Final tally: Celeste Winders is the new School Board trustee

When the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters published announced Friday the official outcome of the November election, Celeste Winders had won the Area 2 seat, nosing out Joe Lemas by 11 votes. The Sun asked the newly-elected trustee how she viewed her upcoming work.

“My role as a trustee is first and foremost to be a good steward of children’s educational dollars and their educational minutes. Our schools belong to the kids; the funds, the work, the decisions we make are for them. Everything we do in public education comes down to two things: What are we doing to ensure that every single educational minute for kids is meaningful and beneficial? And, when spending educational dollars that belong to the children, are we spending those dollars in ways that provide educational benefit for the kids? ”

Winders said she understands the collaborative nature of board work. “A trustee works in collaboration with the other board trustees but also with the community, families, staff and teachers and district staff.”

This one of the District’s most challenging times, she said — there is turmoil, loss, and trust has been eroded. “We have to talk about these hard things. Meaningful change begins with courageous conversations and hard truths. As a district, as a board, we have to walk right into the middle of the hard things and problem solve head on. It means being uncomfortable, it means working hard, but I know that this is the work we all want to do because I know we all love these kids, and that is our North Star as a community and as a board.”

Winders, mother of four children who all attended District schools, has made school board meetings a priority in her life, attending almost every meeting for the past nine years.  “Participating in local school governance is crucial to being part of the solution.”

She also points out her work on various District committees. “I have sat on the LCAP committee, the Equity and Inclusion Task Force and was one of the founders and co-chairs of the Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC).” She told the Sun she has also participated in many focus groups, did parent outreach for those groups, and has sat on on several hiring panels for school principals and positions within the District office. All this has been under the leadership of three superintendents and two Interim Superintendents, prior to the current Acting Superintendent.

Winders says that community members have asked her to run at every election cycle, but had not “because it is really important to me to never do anything halfway.  If I am going to do something and take on a responsibility this large I need to be able to give 100%.”

As the parent of four kids, and three who have IEPs  (Independent Educational Plans) and many needs, she needed to be present for them in a way that required more of her physical time. Now her kids (two still in school), they have developed more skills, have more supports, and this allows her at this time to be able to step into the role of school board trustee and give 100%.

Commenting on the effect of the pandemic, Winders points out that things were challenging before COVID in our district, affirming, “We can’t blame everything on the pandemic.” She continues, “The reality however is that COVID did amplify these challenges. I would argue that we are in a crisis and we need to take action for kids, who are  literally surviving a global pandemic where their entire lives have been upended. They missed important developmental learning milestones. We have to approach serving the kids with this lens, and build an infrastructure that supports these needs.

“That means also supporting the staff on the ground with our kids. Things are not as they were, we have to think outside of the box, have courageous conversations and do some innovative work. A key piece to this work is setting ego aside and being willing to try things, and being willing to say something we tried is not working. Measure the progress and come back to the table together as a team and adjust as needed.”

The new trustee is optimistic, but knows this will not be a quick fix, but rather a marathon. “We will succeed because I know how much our community loves these kids. We are going to all do it together, always holding ourselves accountable to the children. It will be messy sometimes and that is okay. …I am ready to do this work and I hear over and over from the community that they are too. If we feel ourselves getting off track as a community, we just need to remind ourselves why we are here and that the hard work is always worth it.”