District chooses Baker as its new superintendent
CUPERTINO >> The Cupertino Union School District board has selected Craig Baker as its next superintendent.
Baker has been superintendent of the San Carlos School district for eight years. He will succeed Wendy Gudalewicz, who was ousted in the spring. Baker is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.
The district notified parents of the selection via email Monday.
“We all agree that Dr. Baker has the proven ability and experience to enable CUSD to remain a top performing district that will continue to provide the best education possible for all students,” board President Anjali Kauser wrote in the email.
Baker has worked as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent in the Redwood City and Pajaro Valley school districts. He also headed the Robert N. Noyce Center for Learning at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, and has served on the Redwood City Elementary school board.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UC-Santa Cruz and a doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco.
In recent years, the district had been beset by successive controversies, beginning with Gudalewicz’s wholesale transfer of teachers and other staff at West Valley elementary school in 2015. Parent and community unrest continued with Gudalewicz’s selection of consultants, support for the controversial Vallco Shopping Mall redevelopment, choice of a “loyalty oath” to swear in newly elected board members last fall, and cancellation of annual Yosemite field trips.
The board announced March 15 that Gudalewicz would leave at the end of the school year. A month later, she was forced out. A month later the board changed course and forced her out immediately. It appointed two of its top administrators, Chris Jew and Stacy McAfee, as interim co-superintendents.
The Cupertino district serves about 18,600 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in Cupertino and parts of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, west San Jose, Los Altos and Saratoga
The board will meet to consider Baker’s contract at 6 p.m. Aug. 15 at Nimitz Elementary School; 545 Cheyenne Dr., Sunnyvale.