How long has Greg Baird taught at Murrieta Valley High School?

He worked there before it was built.

The seemingly impossible is possible. Baird taught there when the campus shared its location with Shivela Middle School, 24515 Lincoln Ave., (If you’re dubious, it says so on the first page of the high school yearbook that year.), in the days when Murrieta was growing so fast, building campuses to keep up was mostly wishful thinking.

The permanent campus, 42200 Nighthawk Way, opened in 1991.

Baird is the only teacher left who has taught continuously at the school since it opened in 1990 at the Shivela site. He is retiring at the end of the school year in June. His wife Betsy teaches at Murrieta Elementary School, so education runs in their marriage.

Baird outlasted Cynthia Erbal, who also taught at the high school since it opened and who retired last year.

In the staff photos of that first high school yearbook, Baird looks young enough to be a student.

Today he’s 62 and obviously would no longer pass as a teen. However, he likes to play songs from the 1970s during down time in class.

He grew up in San Diego, attended Escondido High School, then Palomar College, and finally California Baptist University in Riverside. He’s about as Southern California as it gets.

Like the more than 8,000 students he estimates he’s taught, he too has learned a lot in 36 years of teaching, all in Murrieta.

He started in 1989 teaching math, history and graphics arts to seventh and eighth graders at the Alta Murrieta Elementary school campus. Yes, another head scratcher, because a lot of campuses doubled up in those days in the city.

Back then he says he focused on the rules, curriculum and grades, stuff that matters.

But as he’s matured as a teacher, he’s taken into account more his relationships with students.

“It’s what’s important,” he said. “At the end of the day, you want to have more of a connection.”

He learned that from colleagues, parents and kids. One friend and parent, Mark Wyatt, the father of a girl he taught, has a phrase for that philosophy, he said, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Words to teach by.

A government and history teacher now, he knows how to weave current events into his curriculum. Murrieta voters kept rejecting school bond measures in the 1990s, including one by just seven votes. The result was that many of the schools had mostly portable classrooms, making for a dreary community vibe in a town that prided itself on attracting young families.

At the time, Baird asked his students, many who were 18 and old enough to vote, if they hadn’t gone to the polls. Many hands in the classes went up, meaning had enough of those voted for it, the measure would have passed.

As Baird noted at the time, democracy in action. And talk about learning a lesson.

Murrieta voters eventually approved the funding and today the city’s schools are real buildings and just a few portables.

Baird was at the epicenter in the late 1980s when the town first exploded with growth. He remembers junior varsity football games played at Alta Murrieta Sports Park, while the varsity had the privilege of playing in a real stadium, albeit Temecula Valley High’s. Today Murrieta has three high school football stadiums.

His talents were recognized in April 2018,when he was the subject of the “teacher spotlight” in the Student Government Affairs program newsletter, a national nonprofit organization. He’s also worked with many of Murrieta Valley’s most famous students, including professional golfer Ricky Fowler and Major League Baseball players Tyler Wade and Patrick Wisdom.

He runs into former students around town constantly. “It’s cool,” he said.

What’s even cooler is the subject that he has taught for so long, government. “I really believe our nation is the greatest country and it’s because of our system and the people from all over the world who are here,” he said.

He would know.

Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com.