A Message from Gale Mondry, Board Chair

After eight years at the helm of Children’s Council, Sandee Blechman recently informed the Children’s Council Board of Directors of her desire to retire from her position as Executive Director by the end of June 2019.   

In addition to having more time for family, friends, travel and golf, Sandee intends to continue her (energetic!) involvement in the early care and education (ECE) sector, both locally and statewide, as a volunteer leader.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I can say that we appreciate her foresight in allowing for a well-planned executive transition, and that we are thrilled that she will continue to champion affordable, quality care for all children in San Francisco.  

[Click here to read a special message from Sandee]

Sandee’s service to Children’s Council and to San Francisco deserves our gratitude and commendation! She came to this organization in 2011 as a seasoned nonprofit executive, and quickly became one of our city’s leading ECE experts and advocates.  

Almost immediately after Sandee began, she had to navigate the impacts of major state budget cuts to child care during the Great Recession. She was at the helm of Children’s Council as funding for programs for children and families were under unprecedented attack.

Sandee at City Kids Family Fair.

Thanks to Sandee, we emerged from those tough times as a more resilient community, with stronger convictions about the critical importance of making quality child care and preschool a reality for all children in our city. 

Under Sandee’s leadership, Children’s Council grew to serve 20,000 families and 2,000 child care providers every year.

We modernized our brand and technology with accessibility as a top goal, including a mobile-friendly Child Care Finder search engine.

We doubled down on our commitment to helping people establish and build successful child care businesses through our Family Child Care Business Incubator and Family Child Care Quality Network.  

Sandee with Helen Blank, 2018 Child Care Champion.

During her tenure, Children’s Council began to build a base of private support to augment our government funding and launched our annual Child Care Champions Luncheon.

This year, Sandee spearheaded Children’s Council’s efforts to support Proposition C, the Early Care and Education for All initiative, passed by San Francisco voters in June.   

We’re excited to begin our search for a talented new Executive Director who will build on Sandee’s accomplishments. Our Board has formed a search committee, chaired by Board Vice-Chair, Anna Nordberg.

The search committee has engaged Schaffer & Combs, a respected Bay Area executive search firm committed to leadership searches in the non-profit sector, to help guide and coordinate our recruitment process. Please refrain from contacting Children’s Council with inquiries about the Executive Director search process. Click here to learn more. 

In the meantime, all of us—Sandee, her executive team and staff, and the Board—will continue to work hard to advance our mission to make quality child care and early education a reality for all children in San Francisco. 

Sincerely,

Gale Mondry
Chair, Children’s Council Board of Directors