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Joy Moore, a community nutrition outreach worker for the City of Berkeley, is considering a run for the Board of Education in November. 

Moore, who also coordinates the Ecology Center’s farm fresh choice program, an organic farmer’s market at three child care centers in the city, said she will decide whether to run by the end of May. 

If she joins the race, Moore would be the fifth candidate in a growing field of contenders for three slots on the school board. Incumbents Shirley Issel and Terry Doran, and activists Nancy Riddle and Derrick Miller have already declared they will run. 

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oore, who is African-American, said nutrition, health care and increasing the minority presence on the board and throughout the district would be top issues. 

“I see a need for a broader representation,” Moore said, calling for an increase in African-American, Latino and Asian-American staff members and board members. 

There are currently no African-Americans on the school board and one Latino. According to data from the California Department of Education, 11.3 percent of Berkeley teachers and 17.4 percent of administrators last year were African-American, compared to 35.7 percent of students. 

“I love Joy Moore,” said Doran, welcoming his potential rival into the race. “I’m very actively encouraging people of color, and from south and west Berkeley, to jump into the race. It is an area, for awhile, that has not had adequate representation.” 

Riddle said she does not know Moore well, but met her during the successful 2000 campaigns for Measures AA and BB, which provide the district with additional funding for construction and maintenance. 

“I find her a very outgoing person with a lot of positive energy,” she said. “It would be excellent if the board better represents the student body.” 

Vikki Davis, a member of Parents of Children of African Descent, a leading advocacy group, said she did not know Moore but would be interested in learning her views on the issues. 

Moore said she intends to speak with PCAD and other parent groups about their concerns is she decides to run. 

Davis said PCAD may put forward a candidate of its own. 

“She’s talking with her family, she’s talking with her husband,” Davis said of the potential candidate. 

Davis said PCAD is in consultation with Latino activists, and that she hopes to see a Latino on the slate as well. 

“We need to have a whole slew of candidates running,” she said, suggesting that a single African-American or Latino member of the board may not be able to focus the district’s attention on the “achievement gap” separating white and Asian-American students from African-Americans and Latinos. 

Issel said the current board has a strong commitment to closing the gap, as evidenced by its early literacy program aimed struggling elementary school students. 

PCAD is one of several groups in the larger Coalition for Excellence and Equity, which has called on the district to break up Berkeley High School into a series of small schools, in part to address the achievement gap. 

Moore said she does not have a solid position on small schools but is interested in “anything that will help people with limited resources.” 

Moore, who serves on the district’s child nutrition advisory committee, had high praise for the district’s garden programs at several schools. But she said she would push for fresher, higher quality foods in the school cafeterias if elected. 

Beebo Turman, who serves on the nutrition committee with Moore, said she has been a “very good advocate” for healthy food in the schools for years. Turman said Moore would be effective in pushing that agenda as a school board member.  

Moore said boosting attendance at the middle school and high school levels would also be a top priority. State funding formulas, she noted, are based on attendance. 

Moore said she wants to consult with her family before making a final decision on whether to run. If she does run, Moore said, she intends to stage a grassroots campaign with very little fundraising.