Nancy Riddle's Background

By Nancy Riddle

I grew up in San Francisco in the 60's and 70's where I attended public schools and graduated from Lowell High School. I then moved across the Bay to Berkeley to attend Cal where I took my first steps in leadership as president of the Sherman Hall student co-op and as a member of UC's Prytanean Honor Society + a women's academic and leadership honor and service organization. I earned both an MBA and undergraduate degree in business from Cal. I am a CPA and I currently work as the Chief Financial Officer for Monster Cable Products. I have two teenage daughters + my youngest is a Berkeley High senior and my eldest graduated Berkeley High in 2004 and is a junior at Willamette University.

Prior to serving on the Board, I spend over a decade volunteering in our schools and chairing district wide committees including the Title I Advisory Committee and the BSEP parcel tax Planning and Oversight Committee. I also served as Vice-Chair of the Budget Advisory Committee and as a parent activist on the District's Student Assignment Advisory Committee working to protect and improve our voluntary integration plan.

Four years ago our schools suffered severe State and Federal funding cuts and at the same time our District's base information systems were undergoing a difficult conversion. We were truly facing a fiscal crisis but I am proud that our School Board responsibly retained local control of our schools and made them stronger. We faced our financial challenges squarely and we cut $14 million in expenses. This was painful and I have great appreciation for our children's teachers, all our staff, our administrators and our superintendent for their dedication, understanding and pure hard work during this very difficult period.

Our community strongly urged us not to let our children suffer amidst the financial crisis and, consequently, the School Board brought Measure B to the voters in 2004 as a bridge measure to sit on top of our existing BSEP measure. I Co-Chaired the successful Measure B campaign with parent Dan Lindheim (respected chair of our BSEP parcel tax Planning and Oversight Committee) which brought essential resources into our classrooms.

Today, our School District's audits are clean and our budget is balanced. We have maintained strict oversight of our parcel taxes and school facilities bonds. Independent program and operational reports document solid improvement and we also have established an independent citizen audit committee.

Our school finances are stable but still fragile and we need to pass Measure A for our schools this November. Measure A is not a new tax and it is not a tax increase. Measure A simply renews the two existing school measures (BSEP and B which sunset together at the end of the 2006-2007 school year) at existing levels. This local funding is crucial to supporting our children by maintaining smaller class sizes, music and library programs, teacher training and a number of school based programs that directly support student achievement. Please visit http://www.BerkeleyMeasureA.org.

During the last four years the Board has also instituted more rigorous and data driven school achievement plans with clearer goals and accountability. Thanks to the generosity of our community our building program continued with the opening of the new wing at Berkeley High and the new Adult School. Our high school is under stable collaborative leadership and last year received a very strong accreditation renewal. We also updated our historic integration plan, expanding our view of diversity in this community.

I have served as Board President, Board Vice-President and also as Co-Chair of the Joint City-School District 2x2 Committee. To strengthen my governance skills I completed the California School Boards Association Masters in Governance Program and I am an officer and active member of the Alameda County School Boards Association.

There is good and thoughtful work ahead of us. Our schools have launched specific programs to directly address barriers to student learning. The next School Board must focus on effective execution and evaluation of these efforts including: the small schools and two large school programs at Berkeley High, nutrition and wellness programs, a more effective special education model, improved parent outreach with greater sensitivity to all communities in Berkeley, math and writing focus at the middle schools and continued strong support of the promising program changes at B-Tech. The Board must continue to hold the administration accountable for implementation of rigorous measurable student achievement plans reinforced by provisions under Measure A for enhanced teacher training and program evaluation. Finally, we must carefully rebuild our general fund reserves and continue to bolster an open and transparent budget process that reflects the values of our community and focuses resources on student achievement.

On November 7th I urge you to VOTE YES ON MEASURE A and to please support me for a second term on the Berkeley School Board.

My endorsements include: Alameda County Democratic Party, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Mayor Tom Bates, Council Members Laurie Capitelli, Linda Maio, Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington & Gordan Wozniak, Vice-President Alameda County Board of Education Jacki Fox Ruby, Peralta Trustee Nicky González Yuen, School Board President Terry Doran, School Board Vice-President Joaquin Rivera, School Board Director John Selawsky, Former School Board Directors Lloyd Lee, Miriam Rokeach Topel & Pamela Doolan, Current and Former Student School Board Directors Mateo Aceves & Teal Miller, PTA Council President Wanda Stewart and Past President Roia Ferrazares, BSEP Planning & Oversight Chair Dan Lindheim, BUSD Facilities Safety and Maintenance Oversight Committee Chair Bill Flounders, School Construction Oversight Chair Bruce Wicinas, Teacher George Rose, Retired Teacher Josie Gerst, BHS Development Group Co-Chair Susan Henderson, Parents of Teens e-list Founder Sally Nasman, Berkeley Democratic Club, Berkeley Citizens Action, Green Party of Alameda County, Berkeley Progressive Coalition, National Women's Political Caucus Alameda North (partial list)