Belen Consolidated Schools Teacher of the Year: Len Ridley

“Humbling” is the word Len Ridley uses to describe being selected as the Belen Consolidated Schools Teacher of the Year.

“There was more than one person in that room that was nominated that I definitely would have voted for,” Ridley said of the reception where the top teacher for the district was announced last month. “Just to be there with them was rewarding. It’s humbling. It really is because I know there are people that are more deserving and better able to serve these kids.”

In his 24th year teaching, Ridley, a level 2 teacher, heads up the middle and high school alternative education setting program housed at Infinity High School.

Ridley said when students come to him at IHS, “it’s because they’ve made decisions that got them in trouble. They’ve been placed here because of behaviors. They cheat themselves the minute they come through the door because they no longer have access to the experts that teach … the core subjects.”

He and educational assistant, Saada Howard, pick up the work assigned by their core subject teachers and try to keep them current on their work, he said.

“When they’re here, in the three hours they’re here, we’re just working on the core classes,” he said. “They’ve lost their electives while there here, which is, ideally, no more than 45 days, then they go back to their classrooms.

His greatest qualification, “and I mean this fully, is I married the best teacher I know. Snooki Ridley, at Family School.”

When Ridley first stepped into a classroom, it was to be able to work some of his “church kids,” students who attend Chihuahua Bible Chapel in Veguita, where Ridley has been the pastor a past for more than 40 years.

“I never intended to be here as long as I have,” he said. “I work with the most amazing people everywhere I’ve gone. I’ve just been amazed at the teachers, the administrators, the support staff, therapists the amazing EAs.”

Ridley says he isn’t afraid to borrow or steal teaching methods that are proven to be successful from other educators and administrators, and takes pride in learning from students as well.

This is the second year Ridley has taught at IHS, with most of his classroom time spent at Belen High School.

While students are with Ridley in AES, he said his primary emphasis is that he and other instructors and administrators are in partnership with the parents.

“The assumption is that the parents are giving us the best they have, and that’s something I stole from an administrator, Tami Pargas, years ago,” he said. “I tell my students when they come in here, ‘I want you to know, I’m here to support you but I’m in partnership with your parents and we work to communicate.’ Sometimes families have had a bad experience somewhere along the way and if there’s any way to build or rebuild relationships so they can see just how much we do respect them and how much we’re doing together.

“I don’t want any kid to walk through the day without feeling like somebody took an interest in them, that they’re respected.”

On the wall of Ridley’s classroom is a banner with the word “kaizen,” which is the concept of continuous improvement.

“If someone is at 50 percent and they get to 51 percent, that’s improved,” he said. “I wish I could tell you that when kids are in here their grades go shooting up. A lot of times, it doesn’t happen that way, but that word up there, that’s what we measure.”

Belen Consolidated Schools Site Teachers of the Year

Caleb Ramsell: Belen High School

Veronica Maldonado: Belen Middle School

Jenise Martinez: Belen Family School

Bon Baca: Central Elementary

Deanna Silva: Dennis Chavez Elementary

Taylor Apodaca: Gil Sanchez Elementary

Sharon Bussell: La Merced Elementary

Lorena Baca: La Promesa Elementary

Christopher Sanchez: Rio Grande Elementary