Staff reports

The Washington Association of School Administrators has named Auburn School District Superintendent Kip Herren the Washington State Superintendent of the Year.

The program recognizes the outstanding leadership of active, front-line superintendents and pays tribute to the men and women who lead the state’s public schools.

“I am honored and humbled by this award, knowing full well that it recognizes the work of Auburn School District teachers, principals and district leaders who have proven that all students can achieve high levels of academic performance,” Herren said. “I congratulate the school board and community for their role in creating conditions for academic success, regardless of demographic or social economics, all for the love of students and their future.”

“Auburn is blessed to have Dr. Herren as our superintendent, due to his focus on kids, staff and the Auburn School District patrons,” said Ray Vefik, president of the Auburn School District Board of Directors. “He embodies advocacy, role modeling, leadership, integrity, a hard-working attitude and is not afraid to talk about change.

“Dr. Herren represents the best in a superintendent. Under his leadership, the Auburn School District is well on its way to fulfilling the aspirations of being a world-class education system,” Vefik said.

As winner of the state award, Herren is among the finalists for the 2015 National Superintendent of the Year award, which is to be announced in February.

Herren has been in education for 40 years, 35 of those years in the Auburn district, with seven served as the district’s superintendent.

Under Herren’s watch, the Auburn School District recently won the Road Map Collective Impact award for closing achievement gaps. During the last three years, Auburn schools have won 52 individual Washington State Achievement Awards owing to implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), a teacher leader academy, distributed leadership, data analysis for continuous improvement, standards-based teaching and reciprocal accountability for learning, and systems innovation.

The district has 15,000 students with 56 percent poverty, 25 percent Hispanic and 2,500 English language learners from 65 different first languages.