In this 23-minute podcast, our new Superintendent of the Bainbridge Island School District, Peter Bang-Knudsen, responds to questions about his personal background — such as his discovery of his passion for helping kids — and his forwarding-looking goals and vision for our public schools, teachers and students.
Our elected School Board conducted a national search and chose Peter, who graduated from Bainbridge High School, has children in our schools, knows our community well, and has been serving as Assistant Superintendent since 2010. He was hired by our much-admired outgoing Superintendent Faith Chapel, who found Peter in a leadership role in the Bellevue school district.
Faith is retiring after a long career in education and about 8 years service to BISD as superintendent.
Peter officially takes on his new role on July 1st. In this conversation recorded on June 23rd, he responds to questions about:
- Experiences during this transition period
- How his interest in education arose
- Examples of early formative experiences in public education
- His professional career path
- Examples of his responsibilities as Assistant Superintendent in recent years
- His support for ongoing collaboration with our four other local government units (City, Fire, Parks and Library)
- His views on emerging policy issues and practical concerns
- His thoughts on the right balance in a small district between special options programs and more widely shared curriculum and approaches
- His views on the most important measures of success for our public schools
- What Peter’s message might have been if he had spoken at the recent commencement for graduating seniors
Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters