A lot of newly hired chief executives like to hit the ground running, spending their first week in their leadership role shaking things up and sweeping with the proverbial new broom.
New Superintendent of Schools Karen Baldwin took a different approach, for her first days on the job July 1 through 10, when she spoke with The Press.
“I want to hit the ground learning,” Baldwin said in her office, in the Venus Municipal Building, colloquially known as the old high school, with huge windows overlooking a baseball field.
Her office features a large solid wood conference table, set with clear plastic bins of chocolates like Mr. Goodbar, for those who stopped in to meet her.
And they were many. A reporter waited in the lobby while Baldwin met with all her administrative staff and then with a top administrator.
She said she’d met with dozens of local officials and school community figures over the past week.
“But the best part is going out and meeting the kids,” Baldwin said with a smile.
Serving the children is the focus of her career in school administration. It has been a part of her makeup since her earliest years in the field, as an athletic director.
She has 5,300 children in the district to look after.
“My vision is student centered,” Baldwin said. “It’s the ability to make things happen, to lead change, to mobilize people together around a vision of what could be best for our kids.”
She’s adjusting well, said Austin Drukker, chairman of the school board.
“She’s been able to meet with a lot of parent organizations. She’s met with staff and administrators, and making good progress so far. We’re excited to have her on board,” Drukker said.
Prior to Ridgefield, Baldwin was superintendent of schools in Suffield, for four years. There, she implemented a full-day kindergarten program; led a turnaround effort to improve the educational benefit for children receiving services in special education; developed a five-year Strategic Plan with the local Board of Education; and started a Chromebook initiative at Suffield High School.
She is big on technology.
“The kids are naturally into technology. It’s a matter of how to integrate it into the classroom to be part of the learning process,” she said.
Baldwin also served as superintendent of the Watertown public schools, from 2008 to 2011, where she led a large-scale change and improvement effort and completed a three-school, $84-million renovation project.
She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Hartford Educational Leadership Program.
Baldwin works with the University of Connecticut Executive Leadership program, presenting annually to aspiring superintendents on effective district leadership practices and organizational change and improvement. She is active statewide with various organizations in leadership development, and school improvement planning.
Her pathway to executive leadership was shaped by experiences as a building administrator at both the middle school and high school level, and by five years in central office leadership as a director of human resources and assistant superintendent for the Wethersfield Public Schools.
Baldwin owns a home in Hartford, but she is looking for a condominium or townhouse in the Ridgefield area, as well.
“It takes a commitment to the community, to be here for all the functions and community events,” said Baldwin, who commutes from Hartford each day and often gets stuck in construction traffic at night.
She began her career in 1998 as an athletic director in Fallsburg, N.Y. From there, she moved up to be a department supervisor of physical education and health in West Hartford, before becoming a middle school assistant principal in Wethersfield.
In addition to her doctoral degree, she has a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the university of New Hampshire, a master’s degree in educational administration from Columbia University Teachers College, plus additional credits and certification at the University of Hartford and the University of Connecticut.
“The opportunity to build upon the past success and reputation of the Ridgefield Public Schools is one that is very appealing to me,” she wrote in her interview questions, when applying for the job.
Baldwin’s Ridgefield salary is $225,000 a year, plus a $10,000 annuity.
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