Celeste Winders joins Sonoma Valley Unified School District race

Lifelong Sonoma resident and education advocate Celeste Winders announced on Wednesday that she is running for the Area 2 seat, currently occupied by Melanie Blake, on the Sonoma Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees.

Winders will be running against Fetters Springs resident Joe Lemas, who announced his candidacy on Monday, the same day Blake said that she will not seek reelection to the board in the Nov. 8 election.

Winders grew up in Sonoma Valley and attended local schools. Two of her four children attended district schools and two are currently enrolled in them. She has served for several years on the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan Committee and Equity and Inclusion Taskforce. She was also a co-founder of the district’s Special Education Advisory Council.

As an active participant in school board meetings during the past eight years, Winders says she has focused on “ensuring that educational services, district policies and student dollars are managed in a manner that is transparent, equitable and accountable.”

Winders is a non-attorney advocate for Strategic Education Advocacy, a business that she co-owns with Sonoma mom Mindy Luby. She was recently appointed by First District Supervisor Susan Gorin to the Springs Municipal Advisory Council.

She worked for several years at Sonoma Developmental Center and was the executive director of Sonoma Valley Teen Services (El Nido) in 2007. Before that, she worked at the Index-Tribune.

Winders is a founding member of Save Your Six, which provides resources that teach families about students’ rights, and educate school districts about compliance with the federally protected Civil Rights Act, so that all children can go to schools that provide a welcoming environment.

She also is a founding member of Sonoma Valley’s Food for All / Comida Para Todos, which originally began to support the Springs community during the 2017 fires, and now collaborates with a network of community organizers to fill needs throughout the pandemic, including distributing food, medical and emergency supplies and creature comforts.

Reach the reporter, Dan Johnson, at daniel.johnson@sonomanews.com.