Dr. Amos Isaac Announces His Candidacy for Redlands Unified School District Board

An educator who once volunteered with the Peace Corps wants to serve his hometown, Redlands, Ca., as a member of the school board. Redlands Unified School District voters have an opportunity to elect this long-time community leader on November 7.

Redlands, CA (PRWEB) September 15, 2006 -- Dr. Amos Isaac, a long-time Redlands educator and community leader, has announced his candidacy for the Redlands Unified School District Board.

“My goal is that Redlands Unified encourage and support all of its students to academic and personal success,” he said. “By doing so we will continue our past success as one of the top academically performing school districts in the state.”

A specific improvement he would like to see is a decrease in the number of students performing below state academic performance targets. He recommends the district celebrate any increases in the numbers of students meeting these targets.

Dr. Isaac is a long-time contributor to the success of Redlands Unified School District. His service and tenure started in 1960, when he became the second African-American teacher employed by RUSD.

Dr. Isaac served as a role model for his students. He first taught at Lincoln Elementary, which was and still is mostly attended by minority students, and later at Kimberly Elementary.

One of his former elementary school students is now a school principal; another is a college professor.

“As a teacher, I am so proud of what my students have accomplished,” he said.

Dr. Isaac’s years at Lincoln Elementary were the start of a long career in education as a teacher, administrator and educational consultant.

As a resident of Redlands, Dr. Isaac was a member of Concerned Citizens, an organization that brought together political and educational leaders and community service organizations to improve the quality of education for all in the Redlands Unified School District. Dr. Isaac continues to live by the organization’s principles in his quest to serve on the school district governing board.

After a few years of teaching, Dr. Isaac went on to receive a Master’s degree at University of Redlands, a Ph.D. in education at Claremont Graduate School and additional units of graduate study in education in San Bernardino, and in Birmingham Alabama, Washington DC and Montpelier, France. This adds to the Bachelor’s degree he earned at University of Redlands before he started teaching, as Dr. Isaac has lived in the Inland Empire since childhood.

Prior to moving to San Bernardino as an elementary school student, he attended school in a one-room schoolhouse in Briley, Texas. From that experience as a young child, to some of the large auditoriums used as classrooms at the universities he has attended, Dr. Isaac has seen just about every type of classroom imaginable, and has taught in almost as many different situations.
                                                                                                    
He has traveled to Africa on several occasions to improve educational opportunities for residents of that continent. This started with a two-year stint in the Peace Corps from 1962-1964, during which he had the opportunity to meet with renowned African missionary Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

Dr. Isaac’s educational consulting work though Isaac Consultancy is still ongoing, both in Redlands and throughout the world. But this 72-year-old candidate retired from another career as a San Bernardino County social worker in 2003.

“I will have time to be an active school board member, and plan to visit all of the campuses, meet with school employees including administrators, teachers and support staff, as well parents and friends of the district, and represent the school district at community events.”
He is also running on a platform that the Redlands Unified School District needs to serve all segments of the community.

“You can’t do the job you are elected to do unless you know your community and are prepared to be responsive,” he said. “My commitment has been to serve all of these segments of the Redlands Unified School District service area.”

Although Dr. Isaac has run for election to the Redlands Unified School District board before, he ‘s making an even stronger showing in the community now. The proof: When he first ran in 1997, he received 5,196 votes. In his last election bid, for the San Bernardino County School District Governing Board, Area E, he received 10,259 votes.

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