Higher reading scores, lower drop-out rates and national awards. Twelve years under Rick Gantman's leadership has Mount Baker schools basking in accolades and garnering blue-ribbon status from the U.S. News and World Report.
The work of out-going Mount Baker Schools superintendent Rick Gantman, who resigned to write a book and work as a business consultant, was celebrated at a dinner hosted by the South Fork Heritage Association in Acme on Feb. 10.
Gantman's hand-and-hip-boots-on style of leadership resonated in Mount Baker School District's tiny, pioneer communities in the South Fork. Here the work gets done on the DIY sensibilities of community members who know each other's families over three generations.
During side conversations and speeches, community and district leaders offered snapshots of Gantman in action: Here he is standing on the dike behind the bus barn wearing hip boots in a drenching rain; here he is engaging colleagues in passionate conversations about education and philosophy; here he is sharing hard-to-find data with an open hand; here's a guy who returns your calls every time.
"He's my favorite superintendent in my whole life," Whatcom County Councilmember Barbara Brenner said simply in the evening's shortest speech. "He was always so responsive."
To the Mount Baker School District, Gantman applied the same systems theories that helped Japan recover from the flattening losses of World War II. Put simply, it creates stability but also pushes forward, dropping ideas that don't work and building on those that do. Called the Continuous Schools Improvement model, it fosters "a culture of sharing, planning and working together."
Teachers in nearby districts threatened strikes at the mention of sharing outcomes, said school board member Ellen Dodson. This is because outcomes are used as a stick to hit them. In Mount Baker, teachers are welcoming more collaboration and data sharing.
Said Dodson of Gantman's legacy: "When something goes wrong we don't look at the individual, we look at the system. It is a system of mutual support. People can take risks and make change."
Natalie Everett is secretary of the South Fork Heritage Association.
