(InEDC) BY News Release Published: Aug 20, 2023
Education pioneer and longtime El Dorado Hills resident Margaret Fortune recently announced her candidacy for the open El Dorado County Board of Supervisors District 1 seat.
Fortune enters the race having spent her career building and leading a network of public charter schools dedicated to lifting up the academic performance of underserved students across Sacramento and San Bernardino counties, advising two California governors on education policy and operating an organization with 460 employees and a $52 million budget.
“We need more ‘let’s get this done’ from our elected leaders, more cooperation and better decision-making,” said Fortune. “I’m running because I, like most residents, love the community spirit and amenities of El Dorado Hills and want to see our community flourish.
“That includes bringing seniors more housing opportunities they can afford and that let them downsize if they want without having to move away. We must protect our open space, ensure public safety, improve wildfire prevention and response, and it’s time for greater fiscal responsibility,” She continued. “We achieve these goals through leadership and action. That’s what I’ll bring.”
In addition to her business experience in the nonprofit sector, Fortune has been an education advisor to two California governors, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. She was the chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, a commissioner on the First 5 California Commission and a trustee on the California State University Board of Trustees for eight years.
Fortune’s parents were educators and she went to school with them as a child. She wanted schools to be better for underserved children in California, so Fortune founded Fortune School, a network of 12 public charter schools, serving 2,200 students located in Sacramento and San Bernardino. She has built nonprofit schools from the ground up, while growing her team to 460 educators focused on a mission to prepare low-income students for college starting in preschool through 12th grade. Fortune founded an early college high school in partnership with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cosumnes River College where in 2023 100% of seniors graduated, 82% were accepted to a four-year college and over a third earned full-ride scholarships.
Known as a problem solver, Fortune was asked by Butte County’s school superintendent to help re-open seven schools that had burned down in the Camp Fire. Volunteering in the wildfire relief effort to help the children of Paradise get back to school moved Fortune to stay engaged in wildfire prevention. She was elected to the El Dorado Resource Conservation District Board in 2023.
A graduate of University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s in political science, Fortune earned her master’s in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo awarded Fortune an honorary doctorate for her contributions to the field of education.
Fortune, 51, has lived in El Dorado Hills with her wife Anette for nearly a decade. Anette grew up in a small town in Germany and is adjunct faculty in child development at Folsom Lake College.
Fortune is running for supervisor for District 1 to serve the community where she and Anette have made a happy home and found friends with common values. She loves living in a community where people care about friendship and family. Her goal is to build on the tradition of solid leadership so the communities in District 1 continue to thrive.
