Candidate for
Trustee; Pajaro Valley Unified School District; Trustee Area 6

  Sandra Nichols, PVUSD School Board Trustee--Biographical Information

Sandra Nichols, immediate past-president of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board, was elected to her first school board term in November of 2000. Sandra was the only candidate for local office in Santa Cruz County to unseat an incumbent in that election.

Sandra represents PVUSD's Trustee Area 6, which includes Larkin Valley, Freedom, Corralitos, the Pinto Lake area, parts of Aptos, and the northern portion of Watsonville. Area 6 schools are Amesti, Calabasas, and Freedom Elementary Schools, and Rolling Hills Middle School. She is the only trustee fluent in both English and Spanish, and the only board member who attends all board meetings.

Along with her duties on the school board, Sandra is a Speech and Language Specialist in her 19th year with Santa Cruz City Schools. She has been a member of the California Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO for the past 18 years. Sandra is a well respected member of the public education community and recently served on the County's Children and Youth Commission having been appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. She is a mother and a dedicated advocate for children.

As a writer, her essays have attracted the attention of educators around the world. Her Education Matters column appears monthly in the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian and occasionally in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. These essays are available on her web site, www.Education-Matters.com. She recently gave permission to have her column on the High School Exit Exam published in a college text titled "California Dreams and Realities" to be published in December 2004 by Bedford/St. Martins, New York, NY.

Sandra attended public schools in California, graduating from Grossmont High School in l965. She was an honors student, and obtained her Bachelor's of Arts degree in English, Spanish, and Speech Pathology from the University of Redlands in l969. Sandra was awarded her Master's degree in Speech and Language Pathology from San Jose State University in l979. She remains proud of the 4.0 GPA she earned in her graduate work. She obtained her credential, the Clinical-Rehabilitative Services Credential, from the State of California in l978. For many years Sandra was a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and was awarded that organization's Certificate of Clinical Competence in l979.

For the past 26 years, Sandra has served students at all levels as a speech and language specialist in California public schools. For Santa Cruz City Schools, Sandra specializes in diagnosis and treatment of bilingual students with speech and language disorders. Previously, Sandra worked for the Santa Clara County Office of Education becoming their bilingual language specialist, and briefly worked for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, with similar duties in a wide variety of assignments. Sandra has dedicated herself beyond the call of duty presenting parent workshops and inservice programs to encourage parent participation in their children's education and to promote the acquisition of English language skills.

Sandra was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, April 11, l947. She moved to California in l948, and has lived here ever since. Peter Nichols, her husband of 25 years, is a teacher, writer, and editor. Sandra has two children; her son Kelly, 37, is a graduate of San Diego State University, and her daughter Jessica, 25, graduated from Aptos High in 1997 and Sonoma State University in 2001.

Sandra is bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish and has traveled extensively in Latin American countries. While a high school student, she and her family entered a cultural exchange with a Costa Rican family. She traveled independently to Costa Rica living there while developing her Spanish language skills and her love of multiculturalism. Sandra has maintained contact with her "Costa Rican family" and returned to visit them again in l989, bringing along her husband and daughter. Always seeking to improve her Spanish language skills, Sandra has taken classes through adult education and at Cabrillo College, and she traveled to Morelia, Mexico for additional study in Spanish and to take classes for educators.

In l970, Sandra moved to Santa Cruz County, originally living in Boulder Creek and subsequently moving to Santa Cruz. From l971 to l974, she worked as an eligibility worker and social worker for the Santa Cruz County Department of Social Services at the Watsonville branch office and at the Santa Cruz main office. In l993, she and her husband purchased their home and moved to the Larkin Valley area of Watsonville.