Flora Russ

We don’t need to introduce Flora Russ because everyone in CP Academy knows her and she knows everyone. In fact, during the almost 40 years she’s taught in Berkeley Schools and the 24 years she’s been at Berkeley High School, one of her greatest joys has been getting to know parents and students over the course of four years of high school and continuing to follow their progress as they go on to colleges and careers. Recently, a former student wrote to tell her that he had been in her computer science class at King Middle School in 1973 and now teaches math and computer science at Brown University. Many of Flora’s students went on to become computer professionals. That’s because, after graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in Math and Science Education, Flora came to Berkeley in 1968 and began teaching at Martin Luther King. She was asked to teach a computer course for the GATE (Gifted and Talented) program, took computer courses at night, and quickly came to the conclusion that all students needed access to computer education. Flora continued learning and teaching about computers, obtaining her credential to teach at community college and teaching at Diablo Valley Community College and UC Berkeley Extension at night while teaching at King during the day and helping set up computer programs at Berkeley elementary and middle schools. She also found time to get her M.A. from Cal State Hayward in Science and Math Education.

We tend to think of Flora as our CP Academy coordinator, very much grounded in what is going on here with us, but Flora’s career is much bigger than our small school. She has worked and been recognized on a state, national, and international level. Her work with the EQUALS program at Lawrence Hall of Science led her to become one of the founding members of Expanding Your Horizons, a program that encourages girls’ participation in math and science that is now celebrating its 30th year operating at over 80 sites around the world. Flora was also one of a six-member team in 1986 that brought donated Apple computers to People’s Education Press in China. For her hard work, Flora has been recognized locally (when she was named Teacher of the Year in 1997 by the Berkeley Public Education Foundation and when she was one of two Honored Instructors at UC Berkeley Extension in 1990), statewide (in 1991 when she was named one of five honored instructors by the Computer Using Educators in Northern California), and internationally (when she represented California for the International Society for Technology in Education in an international competition and won).

In 1990, a Berkeley principal asked Flora if she would start a state partnership academy at Berkeley High and the rest is history. Flora believes that CP Academy is successful because of the way parents, students, and an excellent team of teachers work together to bring students out into the world and bring caring adults into the school. She loves being able to watch students mature and begin to realize what they need to do to get into college. She is proud of the fact that CP Academy helps students through the college process: selecting a college, applying, and finding the resources to pay for it. Here’s what Flora had to say about CP Academy, “The teachers are great, the students are great, and the parents are great.”

Ms. Russ's honors include Berkeley Public Education Foundation Distinguished Educator; Outstanding Technology Educator Award from the International Society for Technology in Education.

Flora Russ