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Shelton Yip\u2019s dedicated service to young people through projects like Yolo County\u2019s Roadmap to the Future and his selfless desire to improve his community have earned him ACSA\u2019s Robert E. Kelly Award.
Yip works tirelessly to serve youth
November 11, 2024
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Name: Shelton Yip\nAward: Robert E. Kelly Award for Outstanding Community Service\n
Earlier this year, Shelton Yip attended a graduation ceremony at a juvenile detention center.
\nAs a trustee on the Yolo County Board of Education, Yip had pushed for improvements to schools that serve incarcerated youth. Now, he was getting to meet the students who have brighter futures now thanks to education.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it all worth it,\u201d he said. \u201c[I told the students,] you know, this is only the beginning of your journey. And the one thing that no one can take away from you is your education.\u201d
\nSince retiring as Napa County SELPA director in 2016, Yip has continued to serve marginalized youth, including foster youth and students struggling with mental health. This dedicated service to young people and his selfless desire to improve his community have earned him ACSA\u2019s Robert E. Kelly Award for Outstanding Community Service, which is given each year to retired individuals who help advance the high quality of public education through volunteer work.
\n\u201cShelton Yip has no rival,\u201d said Sam Neustadt, in a nomination letter for the award. \u201cHonestly, he works harder as a retiree than when he was gainfully employed. He is better characterized as \u2018re-wired,\u2019 rather than \u2018retired.\u2019\u201d
\nBack when he was a student at UC Davis studying Asian American history, Yip didn\u2019t think he\u2019d become an educator. He wanted to be a community organizer. He said he went into teaching just to survive \u2014 he was a teen parent and had to provide for his young daughter. Yip took jobs as a special education teacher and counselor in Dixon USD just to make ends meet.
\nBut it wasn\u2019t long before greater opportunities presented themselves. He got his first administrative job after an unfortunate accident where his continuation school\u2019s principal was badly injured in a plane crash. The superintendent who tapped Yip for the job had two requests: get credentialed and join ACSA.
\n\u201cThere was no plan of action for me\u201d he said. \u201cWhen a door opens, think about it. If you want to walk through the door, you walk through the door. I must be blessed or something.
\n\u201cOr I\u2019m not the brightest bulb in the pack,\u201d he continues, with his characteristic jovial laugh.
\nThroughout his education career, Yip encountered marginalized youth who he took under his wing. Gang-affiliated youth. Runaways. Youth exposed to family abuse. It\u2019s a theme that has continued into several of his post-retirement pursuits.
\n\u201cThe types of kids that I was seeing, they were kids who were marginalized. People gave up on them,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t give up on them. We worked through it.\u201d
\nIn 2012, Yip was elected to the Yolo County Board of Education. As a trustee, Yip has pushed for the juvenile hall and alternative schools run by the county to be accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, giving these students access to a quality education.
\nFor almost 10 years, Yip has also been on the advisory council for Breaking Barriers, a statewide collaborative of leaders in child-serving organizations that bridges gaps to provide better mental health services for youth. In Yolo County, that effort is known as Roadmap to the Future, a long-term plan that has brought together local leaders to better allocate resources. Yip also helps organize an annual Breaking Barriers symposium where young people and leaders can share ideas on how to improve mental health services.
\nWhile Breaking Barriers impacts young people statewide, Yip has also directly impacted the lives of a handful of foster kids in Yolo County as a court-appointed special advocate. This volunteer role requires him to attend IEP meetings and court proceedings to represent the best interests of foster youth, supporting them through some of the most difficult years of their life.
\nYip can relate to some of these students\u2019 struggles. He didn\u2019t go to kindergarten \u2014 he was working at the family\u2019s two businesses: a Chinese bakery and a shoe store. He learned to count back change to customers at the age of 4. His father died when Yip was 8 years old, leaving his mom to provide for four kids.
\n\u201cHow did I become who I became? I have to go back to Mom. Mom was strong. She was ahead of her time,\u201d Yip said of his mother, who earned an 8th grade diploma at a time when Asian women didn\u2019t do that. \u201cI\u2019m on the shy side of things. But because of all the years of having to take care of things, I had to overcome that.\u201d
\nAnother of Yip\u2019s roles is serving as president of ACSA\u2019s Retirement Committee, where he has been a tireless champion for all administrators. Yip sits on a national task force working to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset \u2014 two federal laws that unfairly reduce or eliminate Social Security income for public sector employees. He also devotes time to ACSA\u2019s Legislative Action Days and with the California School Boards Association, representing his vantage point as an elected official who was once a school administrator.
\n\u201cHe is actually more influential than ever in retirement. Lobbyists are amazed at his access to key staffers they regard as their currency in trade,\u201d Neustadt writes of Yip. \u201cInfluence is a relationship business, and he is all about relationships.\u201d
\nIndeed, Yip has developed many relationships after a 42-year career in education. Former colleagues regularly text him to say hi or ask for advice. He stops to chat with community members on morning walks through his neighborhood. He stays connected with a handful of former students on Facebook and enjoys seeing what they\u2019ve made of their lives.
\nYip says it\u2019s the reason he gets up in the morning. \u201cThat\u2019s the driving part of it,\u201d he said, \u201cI just really do enjoy people.\u201d
![\"AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_0718.jpg\"](\"/image/12786084.1731010772000/AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_0718.webp\"/)
Since retiring as Napa County SELPA director in 2016, Yip has continued to serve marginalized youth, including foster youth and students struggling with mental health.
![\"AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_2548.jpg\"](\"/image/12786086.1731010772000/AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_2548.webp\"/)
Yip has developed many relationships after a 42-year career in education. Former colleagues regularly text him to say hi or ask for advice.
![\"AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_0649.jpg\"](\"/image/12786088.1731010772000/AOY_Special_Yip_IMG_0649.webp\"/)
Shelton Yip with a region recipient of the Every Student Succeeding Award.