Even though new Kewanee School Supterintendent Rebecca Baney grew up in Hanover, Ind., and graduated from Indiana State University, she and her family have called Kewanee home for the last 24 years.
Baney has spent her entire educational career within the Kewanee school district, teaching ninth and tenth grade English, guiding other teachers as an instructional coach, and serving as principal at Belle Alexander and Kewanee High School before becoming Kewanee’s first female superintendent.
During her tenure as a teacher, she earned high praise as the first in the district to implement a paperless classroom, with all materials and assignments available in digital format, a feat which led the district to be well-prepared for remote learning when the Covid pandemic struck.
Additionally, it was in Baney’s classroom that the KHS Abilities Awareness week was born. When a student asked how to thank life skills students for all their work within the school, Baney facilitated a full-blown, school-wide project to celebrate and honor these students. Now Abilities Awareness Week has become an annual event, culminating with the incomparable life skills prom.
Baney was also featured on WQAD Channel 8 as a recipient of the Pay It Forward Award.
When she noticed students staying at school late due to many extra-curricular activities, she worried about them finding time for dinner. Baney began supplying meals to any hungry students after school, not through any school-funded means but simply out of her own generosity.
“Passionate adults inspire kids to be passionate about school. The key is providing the right people, the right places, the right opportunities.”
Supt. Rebecca Baney
Daily, she arrived to school with several crockpots full of food that would be ready in time for the inevitable after-school crowd that would gather in her classroom.
Considering her past accomplishments, it is no surprise that her goals as superintendent focus on the people. She credits retired Dr. Chris Sullens for his tremendous work in improving school facilities, creating a school campus coveted by area districts. He has built a solid foundation on which she hopes to honor and continue his good work, improving facilities when it improves opportunities for students.
Her primary goal is to help faculty and staff ignite passion in the students, helping them to see how education provides a path forward to exciting career goals.
“Passionate adults inspire kids to be passionate about school. The key is providing the right people, the right places, the right opportunities,” said Baney, who insists she will never be satisfied with the status quo because, as good as we are, we can always get better.
On the board in her office, she has listed her core tenets: Celebrate, Elevate, Communicate, Support and Protect. These apply to staff and students alike.
Supt. Baney thinks of a school like an ecosystem, where all the parts work together, allowing each individual to flourish. Everyone, she said, just needs someone to support them and believe in them.
These quotes illustrate the powerful impact she has had already:
