The start of the school year has seen a new influx of staff, including an almost completely new administration. This year’s new administrative team includes Dr. Jake Shafer as principal, Adam Haynes as an assistant principal, and Matt Kruthaup as dean of students. Jean Trimble has also remained in her position as an assistant principal.
This is Shafer’s fifteenth year working in education. He taught math at Hayes for over ten years before he became principal. Some older students might recognize him from his AP Calculus or algebra class.
“I made the decision to teach math when I was in high school… I felt like I had an opportunity to be the teacher that I thought I could have used as a student,” Shafer said.
Shafer attended Denison University for his undergraduate degree before continuing his education by getting his masters at University of Cincinnati. He then received his PhD from Concordia University Chicago.
Outside of his lengthy education, he has fun hobbies. He noted that one thing students might not know about him is that he plays guitar at restaurants and used to play football at Denison.
“I play music and sing…. and coached sports for a long time,” Shafer said.
Haynes was also a teacher here at Hayes for over a decade before becoming assistant principal. He taught history and AP Government and Politics and also served as a House dean for Ridge.
“I wanted to learn as much as I could for as long as I could before I decided to enter into this job,” Haynes said. “I’m really appreciative of that because I feel like I have a good grasp of understanding what it’s like to be a classroom teacher, so I can empathize and help in that regard, and also give meaningful feedback to teachers.”
To Haynes, it’s not surprising he has ended up in a leadership role. He has known his trajectory in life for a while now.
“Since [kindergarten] I’ve always wanted to be an educator and I was fortunate enough to know that early on,” Haynes said. “I liked the idea of leadership because I always considered myself to be kind of a natural leader and [I’ve wanted] to learn more about the school operations side of things.”
Unlike the others, Kruthaup didn’t know he wanted to pursue education until later in his life.
“I probably changed my major in college about six or seven times and could not find anything that I loved until one day my dad said, ‘You seem to love coaching for all the same reasons I love teaching. Have you thought about education?’” Kruthaup said. “I don’t think I’ve really looked back ever since.”
Kruthaup’s job involves interacting with students on a daily basis, especially the discipline side of things.
“I hope that the students truly get the idea that my office is always open and I’m here for all of you guys… I don’t look at it as, you know, we’re just handing out discipline. I look at it as how am I helping you,” Kruthaup said.
The trio all seemed to agree on a similar reason for why they chose Hayes: community.
“I care deeply about the students, the staff and our families…I can’t imagine being anywhere else,” Haynes said.
Overall, the new staff is more than ready to step into their roles here.
“What’s special about Hayes I think is the connections that everyone has,” Shafer said. “People in Delaware wrap their arms around each other in a different way than any other building I’ve been to. I have always been so proud to be a member of this community and to be involved in this building.”
