This story was originally published by FIA Oakland.
Dr. Clifford (Clif) Thompson first ran for the District 7 school board seat for the Oakland Unified School District in 2020 because he felt the board was not focusing enough on what matters most: student achievement.
Now that there is some progress in that area, including passing a resolution to advance Black and Brown student achievement that Clif co-authored, he is not going to let the most important work fall by the wayside.
“There were so many other issues that took up all the time, so I would say refocusing our attention on student achievement has been my biggest accomplishment (on the school board),” Clif said. “And that’s not to negate the other work, such as making sure we are fiscally responsible and looking at post-secondary participation rates.”
Clif has worked in education for 40 years, and currently works as a teacher in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. He has served as an administrator and teacher for students in elementary school through college.
He said he has remained passionate about education for four decades because he cares so much about students finding their voice and seizing opportunities, just as he did as a young person growing up in the small, rural town of Oroville (in Butte County, north of Sacramento).
“I want young people to experience the passion I had for school growing up,” he said. “As a kid, you have so many ideas inside and you want someone to hear what you have to say, experience what you are feeling. I can be that individual who will hear what they have to say.”
Clif was one of 19 kids, growing up in predominantly white Orville where he said, “you could count the people of color on two hands.” He graduated in the top 10 percent of his class at Las Plumas High School and went on to college at UC Davis. He wanted to study to be a doctor.
Then he got a ‘C’ in chemistry and thought, “How can a doctor get a ‘C’?” That led him to explore other areas of study, and in his junior year he found his calling while volunteering at a school and supporting young people.
“I fell in love with it and decided education was what I was going to do,” he said. “I relocated to the Bay Area and started my educational journey from there.”
“That’s why I’m on the school board, to make sure we’ve adequately prepared students to pursue whichever avenue they desire,” he said.
A signature accomplishment of Clif’s on the school board was co-authoring (with District 5 school board member Jorge Lerma) “The Resolution to Advance Black and Brown Achievement.” The resolution sets goals around increasing the math, literacy and A-G completion and proficiency rates for Black and Brown students.
For Clif, writing the resolution was a personal passion and also a moral responsibility, ensuring all students can “get the most out of their education as possible,” he said.
“It’s a calling to make sure students have the opportunity to excel, and who better than me to actually allow that to happen?” he said. “Because I have gone through a lot of the same things our students are going through right now.”
Clif said he’s running for school board again because there is still so much work to do in the area of student achievement. He has worked in education long enough to know where the focus needs to be, and he feels a responsibility to deliver for young people.
“Students should be able to pursue whatever they decide, so if there is a roadblock and a young person feels that they cannot go any further,” he said, “that means that as a policy maker, I have not done my job in making sure there are avenues for he or she to go in any direction they wish.”