Sohn takes “final flight” at Baldwin School

Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 6, 2026

QUINCY — The bright orange T-shirt helped Baldwin Principal Jim Sohn stand out on the next-to-last day of the 2025-26 school year.

So did the shirt’s message about the “final flight” for the veteran educator wrapping up three decades in schools.

Sohn doesn’t know if there’s ever the right time to retire, but “it’s time for me for new adventure,” he said. “I have 30 years in public education, and I’m not ready to stop doing everything, but I’m ready to just make a change.”

Sohn continues work through June 29 in Quincy Public Schools, then looks forward to spending time with family, relaxing and “figuring out what Chapter Two is going to be all about.”

Sohn’s first chapter started with earning a degree in psychology and working as a counselor with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in an afterschool program in the Chicago area. Realizing that he could make more of a difference if he had a role in kids’ lives all day long led him back home to Quincy and Quincy University for a master’s degree and a career change into teaching.

Sohn started in QPS in 1996, volunteering time in the classroom of a neighbor who taught special education at Quincy Junior High School. “Three weeks later, it turned into a one-on-one para job during the day while I was taking night classes,” Sohn said.

He taught at Quincy High School for a year, then at Baldwin for six years before moving into administrative roles with the Mendon district for six years before returning to QPS as principal at Madison School, then transitioning to the same role at Baldwin.

“It’s been nice to see the different areas, the different grade levels, the different people you meet,” Sohn said.

School Board President Shelley Arns first met Sohn at Baldwin North and watched as he moved through administrative roles.

“What makes Jim exceptional is not recognition or title but the quiet consistency with which he cared for people,” Arns said. “He stood up for his staff. He put his students first. He listened carefully, thoughtfully and made decisions rooted in what was best for children and the people serving them. At Baldwin, the home of the Flyers, Jim helped his students and staff soar.”

Career milestones included reopening Loraine Elementary while working with the Mendon district and the QPS transition to its five new elementary schools.

“That was a huge moment in the district history book,” Sohn said. “The impact that has, the impact we’re starting to see. That was a huge undertaking.”

Sohn, who graduated from St. Francis and Quincy Notre Dame, intends to stay in Quincy.

“My family’s rooted here,” he said. “I think we’re here for the long haul.”

The love of education runs in the family — his wife Carrie works at the Regional Office of Education, both daughters teach and a son just graduated from John Wood Community College and continues his own education at the University of Indianapolis.

Sohn leaves QPS at a time of transition with new leadership coming in the superintendent’s office.

“The great thing is each building has wonderful leadership. They’re doing what they know,” he said. “Sometimes that superintendent kind of ties everything together, gives us a new direction, new hope and new understanding of where we’re going.”

Baldwin’s incoming leader, Richard Pugh, already has been busy working with Sohn.

“He’ll come in, hang out in the morning, pop in in the afternoon. The kids have seen him, know him. He’s been around. That’s a definite plus,” Sohn said. “We’ve needed to hire a lot of people, a lot of important positions. He’s been with us the whole way.”