Sheila's essay, "Theres no time to waste: An educator's approach to California governance reform," has been published in a new book that hit the bookstores this week. The work is Remaking California: Reclaiming the Public Good, by R. Jeffrey Lustig, with co-authors Dan Walters, Lenny Goldberg, John Syer, Ronald Schmidt Sr., Mark Paul and others. The publisher is Heyday Press in Berkeley.

Sheila joined U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee on May 17 for an art exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland. The photos show Sheila with Rep. Lee and with Lori Fogarty, Executive Director of the museum; the third photo shows the winning artwork.

The Alameda County Office of Education's Art IS Education program is ten years old this month, and as a part of the celebration Sheila attended the Destiny Arts Center's performance of ASYLUM at Laney College March 20. Here is a short video with highlights.

The following have endorsed Sheila's campaign as of 5/26/10: Name Hon. Bill Lockyer, Treasurer, State of California
Hon. Loni Hancock, Senator, California State Senate
Hon. Nancy Skinner, Member, California State Assembly
Hon. Sandre Swanson, Member, California State Assembly
Hon. Don Perata, Former President, California State Senate
Victoria Kolakowski, Administrative Law Judge, California PUC
Hon. John Dutra, Former Member, California State Assembly
Hon. Charles Plummer, Retired Sheriff, Alameda County
Hon. Alice Lai-Bitker, Vice-President, Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Hon. Nate Miley, President, Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Hon. Ken Berrick, Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Felix Elizalde, Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Eileen McDonald, Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Marlon McWilson, Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Jacki Ruby, President, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Fred Sims, Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Sarah Gonzales, Trustee, Hayward USD School Board
Hon. Conchita Tucker, Former Member, Alameda County Board of Education
Hon. Chris Peeples, Member, AC Transit Board of Directors
Hon. Joel Young, Member, AC Transit Board of Directors
Hon. Tony Batarse Jr., Director, Port of Oakland
Hon. Gilda Gonzalez, Director, Port of Oakland
Hon. Tom Bates, Mayor, City of Berkeley
Hon. Beverly Johnson, Mayor, City of Alameda
Hon. Tim Sbranti, Mayor, City of Dublin
Hon. Jane Brunner, President, Oakland City Council
Hon. Maxwell Anderson, Member, Berkeley City Council
Hon. Laurie Capitelli, Member, Berkeley City Council
Hon. Darryl Moore, Member, Berkeley City Council
Hon. Anu Natarajan, Member, Fremont City Council
Hon. Bill Quirk, Member, Hayward City Council
Hon. Kriss Worthington, Berkeley City Council Member,
Hon. J. Francisco Zermeno, Member, Hayward City Council
Hon. Abel Guillen, President, Peralta Community College Board
Hon. Garrett Yee, Member, Ohlone Community College Board
Hon. Jennifer Henry, Trustee, Dublin School Board
Hon. Tracy Jensen, Member, Alameda USD School Board
Hon. Nancy Riddle, Member, Berkeley School Board
Hon. Lara York, Member, Fremont USD School Board
Molly Barnes, Superintendent, Sunol School District
Dr. Dennis Byas, Superintendent, San Lorenzo USD
Diane Centon, Superintendent, Tri-Valley ROP
Stephen Hanke, Superintendent, Dublin USD
John Sugiyama, Superintendent, Emery USD
Milton Werner, Superintendent, Fremont USD
Christine Lim, Former Superintendent, San Leandro USD
Carpenters Union 713 Alameda County
IBEW Local 595
Building and Construction Trades Council AFL-CIO
Carl Jaramillo, Retired Labor Representative, Berkeley
National Women's Political Caucus
Stonewall Democratic Club of Berkeley
OakPAC – Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Alameda County Democratic Party
Vaseem Anjum, President & CEO, School City Inc.
Kim Boston, Parent, Berkeley
Ronnie Caplane, President, National Women's Political Caucus*
Michael Colbruno, Vice President for Government Affairs, Clear Channel Outdoor*
Rev. Earl Crawford Sr., Pastor, Praises of Zion M.B. Church*
James Falaschi, General Partner, Jack London Square Partners*
Mark Friedman, Executive Director, First Five*
Viola Gonzales, Former CEO, Latino Community Foundation*
Tom Guarino, Government Relations Manager, PG&E*
John Guillory, President, Educational Partnership Foundation*
Glen Jarvis, Architect, Oakland
Stephen Kasdin, Attorney, Oakland
Dimitrios Kastriotis, Member, FAME Charter School Board*
Fazlur Khan, Chairman, Change America Network*
Alfred Lee, Business Executive, PPI Inc.
Michele Levine, Program Director, Jewish Community Center of the East Bay*
Teresa Limon, Community Activist, Oakland
Chuck Mack, Co-Chair, Teamsters Pension Fund*
Donald Mar, Educator, UC Berkeley*
Arabella Martinez, Vice-Chair, Latino Community Foundation*
Howard Matis, Physicist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory*
Paul Miller, Attorney at Law, Fremont
Martin Nicolaus, Attorney at Law, Berkeley
Robert Raich, Attorney at Law, Oakland
Steve Rasmussen, Publisher, Key Curriculum Press
Rena Rickles, Attorney at Law, Oakland
Terry Roberts, Engineer, Terry Roberts Consulting
Jesus Vargas, Principal, VSCE Inc.
Ann Wettrich, Co-Director, Center for Art and Public Life*
Floyd Williams, Software Engineer, Oakland
____________________________________________________
* Organizational affiliation for identification only

Sheila's campaign kicked off strong on Thursday, March 11, as more than 50 guests assembled at 1210 Excelsior Avenue, Oakland to show their support. It being the week of International Women's Day, Sheila honored women in leadership, including:

• Jane Brunner, President, Oakland City Council
• Alice Lai-Bitker, Member, Alameda County Board of Supervisors
• Arabella Martinez, Vice-Chair, Latino Community Foundation
• Pastor Patricia Scott Brooks, Founder, Youth Learning and Cultural Institute
• Bobbie J. Brooks, Founder, Southern Alameda County Alliance of African-American Educators
• Ronnie Caplane, President, National Women's Political Caucus

The location was fitting and historic.  It's the home of Ida Louise Jackson (1902-1996), former President of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the first African-American woman teaching in Oakland public schools.  For more about Ida Louise Jackson, click here.

John Guillory, Partner, Strategic Urban Development Alliance LLC, and chair of the ACOE Educational Foundation, acted as the host and MC.  

Ronnie Caplane, president of the National Women's Political Caucus, Northern Alameda, led off by inviting audience members to turn to one another and speak about the most influential woman in their lives.

Jane Brunner, President of the Oakland City Council, asked people to dig deep and support Sheila's campaign.

The next day, March 12, Sheila's announced opponent withdrew from the field. Therefore, Sheila's name will appear unopposed on the June 8 ballot.

Here are some snapshots from Sheila's highly successful event:

Sheila participated in three different rallies on March 4 against the California State education budget cuts. She first appeared at noon at Juvenile Hall in San Leandro, in a demonstration organized by the local chapter of the Alameda County Teachers' Association and the California School Employees Association.  In mid-afternoon, she participated in the lively Berkeley rally in front of the Berkeley school district administration building.  Finally, she took BART over to San Francisco for the main event at Civic Center.  Here is a short (2 min 47 sec) video with highlights.  

The March 11 campaign kickoff event will take place at the home of Ida Louise Jackson, at 1210 Excelsior Avenue in Oakland.  Ida Louise Jackson was an education pioneer.  

Ida Louise Jackson was born in 1902 in Vicksburg Mississippi, a daughter of a former slave.  She attended private schools before transferring to public schools as a sixth grader, graduating from Cherry Street High School in 1914, enrolling at Rust College, but transferred to New Orleans University (renamed Dillard University) and graduated in 1917 with a Normal Teaching Diploma and a certificate in home economics.  

She moved to California, and after being told she was "unqualified" to teach here, she entered U.C. Berkeley in 1920, majoring in vocational guidance, counseling and education.  She graduated in 1922 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.  Her Master's degree was earned in 1923, also from Berkeley.  She attended Columbia University and there obtained her Doctorate.

Dr. Jackson was a pioneering black woman; upon being hired by the city of Oakland in 1926 she became the first black public school teacher in California, instructing elementary and high school students in American History.  While a student at U.C. Berkeley in 1921 (one of 17 black students) she was an organizer and charter member of the U.C. Berkeley Rho Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha. With support from the sorority in 1934, she founded what became known as "Mississippi Health Project." for whom she was general director for the eight years of its operation.   Over 4,000 children and many adults were treated in these mobile clinics, which traveled from plantation to plantation throughout Mississippi.

In 1979 Dr. Jackson donated her family's ranch to U.C. Berkeley, specifying that the proceeds of its sale be used as graduate fellowships for black students pursuing degrees there.

Dr. Ida Louise Jackson died in Oakland at the age of 93, in 1996.  

Dr. Jackson's written works include Development of Negro Children in Reference to Education (1923) and Librarians' Role in Creating Racial Understanding (1944). She received the Who's Who Among Colored Americans award in 1950.

(From http://www.lookoutranch.com/ida_jackson.htm) 

Other facts about Ida Louise Jackson:

• A residence hall at UC Berkeley is named after her.  
• She was awarded the Berkeley Citation by UC Berkeley in 1971.
• She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
• She was the first black teacher in the Oakland public schools; she taught at Prescott Intermediate school for 15 years and then at McClymonds High School.
• She served as Dean of Women at Tuskegee Institute and met Professor George Washington Carver.
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited her twice to the White House.
• She served as an Observer at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.

Her life story, published as Overcoming Barriers in Education, is available online here.

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Map location of the house:

Sheila has thrown her support behind the California Democracy Act, a ballot initiative authored by Dr. George Lakoff.  The initiative consists of 14 words:

"All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote."

Campaign organizers are now circulating petitions to place the act on the November ballot.  Sheila is among the petition circulators. 

If adopted, the measure would break the chronic logjam in Sacramento, where the vote of one third of the legislators plus one -- frequently representing sparsely populated rural  districts -- can block the decisions of two thirds of the body minus one, representing a huge majority of California's people.  

More information about the initiative is here.  A partial list of public officials who have endorsed the measure follows:

• US Congressman, John Garamendi

• US Congressman, George Miller

• Treasurer of the state of California, Bill Lockyer

• President ProTempore, CA Senate, Darrell Steinberg

• CA State Senator, Mark DeSaunier

• CA State Senator, Mark Leno

• CA State Senator Ellen Corbett

• Former CA State Senator, Tom Hayden

• Assembly Majority Leader, Alberto Torrico

•  Assemblymember Hector De La Torre

• Assemblymember Dave Jones

• Assemblymember Joan Buchanan

• Assemblymember Mary Hayashi

• Assemblymember Mike Davis

• Assemblymember Nancy Skinner

• Assemblymember Sandré Swanson

• Assemblymember Steve Bradford

• Assemblymember Ted Lieu

• Assemblymember Tom Torlakson

• Assemblymember Julia Brownley

• Contra Costa County Supervisor, Susan Bonilla

• Contra Costa County Supervisor, Federal Glover

• Culver City School Board Member, Karlo Silbiger

• Martha Parsons City of Antioch Councilmember

• Joyce R Starosciak City of San Leandro Vice Mayor

• Tim Sbranti Dublin Mayor

• Jim Frazier Oakley Vice Mayor

• Sheila Jordan, Alameda County School Superintendent

• Kish Rajan, Walnut Creek City Council

• Bill Quirk, Hayward City Council Member

• Ben Allen, Santa Monica School Board Member

• Kevin McKewon, Santa Monica City Council Member

• Joel B Young - Director Alameda - Contra Costa Transit District

For a complete list of endorsements, click here.  

Sheila joined a growing list of school leaders and public officials this week in endorsing the Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act.  

The Act, initiated by Californians for Improved School Funding, is a response to the severe education cutbacks coming from Sacramento.  It would permit local communities to place limited parcel tax measures on local ballots.  The amount of the increases and the purposes for which they could be spent would be sharply restricted, and seniors would be able to opt out.  In return, the measures could pass with a 55 per cent supermajority, instead of the two thirds required for traditional parcel tax measures.

Details of the new measure are here.  Among the endorsers to date are:

• Delaine Eastin, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Ellen Corbett, State Senator
• Joe Simitian, State Senator
• California State Parent Teacher Association
• Kenneth Hall, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, School Services of California
• Jean Holbrook, County Superintendent of Schools, San Mateo County
• Julian Crocker, County Superintendent of Schools, San Luis Obispo County
• Joseph Ovick, County Superintendent of Schools, Contra Costa County
• Sheila Jordan, Superintendent, Alameda County Office of Education
• Dr. Carl Wong, County Superintendent of Schools, Sonoma County
• Don Iglesias, Superintendent, San Jose Unified School District
• Jim Franco, Superintendent, Tracy Joint Unified School District
• Pat Gemma, Superintendent, Sequoia Union High School District
• Barbara Wilson, Superintendent, Pittsburg Unified School District
• Patricia Wool, Superintendent, Walnut Creek School District
• San Mateo County School Boards Association
• Oakley Union School District
• San Jose Unified School District
• Cabrillo Unified School District

An updated list of endorsers is at www.improvedschoolfunding.com/endorsements.aspx