From six high schools and 10 intermediate schools, only one out of 16 principals can be named the district’s best. This year, that honor belongs to Klein High School’s principal. On Feb. 2, 2022, Brandon Baker was named Klein Independent School District’s Secondary Principal of the Year. 

“The one thing I said immediately after I won, that I believe is true, is that it’s a recognition of we, not a recognition of me,” Baker said. “So I think a lot of things have to be going in your favor. I think that we have unbelievable kids at Klein High School, I think we have great parents here. And then on top of that, I think our teachers and our staff are the best I’ve ever worked with. And as a principal, you could be doing a lot of things right, but if those other pieces aren’t in place, it’s not going to function the way you need it to function.”

As principal, Baker puts Klein High School at the forefront of every decision he makes and supports both students and faculty in everything he does, believing in a policy of supporting kids to support teachers.

“Mr. Baker is very one hundred percent supportive of me and every other assistant principal in the building,” Robert Gilbert, assistant principal, said. “The way he specifically supports me is he knows I have aspirations, and he supports those by making sure that he puts me in opportunities to grow and learn. He challenges me to always improve.”

Baker holds Klein High School to the blue and gold standard of excellence. Whether it be monitoring the hallways, being on duty at a sporting event, or checking for IDs, Baker pays attention to everything that impacts the school on a larger scale.

“He wants Klein High School to be the best at everything we do,” secretary Lisa Klein said. “When data comes in, he wants our name at the top of the list. And he’s funny. He’s exciting. You can see the wheels turning when he’s thinking of something, hey, I think we can do this and be great at it, and you can see that he wants everybody to succeed.”

Upon witnessing how his father’s lack of college education limited his job opportunities, Baker began to see education as opportunity. He began his career in education after realizing he wasn’t athletic enough to be in the NBA and started out as a teacher and coach before moving to Klein ISD, where he ultimately exercised his master’s degree to take up his first job in administration at Klein High School. 

“I wanted to be sure that I was invested and that I had gone through everything I wanted to go through as a teacher and as a coach,” Baker said. “And so once I felt like, okay, I think I’ve done that, I felt like I was up for a new challenge. Once I made that decision, I didn’t look back.”

Gilbert said that he’s proud to say that the resulting honor of Principal of the Year came from Klein High School.

“You think about this, this award that Mr. Baker received as Principal of the Year,” Gilbert said. “You’re talking about multiple high schools [and intermediate schools] in this district. And being that somebody who won this award, he is extremely deserving [of it].”

Baker said that he likes what Klein High School is now. According to him, the competitive nature of the school has existed since before he arrived, and he works to build upon that foundation.

“I would say my proudest accomplishment is that we’ve continued having an expectation of excellence since I’ve been here,” Baker said. “It hasn’t been that we [suddenly] don’t want to be the best in what we’re doing. We continue doing the things that make us different and unique.”