My Bay Area Kid Website Mission

This site is a community effort to improve our educational system in California, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.  It seeks to bridge communication between parents, legislators, school personnel and business owners, while focusing on the belief that we all want to see our next generation better educated than ourselves and ready to tackle the next challenge for our children and future generations.

Readers will see recurring themes, with Ms. Edwards-Bryan's extraordinary pieces on school board and state educational finance current events, and Ms. Yee's continuing attempts to create a vibrant sub-community of economic activity which benefit our local schools. Readers will also find useful tips, local events and personal research surrounding the authors' own experiences in raising a child in the Bay Area.

Gail Edwards-Bryan

Ms. Edwards-Bryan is a transplant to the Bay Area, formerly from Texas.  In the three years she has called Fremont, California home, Ms. Edwards-Bryan has been an active member of the community, attending Fremont Unified School Board (FUSD) meetings and participating in the democratic process -- often through the wee hours of morning.  This website is an extension of a FaceBook site that Ms. Edwards-Bryan started, called "FUSD Parents Against Class Size Increases."  Ms. Edwards-Bryan's site is a plethora of useful information -- information that parents need in order to understand what issues are important to the educational community.  With her inauguration here, Ms. Edwards-Bryan is bringing her wealth of expertise to a larger arena.

Ms. Edwards-Bryan has a elementary-school-aged child currently enrolled in the Fremont Unified School District, as well as a preschooler.

Charlotte Yee

For Charlotte Yee, a transplant to Fremont, California from Honolulu, Hawaii in the 1990s, this site has been a personal journey bridging her formal training as an economist with her belief that there are far more pareto optimal (win-win) educational solutions than we as a society seek.  This is her investigation into the needs of San Francisco Bay Area schools, followed by methods that schools and businesses can use to improve communities while simultaneously benefitting their mission.

The formation of this idea began last year, after she wrote a short article for the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.  In this article, "Non-profits and Startups: The Heart of the Matter,"  Ms. Yee began by suggesting that rather than simply throw money into conventional marketing such as newspaper ads, local businesses should approach schools more with proposals that permit their dollars to go toward a service or needed product.  Likewise, Ms. Yee suggested that schools approach businesses with a business-oriented perspective.

It was in 2007, Ms. Yee left the ranks of government to put theory to practice.  She started a company called The Art Blossom.  The Art Blossom pairs preschools and elementary schools with parents to produce prints from student art. The theory behind the company is that a civic-minded company can produce a wholesome educational product to enrich the visual arts, increase student self-esteem, and make money for schools all at the same time.

Ms. Yee has a nine-year old and a five-year old currently enrolled in the Fremont Unified School District.