Milken Foundation honors Jennings Creek Elementary teacher with $25,000 award

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – At Jennings Creek Elementary School, students are curious as to why their superintendent and the lieutenant governor are in the gym. What they and one teacher do not know is that his life is about to change.

“Two weeks ago, we had a meeting with myself, Mr. Clayton, and then two people from KDE to let us know that somebody’s been selected here and they let us know it was Mr. Baker. But we were sworn to secrecy. Teachers were speculating all week. They thought wild things, but I was trying to make them think Taylor Swift was coming and all kinds of things to get them out there, because all of our teachers are super intelligent, but they’re inquisitive. So they actually mentioned the Milken a couple of times… I just had to act like I never heard of it,” principal Cody Rich says.

Baker didn’t win $25, $250 or even $2,500. He won $25,000 from the Milken Foundation for being one of the top educators in the United States.

“I hope it allows me to continue getting better at what I do because I don’t feel like I’m worthy of being recognized to be one of the top teachers in our nation. So hopefully I can learn from people who have even more wisdom and know how than I do. I’m very humbled, though, to be a part of it,” Shane Baker, a third grade teacher, says.

Interim education commissioner Robin Kinney is excited for Shane and reiterates how important teachers are to the commonwealth.

“I wish we could recognize them all with a very special ceremony to each and every one of them. But we must keep remembering that in schools across the Commonwealth there are great teachers like Mr. Baker everywhere,” she says.