Photo by Judah Ari Gross. Yesenia Sanchez, Mohamed Siykae, Hector Tapia, Cindy Beza and Kateryn Ayala work on a school-wide census Wednesday in Terianna Hill’s fourth-grade math class as a part of Templeton Elementary school’s Census Kick-Off Celebration.

Published on: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

By Rabiah Alicia Burks

Prince George’s County officials and community members were greeted and escorted by fifth-grade students to Templeton Elementary School’s media center where the Prince George’s County Board of Education hosted its official census kick-off celebration last Wednesday.

Guests gathered to launch the countywide public awareness campaign, “Census in Schools Week,” taking place March 15-19 to promote and educate the public on the upcoming census.

According to the board of education’s census proclamation, Templeton Elementary School, Kenmoor Middle School and Potomac High School have been chosen to host census events. These schools were selected due to their proximity to places that have been identified as “hard to count” areas by the Prince George’s County Census Committee.

Photo by Judah Ari Gross. Dr. William Hite Jr., superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools, addresses James Ricks and Janice Fields Wednesday at Templeton Elementary School during his speech on the importance of the 2010 census for today’s youth.

“It is an honor to host the Prince George’s County Public School’s census kick off celebration for census in our schools,” said Marlow Blount-Rich, principal of Templeton Elementary School. “Templeton elementary students, staff and parents are excited about our school-wide activities whereby all PGCPS students will stand up and be counted with their families.”

Prince George’s County students will learn about the census through specially designed activities to promote the census in their households. Templeton elementary has developed a school-wide chain that represents the number of students at Templeton elementary and their families. The students will be required to count the individuals in their homes to add to the chain that will be linked throughout the hallways of Templeton Elementary School, to give a clear picture of the entire school community. 

“It is extremely important that, we, as a school system take it upon ourselves to really energize our community by energizing our students about this very important process,” said Dr. William R. Hite Jr., superintendent of PGCPS. “In Prince George’s County, this will support things like the Title 1 Program, idea or special education program and our schools so we can not take for granted that everyone must be counted in the 2010 census.”

“The census is extremely important to the education of our children, and when you do the census just remember that children come first and that is why I am doing it,” said Patricia J. Fletcher, a Prince George’s County Board of Education councilmember.

The Census Bureau has tried to make the process of counting people easier by providing a shorter form with 10 questions, said Fernando E. Armstrong, the Philadelphia regional director of the U.S. Census Bureau who was also in attendance. The form does not ask about income, social security numbers or citizenship.

“The constitution asks for everyone to be counted and that’s what we want to do,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong stressed the importance of community involvement in educating public about the census. “It is not the federal government with all of its science, and its experience taking the census,” said Armstrong. “The important messengers are yourselves, your children, the schools, the churches, because you are the trusted voice and we, the Census Bureau, are very dependent on activities like this one and many others.”

Armstrong also spoke about the increase in diversity through out the county and the need to capture it in the 2010 census. “As you walk around Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, you realize that this country has become really, really diverse,” said Armstrong. “It’s a total mosaic of representatives from all over the world and it is important that in 2010 we have a good census to capture, to actually report how the country has changed, how the country has grown.”

Templeton Elementary School students, fifth-grader Janice Fields, and fourth-grader James Ricks, who served as the mistress and masters of ceremonies.

Other students Jenevea Chester, Victor Pujilos, Vanick Djoko, Ali Abjulmutaleb, and Priyanka Gurung said “good morning” in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Nepali respectively. Other Templeton Elementary School students performed their school song.