barriers to access to care.

And that's basically through our health and wellness screening boots on the ground with our mobile unit working alongside of those in our underserved communities that need access to care.

So, those with a chronic disease.

And our second pillar is providing comfort to cancer patients, providing them that social and emotional support as they're grappling, going through chemo, really trying to increase their chances of survival.

And then our third pillar is educating future leaders by really providing a clear path for a career on health.

And then our fourth pillar is giving back through financial assistance.

So that would be either for, you know, helping one of our team members, a patient in need, one of our current community partners, or even providing scholarships.

This past year, we gave out over $30,000 dollars in scholarships to anyone pursuing a degree in health, living in New York, New Jersey and Oregon.

- Got it.

Doctor, let me ask you this, the Sun Safety Awareness Program, as a dermatologist, as a chairman of dermatology, you understand this better than most.

What is that initiative and why is it so important, particularly to some of us who, worship the sun just a little too much?

- Yeah, it's an important initiative.

And it was named in honor of Joseph M. Wright, who was a physician here.

He was an internist that unfortunately died of melanoma at a young age in his late thirties, in 1996.

And in his honor, we try and bring awareness, to the importance of sun safety in New Jersey, as a dermatologist, I'm surprised at the amount of skin cancer I see here, I grew up in Florida and we saw a lot of skin cancer there.

And I'm quite surprised at the amount of skin cancer, and the sunburn we see here.

So it's important to bring that awareness to New Jersey and to our patients and to the entire community.

And skin cancer can affect all of us.

And the main thing is sun safety.

And we've created a course, the "M. Wright Sun Safety Course", where we can educate our community through these online courses to really get them aware of sun safety and what to do, to protect themselves.

- Let me push back a little bit in a good way, I hope.

I have deluted myself for years because our family's from Italy, in Southern Italy, and it's a certain kind of culture with a certain background in our skin.

We want to believe is olive.

We like the word "olive", I don't even know what that means, that I'm less susceptible than people who are much fairer, if you will.

Delusional, no?

- Yes- (laughing) - Well, there's some truth to that, but there's also some- - Not enough truth to it- (laughing) - The sun safety is important for all of us, because skin cancer can affect all of us.

It is more common in fairer skin individuals, but- - But anyone of us is susceptible.

- Absolutely.

You know, anybody is susceptible to skin cancer, and just today, I saw about 10 people with skin cancer of all different ethnicities and races.

So it's important to see that and recognize that.

And I'm glad you brought that up, it can affect all of us, no matter our skin type.

- Yeah, and, by the way, go on the website that we put up there for folks to find out more about sun safety and taking care of your skin.

Julienne, I need to follow up on this, vaccine resistance, hesitancy, disproportionally, well, it's in a lot of communities, but it's also in the African-American community.

People who are black and brown Americans, it's very real, it's real across the board, but particularly a problem there.

What are you and your colleagues doing to confront it directly, and help people understand what they need to understand?

- So during COVID, our team was still boots on the ground.

We were still providing access to chronic disease through our diabetes initiative, but we quickly pivoted to address the needs of the community.

We quickly began to provide education to dispel the myths and provide it alongside of our Summit Health physicians, really helping our community understand the facts of what the vaccine is.

We also started doing testing, you know, first ever, you know, we didn't know, you know, we were all new to the disease.

So now we're doing access to vaccine testing, chronic disease, providing education.

Showing them how to properly wear a mask.

You know, that was a big challenge for our neighbors in need, as they were approaching our mobile unit, their masks were at their chin.

And we would say, "put it up".

We have to keep yourself safe.

And then also- (laughing) - It's all the way around, it's not over here- - Absolutely.

- It's not a chin strap.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

- That was crucial, providing that level of education providing that PPE, providing the hand sanitizer and showing them how to actually use it.

- And by the way Doc, let me follow up with you.

You were a key member of the team that did the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy study.

Give me two or three key findings please.

- So the important thing is the vaccine was rolled out and it was really taken upon the community.

A lot of the community really wanted it, but a lot of people were quite hesitant to do that.

And I'm proud of the work we did, to really not only bring access, but also to understand our community better.

Over the last, almost 10 years, we've become a trusted partner in the community.

And as a result, we were able to first, find out what our hesitancy issues were, locally, and really help attack, you know, educate and really get out there.

Like Julienne said, "boots on the ground" to offer testing and vaccination and education, because we're all in this together, and it's important.

The main thing here is trust and trusting each other.

And I really am proud of the work we've done and hope to continue this work.

- And, sorry for interrupting.

As we wrap up this segment.

The other part of the problem is obvious.

And you don't need me to tell you, and it's not my opinion.

Much of the problem is about information, misinformation that comes from a lot of sources that are not medical, that are not science driven, and what we're trying to do is put out folks who are credible, who don't have a point of view, but are offering important medical health and scientific information.

Then you go from there, I'm off my soapbox.

Julienne, thank you, Doctor, thank you so much.

We wish you all the best.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Thanks, thanks so much.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato, stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- [Steve] We're now joined by Marcus Sibley, who is chairman of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee at the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP.

Marcus, great to have you with us.

- Thanks so much, Steve.

It's a pleasure to be here.

- Absolutely.

Listen, there's a quote that you have, I want you to elaborate on.

"The environment," you said, "is where social justice and criminal justice intersect.

Just look at asthma."

Talk to us.

- Well, a lot of people don't really realize the connection.

This is why we work so hard at New Jersey State Conference NAACP, to make people understand that the environment impacts every aspect of your life.

So, if you're living in a housing complex, that housing complex has mold.

That's gonna lead to you having asthma, and then that's gonna lead to you missing school.

The leading reason that kids miss school is due to asthma.

So when kids miss school, then they're gonna be behind on their lesson.

So, when kids are behind, sometimes they have other attention seeking behaviors because they're not getting any attention from the academic side.

So then you have people acting out.

So once they start acting out because of racism in our country, when the black and brown kids act out, they're gonna be sent into more harsher penalties and that's what starts the school-to-prison pipeline.

So right there, you see from environmental justice and automatic connection to health, automatic connection to criminal justice.

So all these things are interrelated.

This is why work very, very hard to educate our constituents on those connections so that we'll have more people involved in this fight.

- From an historical perspective, and again, I'm managing time here, but it's important for people to know that the NAACP, that one of the first most important cases was back, I believe, in the late 1950s, the Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, if you will.

Justice Thurgood Marshall argued that case on behalf of the NAACP?

- Yes, sir.

- Help folks understand as we go fast-forward, the incredibly important role that the organization played and that case played, in where we are today.

It matters.

- Well, all acts to restore equity and to provide equity, are important.

This is why we're involved in education.

Thurgood Marshall understood that separate wasn't always equal.

The fight then, and the fight is a little bit different now, but the fight then was to understand that the white only model wasn't working.

It wasn't moving the country forward.

So we need to understand that education is a basic human right.

Everyone should be entitled to the opportunity to be educated so you can go ahead and better yourself and better your community and better your family.

So the NAACP, I'm sorry, go ahead.

- No, no, go ahead and segregation in and of itself, even though there's a lot of self-segregation going on right now, there was legally government sanctioned segregation in our schools.

And that's what that case with the Brown versus Board of Education was.

- 100%.

And Steve, the problem with the segregation was when people are segregated, they're losing out on opportunities to have an equitable life.

So you have a huge racial wealth gap here in New Jersey.

All of that is due to segregation and exploitative practices and laws.

So, the NAACP, we're a non-partisan organization, but we're very political 'cause we realized that the racism is embedded in the laws.

It's a part of the fabric of society.

So when it comes down to a redistricting, the zoning, the rent lining, the homes, even in New Jersey to this day, there are still some deeds that say, "You cannot sell this to a black person."

That's our history in this state.

So, these are the things that NAACP fights and tries to change the legislation because we can scream in the streets all day but if it doesn't get passed in the form of a law, then as President Smith always said, "We just had to get together."

- Well said.

Hey, listen, I wanna follow up on this.

Incinerators, waste treatment facilities, disproportionately based in urban, black and brown communities, correct?

- Yes, sir.

- Not an accident?

- (laughs) Absolutely not, absolutely not.

- First of all, how does it happen?

B, what are the implications of that?

- Okay, thank you, great question.

It happens because in these communities, they don't have a voice.

So, you take things that are inopportune to communities that can't voice their opinion and say no.

A really quick caveat is anything that comes to your town, has to be voted upon.

So, this is why holding our elected officials accountable is important because anything, any facility that comes to a town, your town council and your planning board has to give the okay for that project to proceed.

So, the first thing that happens is people vote for it to happen, that's the first thing.

The second thing that happens is, when it comes into these communities, some of the highest level of led particulate matter, toxins, dioxins.

Just imagine when you smell rubber burning, if you smell plastic burning, you know that smell, isn't a great smell.

And you know that can't be good for your system.

So, when you have an incinerator burning all types of plastics, all types of rubber, all types of metal and all those particulates that are coming into the air, we inhale those.

So when we fast-forward now, Steve, we see our community was devastated by COVID-19.

The correlation is, the pollution impacts your respiratory system.

So, when you already have a compromised respiratory system, when you have an agent like a virus that attacks your respiratory system, you're gonna be more susceptible to more impactful harm.

So, that's why we say, we want these facilities gone.

Because there's so many families that have been impacted.

You know the generational impacts of pollution?

The lost wages, the hospital time, the lost work, all the things you lose, and who's gaining from that?

The people who bring the facilities, and the people who aren't saying no.

They're also gaining as well, if I can put it nicely.

- Hey Marcus, do this.

I'm gonna ask our producers if we can do a separate segment with you, because there's a lot more I wanna talk to you about.

But I want to thank you for joining us on this program.

Marcus Sibley is chairman of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee at the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP.

Marcus, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thanks so much, Steve.

- Stay with us.

No, Jackie, I'm going to the end, right?

Thank you.

We doing too many segments today, I'm thrown off.

(Marcus laughing) We'll see you next time, I promise, I'll get it right.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by PSE&G.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Clean Energy program.

Johnson & Johnson.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

University Hospital.

And by Caldwell University.

Promotional support provided by Insider NJ, and by NJBIZ.

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