Candidate for
School Director; Oakland Unified School District; District 7

I am Beverly A. Williams born and raised in Oakland.

• A mother of 2 adopted children both a product of District 7 schooling from grammar school to high school. The oldest, Alisa, graduated from Castlemont HS, going on first to Chico State and transferring to Long Beach State finishing her degree and is now working as a Probation Officer for Alameda County. The youngest, Di'onte' will graduate in 2009 from Castlemont Leadership Preparatory HS.

• I completed school in the OUSD in West Oakland. After marriage and a stint in Alaska with my husband, now deceased, I returned to California and continued my education starting at Laney Junior College working toward an AA Degree. After one year at Laney I transferred to Golden Gate University (GGU) and received my AA moving on to earn a BA Degree in Public Administration.

• Work Background: I worked for the Federal Government for a number of years starting out as a clerk working my way through Personnel Administration as a Employees Relations Specialist, receiving training in Labor Relations; Staffing and Classification Specialist; and Personnel Management Specialist.

• I was an active part the the California College Preparatory Program (CCPP) at UC Berkeley. This program was a proto type focused on English and Math, designed to help students who were struggling to keep up. I used my home as an after school tutoring site. I changed my work hours to make myself available to the students for after school study twice a week. I witnessed grades go from F to C and C to B and A. A program like this was invaluable.

• I currently work in the Business Finance Office for Continuing Education of the Bar, a nonprofit organization, in Accounting under the umbrella of the UCLA, Office of the President in Oakland.

• For more then 15 years I have been an elected community leader with ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) a grassroots nonprofit national organization in the City of Oakland serving on both the City Wide Board and State Board of Directors in addition to serving as a committee member of the Acorn Political Action Committee (APAC). Being an active member of this organizaiton has prepared me for diverse levels in leadership. I train, door knock, protest, do voter registration, lobby in Sacramento, and conduct community meetings. I travel across country in support of critical capmaign issues lending my expertise as a community leader. I was involved with the launching of the Woodland School project and other campaigns regarding school issues. I have worked on various other campaigns not directly related to the School Board but rewarding none the same(predatory lending, condo conversions, affordable housing, fair wage,and foreclosures).

• I have helped establish Lovng is Forgiving Ministry Inc., a school of training and serve on the Board of Directors.

• I am currently the Co-Chair of the School Site Committee at Leadership Prep HS.

• Becaues Education is my passion I have always been supportive of the OUSD by being involved in the PTA/SCC.

• I was instramental in helping establish a tutoring program at my church for grades 7 through 10 focusing on English and Math. As well as worked as a children's bible study teacher. Because of various facility moves the program was placed on hyades.

• Outside the school, I consult with and counsel parents regarding their child's difficulty in school and I tutor their children in reading, writing, and math, primary grades 4 through 9, providing the student with study techniques to help them through tough subjects. It usually only takes six weeks to get them back on track.

• I also work as a consultant to adults who are having non related school issues assisting them with negotiations to resolving their problems. Often these issues would be resolved within a matter of days or within two weeks.

• My goal and objective is to bring creative and innovative thinking to the table, and bring suggestions, ideas and recommendations to the table for making changes happen in the OUSD. Stepping outside the box, not being afraid to take a chance, and standing the ground. To bring in non traditional ways of adding funding to the fiscal budget increasing spending power of the Board for the schools which would give them the flexibility needed to hire more teachers, decrease class sizes and improve the learning materials available to students. expand.