Superintendent
Michael D. Lingo is the Superintendent of the Bakersfield City School District (BCSD), which is the largest non-unified pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade district in California. Mr. Lingo is a lifetime resident of Bakersfield and attended Horace Mann Elementary and Sierra Junior High schools. He went on to attend East High School, Bakersfield College and Fresno State University. He returned to the Bakersfield City School District as a teacher in 1970. He came to the Education Center in 1990 as the Supervisor of Employer-Employee Relations and later became the Supervisor of Personnel/Employee-Employer Relations and was appointed Director of Personnel Services in 1995. In 2000, he was appointed to the position of Assistant Superintendent, Business Services. As Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Lingo oversaw all the financial and service aspects of the district outside of instruction, including the departments of Fiscal Service, Payroll, Purchasing, Stores and Warehouse, Information Technology, Duplicating, Transportation, Maintenance, Operations and Facilities.
During this time Mr. Lingo continued to serve as the employer/employee relations expert and handled district negotiations with all represented union groups from 1990 – 2006. In July of 2006, Mr. Lingo was unanimously appointed by the Board of Education to serve as Superintendent. He brings thirty-six years of experience in BCSD to this leadership position.