David Baird, who has served as KSBA’s associate executive director since 2005, will take on new duties starting June 15 when he becomes the association’s interim chief administrator.
KSBA President Durward Narramore of Jenkins Independent said Baird will serve in that capacity until the association board of directors completes its new search for a successor to Bill Scott.
A career educator, Baird has been KSBA’s associate executive director since retiring in 2005 as superintendent of the Eminence Independent school district, a post he held for 16 years. A former teacher, principal, coach and athletic director in the Carroll County and Eminence systems, he is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and Morehead State University, with additional studies at Georgetown College, Xavier University in Cincinnati and the University of Louisville.
Kentucky’s Superintendent of the Year in 2005, Baird was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Morehead State University in 2007. During his tenure at Eminence, Executive Educator magazine named him one of the Top 100 educators in America.
Narramore said that when the KSBA board opted to reopen its search for a new executive director, he knew it would be necessary to appoint an interim, adding that Baird was the board’s unanimous choice.
“We need someone with great integrity and the respect of those who know him, with an understanding of how school board members and superintendents think, someone who could relate to the state legislature and also the Department of Education and understands how to operate an organization internally dealing with the day-to-day operations and the staff of KSBA,” Narramore said. “It didn’t take me but a few seconds to know that David was the right person for this interim role.
“While at the NSBA conference, I talked to David about the possibility of becoming the interim. He stated that he would be interested if that was what the board of directors wished,” Narramore said. “He said he had no interest in becoming the full-time executive director, but would serve as long as necessary to make sure that the leadership of KSBA and the continuity of services would not be hampered.”
The KSBA board is expected to announcer a new a timetable for reopening the executive director search this summer.
Baird’s position as associate executive director will not be filled in the interim. His duties in that job will be assumed by other members of the association’s senior staff for the time being.