Petaluma City Schools
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Community Spotlight: Douglas Bradley
Douglas Bradley has dedicated nearly two decades to the students and schools of Petaluma as a coach and teacher at Kenilworth Junior High. But that isn't where his story in Petaluma begins. At five-years-old, Bradley moved to Petaluma with his family, where he became a student in Petaluma City Schools long before he began teaching here.
Bradley attended Kenilworth from 1968-1971 when it was a 7th through 9th-grade campus. From there, Bradley went on to be a member of the first graduating class of Casa Grande High School in 1975, where he participated in cross country and track. After spending several years away from Petaluma attending college and beginning his teaching career, Bradley returned to Kenilworth in 2001 to teach science and math, and coach the track team.
"It was just exciting to me to be able to come back and teach and coach and work with some teachers who I'd had as a student here in Petaluma City Schools. Having taught in four different districts and four different schools, there's a lot of really great, great things happening here at Kenilworth. Very different from my other schools and it's been just a joy to be at this school and in this District."
Bradley is currently in his 18th year of teaching and coaching at Kenilworth, and in that time, he has taken over the head track coach position and begun a cross country team. Under Bradley's coaching, the Kenilworth students have added an impressive number of league pennants to the KJHS gym wall.
With 36 total years of teaching under his belt, Bradley is still taking on new challenges in order to become an even better teacher and inspire his students. Recently, he completed a professional development through National Geographic and became certified as a National Geographic Certified Educator. This is a professional development program that builds skills in creating interdisciplinary classroom activities that are centered around real-world problems at local, regional, and global scales. As part of his application, Mr. Bradley had his students study the factors that caused the smoke from the fires in Paradise to travel all the way to Petaluma.
Mr. Bradley is known for being a dedicated teacher and inspirational coach whose kind and supportive methods have inspired thousands of students over the years. As Bradley says, "If you're doing what you love, it's really not work. It's just fun. So I come to school every day knowing that I'm going to enjoy myself and have a great day."
Bradley running for Casa Grande track team when he attended.