Biography

Mike Katz is a computer security consultant. He has been married for seventeen years to his wife Margarita, a human rights activist. Their eldest daughter has attended McKinley Elementary for the past three years and their youngest daughter will start Kindergarten this fall.. Mike and his family have lived in San Leandro for ten and a half years and are committed to seeing San Leandro schools be the best in the Bay Area.

Mike was born in Texas while his father was in the Air Force, so he grew up in different parts of the country and the world, which gave him personal experience with different educational systems. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in Environmental Science. He has taught at the Lawrence Hall of Science, worked as a camp counselor, and volunteered as a computer tutor at the San Leandro Public Library. He belongs to the San Leandro Parents Network and is a founding member of the San Leandro Community Action Network and its Quality Schools committee. He is the founder of San Leandro Bytes, a blog about San Leandro. He has been involved with Amnesty International, School of the Americas Watch, Derechos Human Rights and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, among other groups.

Mike's notes from recent school board meetings can be found on the web site of the San Leandro Community Action Network. As part of his outreach and education efforts, Mike plans to visit all of the schools and hold meetings with parents, faculty, and staff to ask for their input on how we can do better for our students. Mike worked the phones in support of Measure A and walked and phoned for Measure B, the school facilities bond that funded a new ninth grade campus, an arts education center, and modernaization at all San Leandro schools.