August 30, 2018
By Ishika Jha
Andrew Baker is the new associate principal at Lexington High School, following former associate principal John Murray’s departure to be principal at Medway High School.
Baker has been involved in the Lexington Public Schools community for a number of years. He was previously a teacher in the LHS English department and for the past three years, he served as President of the Lexington Education Association.
As associate principal, Baker has many goals to tackle: a new schedule, ways to bring the school community together, and ways to help alleviate the stress environment. However, Baker first wants to focus on reconnecting with the school.
“My office has been in this building but I’ve been between the nine schools and the central office almost every day for the last three years, just driving from one to the other. So even though this is a place I know, I feel like I need to reintroduce myself to this place and to people. I feel a real need to connect with them so it’s a lot of listening, it's a lot of learning,” Baker said. “My goal is to be as visible as possible, to get to know the life of the school again, and to connect with the student groups.”
To do this, Baker says he plans to get into a lot of classrooms to talk to as many LHS students as he can and run enrichment sessions in I-block to get feedback from students.
Looking forward, Baker plans to continue the work that was started in the past few years by creating a greater community feel and helping to calm down the levels of stress in the environment at LHS.
“It’s really important that we do things all together as a school, because there’s 2300 students. There’s so many that it’s hard to make it the place feel like a community and the place is too big so you can feel an anonymous sometimes. I think if we could look for more opportunities to pause and celebrate together or learn together or maybe even just do something out of the ordinary, it’s a way of taking a breath and recharging your batteries,” Baker said.
For all of the LHS students about to start a new school year, Baker has a message: “Every school year is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. So if you experience success right out the door, great. Try and replicate it, reflect on what you did and keep trying to do it. But if you didn’t, keep plugging away. It’s a long school year, there’s a lot to learn, and just because you don’t get something right away, doesn’t mean over the course of the year you won’t. So don’t give up!”
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