Candidate for
Council Member; City of Richmond; 4 Year Term

Charles Ramsey was born in Berkeley in 1962 and his family moved to Richmond in 1965. He has had roots here since that time. After graduating from Berkeley High School, Charles attended and graduated from UCLA. After UCLA, Charles went to law school at Hasting School of Law, earning a law degree and passing the bar. For the last 25 years he's run a successful law practice. He is the father of two daughters, one currently at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and a one who is a senior in our local schools.

For the last 21 years Charles has served on the School Board for West Contra Costa USD. On the Board he has been committed to improving our schools and trying to give our kids the best possible education + while balancing the budget, paying off the state loan, continuing to provide quality instruction and keeping our district solvent through years of recession and reduced funding by the state.

With the help of hundreds of dedicated parents, teachers, administrators and volunteers, and the approval of voters, Charles has led the fight to rebuild or remodel nearly every school in the district, keep class sizes down, and preserve counselors, afterschool programs, maintenance operations for custodians, and librarians.

Charles founded the Ivy League Connection program, with the goal of encouraging a more "college going" culture and providing our kids with new role models. This unique, largely privately funded effort has exposed hundreds of our high school students to the world's most prestigious colleges, providing them with experiences and opportunities they may never have imagined. The program has helped build a feeling among district students that college is not only a possibility, but a goal, and helped increase the numbers of district students applying to college.