Stan Baker brings unparalleled expertise to the field of education, specializing in making things right through restorative practices. He taught from 3rd Grade to 12th Grade and was a teaching elementary principal for 11 years. In the last 11 years of his educational career, Stan held the positions of Behaviour Support Officer, Restorative Practices Coordinator and Safe Schools Resource Teacher with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, Stan has led transformative projects to strengthen educator-student relationships, improve school climates through bullying prevention and system wide school climate surveys. He led the 90 schools in the district in violence prevention through implementation of the Violence Threat Risk Assessment protocols which included a signed protocol with 47 community agencies which included 5 different police agencies. He was instrumental in revising and implementing the Police-School Board protocol regionally for 7 school districts and 5 police services. He applied his commitment to building student relationships to an innovative Smoking Cessation Project with the Peterborough Public Health Services for high school students addicted to smoking. With his leadership, the school district participated in 3 regional Situation or HUB Tables where community agencies met weekly to address situations of acutely elevated risk with small group visits to individuals or families to ask “How can we help?”
Stan’s research on trusted adult-student relationships underscores the importance of connection in reducing absenteeism. One research project investigated the impact of a trusted caring adult on student attendance in 5 district school boards. A second research project focused on building the connection between elementary teachers and the parents of students who were at risk of chronic absenteeism. As a speaker, he equips audiences with restorative strategies to make things right and build belonging, voice and agency. Stan currently hosts 2 podcasts, CircleForum and Principals’ Short.