Dear friends,

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have helped me in my campaign for Berkeley School Board Director. From the first day that I walked into the Berkeley City Clerk’s office on July 28th to start the filing process for elected office through the election on November 4th, your commitment, encouragement, and talents have helped me focus and develop my campaign.

I couldn’t have run for Berkeley School Board Director without you. Many thanks.
Although I did not win, I am extremely proud of the effort that went into the campaign. I wanted to raise substantive issues with respect to the Berkeley schools, and I think we accomplished this. During my campaign, I spoke about the need for better teacher retention, the need for strengthening the math and science programs, and the need for stronger adolescent literacy and numeracy programs so that students don’t arrive at high school two or more levels below grade level. I also spoke about better management of school resources. I have raised questions about where bond monies have gone that were supposed to be used to build classrooms. These issues have not gone away.

This was an exhilarating and inspiring election day. Today’s New York Times editorial page reflecting on the election of President Barack Obama pointed out, “Mr. Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He promised to lead a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.”

Education must be a national priority. I will continue to work for improvements in the Berkeley public schools. We should be having an open discussion on how to better educate our children. We all have a responsibility to make our schools better. I will be starting a blog on my website and welcome your comments. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Priscilla Myrick

The following quote from John F. Kennedy was forwarded to me today:

“Let us not think of education only in terms of its costs, but rather in terms of the infinite potential of the human mind that can be realized through education. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”