In memoriam: Louise Perez
Published: May 29, 2012
Louise A. Perez, a veteran school board member with the Sacramento City Unified School District who served as CSBA president in 1995, died of cancer May 8. She was 65.
“Louse was an extraordinary woman who served her community in every way: as an elected official, statewide leader and role model for young Latino women and men, and the founder and longtime executive director of an important community organization,” CSBA President Jill Wynns noted. “She was my friend and I will miss her.”
Perez had retired in April after serving 25 years as the executive director of Community Resource Project, Inc., an advocacy organization that provides housing, health and education programs for needy families throughout Sacramento, Sutter and Yuba counties.
She began her career working with programs to prevent dropouts in Sacramento-area schools. She went on to serve on many community and educational committees, including a White House commission on education and dropouts and the board of the National Dropout Prevention Association. Perez was on the Sacramento City Unified board for 14 years. She spoke Spanish as her first language and made the needs of immigrant and disadvantaged students a special focus of her school board service.
Survivors include her husband, Jose, and a son, Jesse.