Who’s the top public school superintendent in Washington? The answer is close to home
Bellingham Public Schools Superintendent Greg Baker has been named Washington’s state superintendent of the year for 2020.
Baker, who became superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools in 2010, was selected for the honor Saturday, Nov. 23, by the Washington Association of School Administrators.
“During the past nine years as superintendent, Greg Baker has provided visionary and principled leadership that has produced extraordinary results for the students in the Bellingham Public Schools,” Executive Director Joel Aune said in a Washington Association of School Administrators release.
“Greg brings a high degree of integrity and courage to the work, willing to ask difficult questions and make tough decisions in the best interest of the children and young people in his schools,” Aune added.
The school district has nearly 12,000 students in 22 schools. It employs more than 1,200 certificated and classified staff, according to the release.
Praise for Baker included the creation of what the school district calls “The Bellingham Promise.” Working with others, the superintendent discussed with the community difficult conversations, the release said, that included “differentiated funding based on student need.”
“This work, over an extended period of time, has yielded extraordinary results for student learning and achievement in Bellingham schools,” the release states.
Baker said the recognition was an honor and praised others who were part of the effort.
“I would like to acknowledge that it really represents the hard work of so many others,” Baker said in a release from the school district.
“In Bellingham, we have a united focus on The Bellingham Promise, our commitment to the students of our district,” he said. “To achieve what we have thus far, it takes a high performing and equity-focused school board, district leadership team, teachers, staff, labor leaders, all supported by an incredible community, with a deep love toward our nearly 12,000 exceptional students.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 10:16 AM.
