Community celebrates grand opening of Dorothy Inghram Learning Center

Over 250 community members attended the grand opening ceremony of the newly renovated San Bernardino County Board of Education Dorothy Inghram Learning Center on Feb. 4.

Inghram, who was born and raised in San Bernardino, graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1923. She graduated from San Bernardino Valley College in 1932 and wrote the school’s alma mater. In 1942, she was hired to teacher second grade at the Mill School, the first African American teacher in the county.

In 1945, she became a teaching principal at the Mill School, becoming the full-time principal in 1951. In 1953, she became the superintendent of the Mill School District, the first African-American in California to be a district superintendent. She lived to be 106 years old before passing away in 2012.

The new facility, located at 670 E. Carnegie Drive in San Bernardino, will serve as an administrative site for Regional Occupational Program and East Valley Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) staff, a cybersecurity career technical education training center, house regular County Board of Education meetings and provide conference rooms for educational leadership workshops and events. In addition, the East Valley Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) has its administrative offices in the facility.