COVID-19 Community Report

As I am winding down this series (last show airs April 27), I wanted to circle back with someone at the county level, and I chose Don Saylor, whom I last interviewed in June 2020.

Supervisor Saylor represents District 2, including the cities of Davis and Winters, the campus of the University of California at Davis, and the farm land of southwestern Yolo County. His public service career spans over 45 years and includes 25 years elected in office, administrative, planning and analytical positions in local government and both the legislative and executive branches of California state government.

This past year, Anne Ternus-Bellamy and I have sent each other occasional notes of encouragement as we've both covered the pandemic and its impact here in Yolo County. I talk to people about their experiences, while Anne has been deeply immersed reporting on the phenomenal rate of daily information generated by public health agencies and local government.

Anne grew up in San Anselmo, CA, where she first started writing for newspapers. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and afterwards headed to Sacramento to work for a legal newspaper covering the state Capitol and courts. She took a long break from working full time — about 10 years — to stay home with her kids, though she still freelanced for the Enterprise and other publications and spent many years volunteering with Davis schools.

My guests today are Lisa Yep Salinas and Dotty Pritchard. Lisa and I will talk about the rise of anti-Asian and Pacific Islander racism and xenophobia during the pandemic. A resolution that condemns anti-Asian violence was approved unanimously by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in February, and it is on the consent calendar for the Davis City Council meeting tonight. Dotty Pritchard and I will chat about the longtime Yolo County Women’s History Month luncheon, usually held this time of year. I'll also provide the weekly updates from Yolo County Public Health.

This month, I’ve been focusing on the return to in-person instruction in the Davis Joint Unified School District. I’ve interviewed administrators, teachers, and parents, and now, I’m speaking with students from various grades throughout the DJUSD. This week you’ll hear from Harper Pfeifer and Henry Schumaker, who are 6th and 7th graders respectively, and on March 9, I’ll chat with two high school seniors who have had very different pandemic experiences, Emme Dunning and Daniel Engotto.

In the youth advocacy and mentoring work I do, I believe it’s critical to hear directly from young folks, especially when they’re so deeply impacted by decisions that adults are making for and around them. I want to be clear that I had no agenda when I talked with these kids around school reopening — I just wanted to know how they were feeling about it. And with the two student voices you’ll hear today, they have very different perspectives on the matter.