Denise Baxter is a physical education teacher at Central Kitsap high school who has been working as a teacher for 33 and a half years. One of those years was at Clover park school district, and the rest at CK. 

Baxter attended college at Louisiana state university. One of her main motivators for becoming a teacher was that she played basketball in college, and she always wanted to coach, so that led her to teaching and coaching in highschool. She did start in special education. 

We have had Mrs. Baxter here teaching for a while now, and she is planning on retiring at the end of this semester. What might have influenced this decision? 

“I contemplated going out last year but because of Covid and online teaching I just didn’t want to end that way,” Baxter said. “I really just wanted to get back in the building and work with the kids. If you have P.E. online, it just really doesn’t make sense. I just didn’t want it to end that way and I can go out at the end of the semester…I didn’t see myself finishing up the year” 

Baxter is planning to enjoy herself after retirement as well, with vacationing and sports and such. 

“Well, for the first couple weeks I am going snowboarding and skiing. That’s kind of my gift to myself, up in Canada,” Baxter said. “After that, we’ll head to our place in Arizona and play some golf. My husband Bill [Baxter] will retire as well at some point so we’ll spend some time in Phoenix.” 

Baxter also has some parting advice for students, and any, not just her class. 

“You need to put in the work, you need to put in the effort to work with your teachers if they are giving you chances and opportunities and you need to take advantage of that,” Baxter said. “Right now coming out of Covid we have so many students that just are for whatever reason not putting in the extra effort when their teachers give them opportunities… so just put in the work and it will pay off.” 

Lars Jorstad is the other Physical education teacher here at Central Kitsap High School. He has been a teacher in CK for 32 years, and he has known the Baxters for quite a while. 

“I have known Mrs. Baxter for all 32 of those years, in fact more than 32 years,” Jorstad said. “We were friends, I’ve been friends with the Baxters even before she came here to the school, so a long time, 33-34 years.”  

Jorstad also said some things about Baxter’s career and her teaching method. 

“Mrs. Baxter, most of all, is very consistent. She’s very thorough, she follows up and she holds students accountable,” Jorstad said. “So she has pretty high standards, yet she is really a caring teacher and lets students know that she cares, just in her own way… and she gets the best out of students because she holds them accountable.” 

“If you look over someone’s career over that long of a time, its really just something where you can see all the accomplishments and just all the number of students that she affected, it’s a lot right… So that’s important.” Jorstad said

Mrs. Baxter had some closing words for students.

“When I am walking away from this, its just been the best job in the world,” Baxter said. “If you feel like you enjoyed high school and the environment, I would say go into teaching. A lot of [people] have not only the ability [to teach] but also the ability to make connections to the kids and that’s really important.”