Candidate for
Board Member; Castro Valley Unified School District

Public education gave me the opportunities for everything good about my life. Three of my four grandparents were immigrants, coming to this country from Eastern Europe for a better life. I was born in California where my grandparents eventually ended up after some years on the east coast. My schooling, comprised of 5 different public schools in the Los Angeles area, public high school and community college in Bakersfield, and the University of California at Berkeley, was an investment in me by the State of California. After working as a second grade teacher, a social worker in public welfare and in the head start program, I began my current position as a licensed psychotherapist with Bay Valley Medical Group.

My husband and I bought our house in Castro Valley in 1966. When my daughter began school at Independent Elementary, my parent career in CV schools began. During the 16 years of my children's schooling I served as president of the parent clubs at Independent, Canyon, and CVHS, chaired two School Site Councils, was a parent member of the District Advisory Committee for School Improvement, and was a member of the Music Parents Society and the HS Athletic Boosters Club. Like so many parents in CV schools, I volunteered in the classrooms, supplementing what teachers were teaching.

Since being elected to the school board in 1989, I have been board president 6 times, served with the Alameda County School Boards Association, served 10 years as an elected delegate to the California School Boards Association delegate assembly, and was elected for 2 terms as Director of Region 7 for CSBA. I am a 35 year member of the LWV and the AAUW, with 10 years participation in AAUW's Women in History Program, bringing historically significant women into our elementary schools through vignettes presented during Women's History Month each March.