Valarie Bachelor is a member of the Oakland Unified Board of Education in California, representing District 6. She assumed office on January 9, 2023. Her current term ends on January 11, 2027.
Valarie Bachelor earned a high school diploma from Falls Church High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from George Mason University in 2007. Her career experience includes working as an organizer.[1]
General election for Oakland Unified Board of Education District 6
The ranked-choice voting election was won by Valarie Bachelor in round 2 . The results of Round are displayed below. To see the results of other rounds, use the dropdown menu above to select a round and the table will update.
Valarie Bachelor completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Bachelor's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
I’m a product of working class immigrant parents who fought to make sure my public school education gave me the tools I needed to thrive. As an English language learner I struggled to fit in and catch up to my peers, but I had the support of caring educators and classified staff who helped me to grow, learn and thrive. Because of my parents' commitment to my education and caring educators I was able to graduate and attend a 4 year university and find career in the labor movement. I’m running for school board because I want working families in Oakland to feel like they can count on OUSD to give their children everything they deserve. I want to keep our school open, resource ever classroom and stabilize our educator workforce. As a school board director I will fight to rescind school closures and develop a budget with community input that supports our students and respects the work of dedicated educators and school staff.
Retaining and recruiting quality educators and classified staff
Fully Funding the Reparations Resolution
Fully Implementing the resolution to provide universal access for disabled students and community members
Fully funding our classrooms so our students can have all the resources they need to thrive
Expanding restorative justice programs
Supporting English Language Learners
Expanding the Pathways, Building Trades programs and other apprenticeship, internship and job placement programs
My mom is one of my sheros. Ever since I could remember she worked 2-3 jobs to make sure we had food on the table and a roof over our heads. She wanted a better life for my sister and I so she did everything she could to make sure we got a good education. I remember coming home from high school to let my parents know that I won first place in the science fair and she cried. She couldn’t believe how far I had come and told me “Mija, estoy muy orgullosa de lo que has logrado y de lo que aún vas a lograr. (I'm proud of what you have achieved and for what you will achieve in the future)" Everything I do is to make her and my ancestors proud, and they have collectively taught me that we always need to think about the generations to come. How will this decision affect the 7 generations that come after us? What actions can we take now to ensure our children's children can have access to high quality public education? As a school board director I will not only ask these questions but find solutions with the community and make decisions that support our values. Mi mama wouldn’t let me do things any other way.
As a union organizer, I have learned how to support people in identifying issues, develop a strategy to make the changes they want to see in their communities, build coalitions and taking action in order to win. These are skills that Oakland families need on the school board now.
9/11 happened while I was in my High School Accounting Class. I remember our teacher getting the news from an administrator and then walking over to turn the TV on so we could see what was going on. I had friends that lost parents who worked at the Pentagon.
I was a Page at my local library in High School for 2 years. I was tasked with putting books back on the shelve that were returned to the library and helping patrons with questions.
At different points in my life I have struggled to belong. Moving to a new country at a young age and not speaking the language. Being bi-racial and not fitting in perfectly with either of my cultures. Having progressive values and living in a more conservative state (grew up in Virginia). In Oakland I finally feel at home. I love the community, the culture, the art, the history and the struggle to make meaning change. I'm proud to be here, and down roots in this community.
To create a budget that supports the whole student and strengthens public schools. Directors also have oversight of the superintendent and administrative staff.
By looking at the budget in it's entirety, opening up a transparent process for analyzing the budget that included students, faculty, staff, and community, then making collective decisions on what we need to fund and what cuts we need to make.
I want to partner with community organizations like Parent Voice, Oakland Rising, Bay Area PLAN, Brotherhood of Elders, CURJY, Latino Taskforce and more to broaden community support for our schools.
Yes, we need to recruit AND retain more diverse district’s faculty, staff, and administration but it takes a plan and resources. I would create a committee to develop a plan with the help of diverse staff who currently work in the district and work with them to roll it out. It will take time but we can only do it if we have a plan first.
Educator and staff turnout gets in the way of quality education. We can mitigate this by paying educators and staff at school site more to ensure they are not living pay check to pay check, respect their contract and provide them with the necessary support to be successful.
Truancy is other issue that gets in the way of students getting a quality education. So we need to provide programs before, during and after school that are incising to our students. We also need staff who can check up on students and families to support them in getting to school and not have that fall back on the educators at the school sites.
School closures is another issue that gets in the way of quality education. Every time we close a school we cause trauma to our students, families and the community at large. We need to rescind school closures, fully fund our classrooms and stabilize our school system so that our students can grown, learn and thrive.
Good teaching is engaging, meaning and transformative. You can measure it by the confidence students have, their ability to problem solve and collaborate.
We keep ourselves safe. What that means to me is that we, as a community need to act collectively to keep our students and school staff safe. That means, working with city, state and federal officials to get guns off the street. That means hiring more counselors, restorative justice coaches, nurses and culture keepers to support students.
Hiring more counselors, restorative justice coaches, nurses and culture keepers to support students. We also need to make school a fun place to be so having before, during and after school programs to engage students is key. But we need to provide the additional staffing to cover those activities so we don't continue to dump more work on faculty and staff. We also need to respect faculty and staff by increasing their pay, respecting their contracts and engaging with labor leaders to help solve problems that come up.
Technology is playing a huge role in the world so it must play a role in the classroom. We must give students all the resources to access and use technology so they can be prepare for the future. We need to do a needs assessment for each school site to see what tech they have, what tech they need and then work to get our facilities and tech up to modern standards.
We need to incorporate social emotional learning in everything that we do to process the trauma that kids are facing. We also need to work with city and state leaders to support our students in getting the technology they need both at school and at home to be able to thrive academically. That means WI-FI, laptops/tablets and access to software that support the work they are doing in the classroom
I plan to attend school site events, School Site Council meetings and PTA meetings to engage with parents. I want to support school sites in creating ways to be inclusive of parental involvement like holding meeting virtually, developing fun activates at school sites for families to attend and support school sites in being the centers of our communities.
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