When Patrice Berry looks back on her childhood, growing up in a segregated Maryland town, she says that “reading saved my life. Education saved my life.”
“I experienced things as a child that really affected me,” she said, “and school provided a safe haven for me. Reading provided an escape for me.”
Now Patrice is running for the District 5 Oakland school board position because, from her experience as a student, an educator and now a parent, she knows how transformative education can be for a young person.
“We have to create the conditions necessary for our students to be able to read and do math, because of what reading and math unlocks for them long term,” Patrice said.
Patrice currently works as the Chief Impact Officer for End Poverty in California (EPIC), and education and community service have been hallmarks of her career. Before working at EPIC, Patrice was an Executive Advisor to Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf where she worked on post-secondary programs directly with students and before that the East Palo Alto Director of College Track. She began her career as a public school teacher in Philadelphia and also worked to turn around a community school there.
As Director of Academics at College Track, Patrice supported hundreds of first generation students to successfully matriculate to 4 year universities.
“A lot of my career has been about helping students realize their dreams, their aspirations,” she said. “TK-12 is only one part of their lives. I want it to be true that OUSD is preparing every student for the life that they want thereafter.”
Patrice remembers the struggles her mother went through navigating the public school system so her kids got the education that was rightfully theirs.
“She was always at the school, trying to figure out how to move the puzzle pieces around to give us what we needed,” Patrice said. “It shouldn’t be that hard.”
She wants to be an advocate and a voice for parents like her mother on the Oakland school board.
“I think I can be effective as a school board member because it will allow me to work on behalf of people who don’t have the option, who don’t have the time,” she said. “Who really lean on the system to care for them and their families so that they can live out their aspirations for themselves and for their kids.”
District 5 has a number of charter schools, evidence that parents are trying to do what is best for their child, Patrice said. She understands that perspective as a parent of two young children.
“That’s what parents do,” she said. “I think it should be true that parents can trust the school system to give their children what they want. That’s a large part of why I’m running.”
She also sees the large disparities in quality of education for Oakland students as a big issue, with some schools performing way above the state average and many more performing far below it.
She is also an advocate for community schools and said it’s also important to pay attention to the well-being of students, not just how well they are performing.
“The things I lead with include student outcomes and well being,” Partrice said. “And I think they are linked.”
“From my own experience as a student and an educator, students are carrying a lot,” she said. “We have to make sure we are resourcing students and families because you can’t accomplish the mission of a school district without taking care of the whole child.”
Patrice has long been a passionate education advocate, and now as the mother of two children she said there is more urgency now. “It’s more real for me now,” she said. And it’s compelled her to run for school board.
“Education is a personal passion of mine, and there are a number of ways that I can serve,” she said, “but this is the opportunity that is the most values-aligned.”