Long time Davis resident Sandi Redenbach, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on November 18, 1940, passed away at her home in Davis, California on January 5, 2025 at the age of 84.
Sandi deeply valued education and dedicated her life to supporting academic success for others. She notably focused on at-risk students, as well as teacher education training to foster success in all students, at all levels, in the public school system. Early in her career, Sandi taught students in Solano County Juvenile Hall and later began teaching English at Woodland High School in Woodland, CA. Sandi was an amazing classroom presence, with an immense impact on her students’ lives both inside and outside of the classroom; many of her students remained in contact with her throughout the years.
In 1988, Sandi left the traditional classroom setting to establish the Independent Learning Center for Woodland Joint Unified School District. Here, Sandi was able to continue her efforts to provide educational support to a wide variety of students who, due to a variety of circumstances, were not able to achieve success in the traditional educational setting. The Independent Learning Center continues to operate today providing youth with an alternative path to graduation from public high school.
It was Sandi’s desire to support the love of education and in still in the next generations of teachers the drive to reach all students in fostering success; her generous gifts of time and resources allowed her to fulfill her dreams and establish her legacy. Sandi and her husband made a series of significant donations and bequests to the U.C. Davis School of Education in support of her passion for education. Sandi was the first Chair of the School of Education Alumni Council, developed by Dean Harold Levine and in 2014 was honored with an Aggie Service Award from the Cal Aggie Alumni Association. She was also an active committee member of the SOE Words Take Wing program and in 2016 she was named Alumni of the Year at Solano College where when she attended, one of her professors told her she would become a gifted teacher, and she was.
Sandi is survived by her husband of thirty-five years, Ken Gelatt, of Davis, California, and her loving, supportive long-term caregiver of almost nine years, Regina Ceaser. She is also survived by her daughter Cori Barton (Scott) of Washington; her grand-daughter Morgan Goldstein (Eric Tyson) of Santa Clara, California; her grandson Connor Goldstein (Brita) of Kneeland, California; and her former son-in-law Brian Goldstein (Yael Schauder) of Florida.
Services were held on January 9, 2025, with burial at the Davis Cemetery in Davis, California. A celebration of life followed, attended by family and many longtime friends. The family requests that any donations be made in Sandi’s memory to the U.C. Davis School of Education, and directed to The Sandi Redenbach and Ken Gelatt Teaching Credential STEM Scholarship in Honor of Dean Harold G. Levine give.ucdavis.edu/go/levine or The Sandi Redenbach Students at Promise Scholarship https://give.ucdavis.edu/DEDU/122588