Public Comment

I thought some attention should be brought to the fact that Berkeley has never had a sitting school board director seeking opportunities to volunteer their time, as well as their family's, to serve in communities that are far under served and represented, to receive resources and support, to address the poverty, unemployment, crime and crime prevention and finally the education gap. 

Leah Wilson really doesn’t have a vested interest in South Berkeley and I'd dare say that South Berkeley didn’t vote her on to the School Board. 

My name is Scott Blake, and I’m the Community Outreach Director for Bay Area Youth Connection Foundation and Triple Crown Horsemen Association which both are 501 (c) 3's located in Berkeley and housed at McGee Ave. Baptist Church on 1640 Stuart Street.. 

I am a life long member of McGee and resident of Berkeley, and had the pleasure of meeting Leah Wilson at Berkeley Arts Magnet where our children both attended and where I saw her engage parents and school site administration and budgetary issues that would best serve the students. 

I supported her run for school board and participated on her campaign which I truly believed she would win because of her knowledge and passion and desire to educate all of Berkeley's kids, and to look at other ways of doing business, because 20 years of failure should signal a time for change, which is what I view Leah Wilson as for education in Berkeley. 

To my surprise our new school board director. contacted me and asked if she and her family could come to the church’s food program to volunteer, not because it’s holiday time and she feels guilty for having more than others, but because there is a lesson of service for her children and a view into the lives of the less fortunate, and just in case she didn’t know, but many of our BUSD students who are homeless and just plain poor come through the doors of McGee Ave, Baptist Church. 

It is holiday season yet the economy has nearly destroyed the will to give and the organizations and churches who fill many gaps are not functioning at the levels they once were. McGee is here feeding three days a week and providing much more, but my hat comes off for Berkeley's newly elected School Board Director. Leah Wilson and the city’s and district’s should as well.