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Aspen School District Superintendent David Baugh will leave his position on June 30 to become executive director of the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, according to a Wednesday announcement.
The school district’s board of education will discuss “next steps” at its March 6 meeting, according to the announcement. In the meantime, Baugh said in a statement he would work “tirelessly” with the board to ensure a smooth transition in leadership.
“It has been my privilege to serve as Superintendent of this great school district in this great community,” Baugh wrote in an email sent to the Aspen schools community. “It has been a pleasure and honor to get to know so many of you and your children — I appreciate all you do for this school district.”
A joint ASD-AVSC news release distributed Wednesday said AVSC offered Baugh the position after a “10-month process.” After Baugh and AVSC engaged in initial conversations about “the two organizations sharing leadership,” the AVSC search committee became interested in bringing Baugh aboard, the release says.
AVSC Board President Ryan Smalls said in the release that Baugh will help the club strengthen its collaboration with the school district and implement the club’s strategic plan.
“Dave’s decorated career in education and leadership of the Aspen schools inspires a new chapter of collaboration and possibility to best support the dreams and development of all our kids,” Smalls said in a separate AVSC letter on Wednesday.
Baugh will replace Mark Godomsky, who left his post in the summer of 2023 to take a job in his home state of Maine. Godomsky was AVSC’s executive director for seven years.
Under Baugh’s leadership, ASD advanced toward becoming an International Baccalaureate School District and executed a voter-approved bond issue, according to the release. Baugh navigated ASD through the COVID-19 pandemic and built “teams to improve student academic performance,” the release says.
“I am proud of the progress that ASD has made, particularly our advancement toward an IB School District and our stewardship of the voter-approved bond issue,” Baugh said in his letter. “The ASD team has grown together in areas of student achievement and academic progress; we continue to provide rigorous instruction, our systems continue to improve and most importantly, we educate young people who will go on to be inquirers, caring, open-minded thinkers who will make a difference in the world. Thank you for your support of our teachers, school programs and most of all your support of the wonderful students of ASD.”
Before ASD, Baugh worked as a superintendent in Pennsylvania, where he was named the state’s superintendent of the year in 2020, according to the release. Baugh became ASD’s superintendent in May of that year, following a nearly yearlong search to replace John Maloy, who left in the summer of 2019. The board extended Baugh’s contract in 2022, according to the release.
The release states that Baugh is an “avid” downhill skier.
“I am excited about the opportunity of enhancing our partnership between the district and the club as well as leading AVSC’s work in making a positive, enduring difference to countless current and future budding and accomplished athletes from Aspen to Parachute,” Baugh said in the release.
In another recent development involving ASD leadership, Assistant Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry was announced as one of three finalists for the open school chief's job with the Roaring Fork School District.
Mulberry has been with the Aspen School District since 2015, first as the principal of Aspen High. He’s been the district’s assistant superintendent since 2020, overseeing the implementation of the International Baccalaureate program, and helps guide the district’s strategic planning.
The Aspen Daily News could neither reach Baugh nor Smalls for comment by press time.