El Cerrito's Robert Studdiford Honored for School Involvement

The only way to understand how Robert Studdiford could possibly do half the things he does is to spend enough time around him to see that he seems to have boundless energy and an interest in just about everything.

From bond and budget committees to soccer and mountain biking teams, the El Cerrito resident is involved in more school-related activities than most of us realize exist. For his involvement, which he said almost amounts to a full-time job, the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund, known as the Ed. Fund, is awarding Studdiford this year’s Distinguished Citizen Award.

The Ed. Fund will honor Studdiford, along with this year’s six Teaching Excellence Award winners and the Distinguished Staff Award winner, at its Excellence in Education Banquet May 20. The honorees will also be recognized by the West Contra Costa Unified School District board at its meeting tonight, April 13.

Studdiford got an inkling of what lay ahead even before his older son, Adrian, now a junior at El Cerrito High, entered elementary school. Studdiford helped make a giant model of the solar system for a science night at Madera Elementary School, where the children of a friend went to school.  He realized that as a parent, “This is what you do.”

When Adrian started kindergarten at the now-closed Castro Elementary School, Studdiford  quickly became immersed in , serving as vice president his second year and president the next two.  He also served on Castro’s School Site Council and later as president of PTA’s Bayside Council, which is made up of units from throughout West County. This led to his involvement on the school district’s Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee, on which he has served for six (nonconsecutive) years. He is expected to be appointed to another two-year term at tonight’s school board meeting.

He is also on the district’s Community Budget Advisory Committee, and is finishing his season year as president of the El Cerrito High PTSA.

He has coached for 10 years in the El Cerrito Futbol Club (soccer) and has been involved with the El Cerrito High mountain bike team for the past three years. Almost every weekend day his nine-seat vehicle is packed with soccer players or bicycles and riders.

He has rarely missed a school board meeting over the past seven years and ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2008.

This is on top of his work with Twofish Unlimited, a business he cofounded in 1993. The company’s genesis was a device Studdiford developed for attaching equipment to bicycles after his wife, Lauren Childs, discovered there was no good way to attach a pump, lock, and water bottle to her bike.

Why get involved in so many things?

“It’s fascinating,” is his first response. But there are other reasons: to gather information, to vote within the groups and otherwise have input, and, ultimately, to “affect change in a positive manner.”

Through his involvement, he said, he was instrumental in having the high school utilize solar energy, followed by other district schools. He also successfully pushed for complete kitchens in rebuilt schools following earlier projects with only warming ovens, a distinction he said is important because schools could play a critical role in our community in an emergency. He’s proud of and said that despite the very real budget crunch facing California schools, the West Contra Costa district is ahead of other districts in doing the hard work needed to put it on sound financial footing.

On a more personal level, he values working directly with young people. “You’re another adult who is paying attention to them” and having an influence that will stay with them their whole lives, he said.

He’s proud of sons Adrian and Liam, a sophomore, for their involvement in activities such as soccer, biking, a community service club and band, as well as their school work and skills like growing, preserving, and cooking food.

“My kids are doing better than I did in school. My family sees that education is important. They’re well rounded.”

Though his sons will soon be through with the K-12 school system, Studdiford said, “I think I’ll be in PTA forever. It’s taught me about democracy, to use my vote wisely.”

This year’s other Ed. Fund honorees are Michael Driscoll, a site supervisor at Richmond High School, and teachers  Jean G. Larocette, Coronado Elementary in Richmond: Andrew deHoll, Pinole Middle; Jason Lau, DeJean Middle in Richmond; Laura Buffi, Valley View Elementary in Richmond; Morgan LaRue, DeJean Middle; and Sofia Close, Middle College High School in San Pablo.

For more information about the Ed. Fund and the dinner see http://www.edfundwest.org/.