A glimpse into the new staff at Hayes
McKenna Shireman
McKenna Shireman is a science teacher, currently covering chemistry and physical science classes. She is also a Hayes graduate herself.
“I graduated from here in 2019,” Shireman said. “It was honestly something that I had been just checking the job board all the time the past two years to see if there would ever be an opening.”
For many students at Hayes, the sentiment of a teacher who was a former student is familiar. Teachers across the building are Hayes graduates, often returning in a way that seems mystifying to their students. However, the high rate of coming back is not without reason.
“So I [have taught] all over the place, and Hayes is by far the most supportive, by admin, other teachers, students, everybody’s been wonderful,” Shireman said.
Shireman is in her third year of teaching, with previous experience at Pickerington High School Central.
Other than the work environment and the familiar space, Shireman has more specific reasons to stay in town.
“My husband, Zach, also went here,” Shireman said. “We are, I guess, technically, middle school sweethearts, but nobody really says that.”
As a further part of the family connection, Shireman’s sister-in-law is also a current student at Hayes, giving them a chance to see each other more often. Overall, Hayes is a comfortable environment for a returning student and resident.
In her free time, Shireman enjoys working with plants and their propagation and going out with friends and family to get coffee. Currently, she’s devoted to the project of bringing more plants to her classroom.
“I spend so much of my day in here, I want it to feel like me, because it’s a place that I want to be,” Shireman said.
Moving from elementary to high school art, Whitney Farrell is one of the many new faces at Hayes this school year.
After the retirement of former art teacher Jim Bibler, Farrell has stepped up into his position. She will be teaching a variety of classes such as drawing, art appreciation, sculpture and expressive art.
Though new to some, Farrell is recognized by many students because of her previous positions in the Delaware district. She has taught at Smith, Schultz, Woodward and Carlisle over the past 15 years.
“High school was always where I wanted to be,” Farrell said. Starting at the elementary level “was like getting your foot in the door, and I would get up [to high school] eventually.”
Farrell said she has enjoyed art from a young age. With the influence of her high school art teacher, she turned her passion into a reality and went to college at Ohio Wesleyan University to pursue becoming an art teacher.
With this inspiration, Farrell said she hopes to “make a fraction of the impact on somebody [like her teacher] had on [her].”
Shifting from the elementary ages to high school is a major change, she said. Instead of using tactics for positive encouragement, like the compliment sandwich, Farrell can take an easier and more direct approach when helping students.
“I have a lot of adjusting to do myself as far as not explaining things to them like they are six and seven,” Farrell said. “I can just be real with these students.”
Alongside giving students feedback, Farrell now will get to see her students every day, compared to only 40 minutes each week.
The classes themselves are staying student specific, meaning students are learning skills and techniques that are centered around personal growth.
Students at Hayes are all required to earn an art credit, however many students enroll in the classes for various reasons.
“Everybody’s walking in here with a different skill set and different goals,” Farrell said. “As long as I am seeing growth, we are in a good place.”
Overall, many students view the art classes as relaxing courses.
“It is just nice to sit down and not have to worry about homework or notes,” junior Tessa Zolman said. “The atmosphere [is] pretty chill.”
In her spare time, Farrell said she enjoys walks with her dogs, gardening, puzzles, weekend walks with family and reading.
“My elementary [teaching] days were so chaotic,” Farrell said. “I gravitated towards calmer activities.”
Outside of the school year, Farrell likes to travel. She has explored multiple countries, like Finland, alongside her husband and daughter.
Even though she is in a new place with a new age group of students, Farrell said that she remains focused on seeing students grow in their knowledge and appreciation of art.
“Seeing that lightbulb moment with students is the best thing ever,” Farrell said.
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.”
At the end of the 2024-25 school year, Hayes High School’s choir director Dara Gillis retired after 23 years of teaching. Her expertise can be seen in years of superior ratings, exquisite concert performances, and professional-looking musicals from Hayes.
Stepping into Gillis’ position is another greatly experienced choral director, Tracy Cinereski. Because she is a piano major and has previously taught at an elementary and middle school level, she is beyond qualified for the job.
Even with years of experience, starting in a new position is a daunting task for anyone.
“I have the benefit of stepping in behind Dr. Gillis, who has done a tremendous amount of work already that I don’t need to do,” Cinereski said.
“The students are so capable,” assistant choir director Abby Jenkins said.
Gillis left her students with astounding skill sets, making them ready to take on any challenges they may face in choir going forward. The students are so excited to work with a new director to further develop their skills and make new music together.
After having worked with Gillis for four years, Jenkins is learning to work with someone new.
“Co-teaching is kind of unusual and we’re really lucky to be able to do it,” she said.
The pair work well together and students can tell they put in a lot of effort for the betterment of the choirs.
Additionally, because most of the choirs at Hayes are auditioned, the passion for singing is already well established.
“When you have a room full of students who actively made a choice to be somewhere, that changes the entire attitude of the class,” Cinereski said.
The school’s show choir, Hayes Singers, consists of twenty of the most passionate singers the school has to offer. These students have to audition twice to make their way into the group. Hayes Singers has many unique traditions, some more than 50 years old, that members look forward to.
Entering her 7th year of choir, Hayes Singers president Violet Weber said that she was a little bit nervous some traditions may not continue with a new director.
“I have spent 75% of my years in choir with Dr. Gillis,” so she was wondering what would be different.
Traditions are an integral part of being a Hayes Singer, and none of them will be going away any time soon.
“I respect and honor the traditions we have… hopefully we can just add some new ones along the way as well,” Cinereski said.
In terms of changes to be made, though, Weber pointed out a shift towards more modern pieces as opposed to Dr. Gillis’ predominantly older repertoire. Generally, young singers connect better with contemporary pieces that speak to their own experience or struggles.
Overall, Cinereski aims to build on the excellence of choirs at Hayes, and with so many talented and passionate singers, the program is in good hands.
“When you’re passionate about something, it’s what you have to do,” Cinereski said.
Another resident and graduate of Hayes, Hannah Jarvis is a current biology teacher starting her second year of full-time classroom teaching. She has helped in various roles around different schools, including Woodward Elementary, for the past six years.
If the last name “Jarvis” strikes Hayes students as familiar, it’s likely because of her husband, Tom Jarvis, who is currently a math teacher at the school.
Jarvis shares many of her sentiments about returning to Hayes with Shireman, with both of them being able to return to a place they enjoyed and found comfortable.
“I wanted to come back to where I went to school,” Jarvis said. “I’ve actually had a lot of the teachers that still work here as teachers.”
However, Jarvis still seeks to get away from Delaware at times. Along with her husband and their two children, she enjoys traveling to national parks across the country.
“Mr. Jarvis and I spend all of our summers traveling to national parks,” Jarvis said. “So we have been to almost 230 [of them].”
Out of all the great locations that the national parks provide, the family’s favorite is Yellowstone, which they visit each year.
Ben Brown is a relatively more experienced hire made this year and a completely new face to the district. Currently in his 11th year of teaching, his past 10 were spent in the Marysville district. Here at Hayes, he teaches Modern World History as well as its honors equivalent.
His shift in districts comes partially as a result of a move in 2019, bringing him much closer to Delaware than Marysville.
“[Working at Hayes,] I went from a 35 minute drive every day to being able to walk to school,” Brown said. “So it’s great.”
Aside from the commute times, Brown also has two boys currently in school at Smith Elementary, which encouraged him to find employment within the district. Outside of the more direct personal reasons, Brown holds greater hopes to contribute to his community.
As echoed by the other teachers found in this article, Brown has nothing but praise for the district overall.
“Everyone I’ve ever talked to that’s taught in Delaware has had a great experience,” Brown said. “I’ve talked to [people] that have left here [and] a lot of them end up coming back to teach here because they like it so much.”
Even without the familiarity of returning to a previous school, Brown has found Hayes to be a comfortable and welcoming environment as a staff member. Beyond Delaware, he had one small tidbit to share.
“I actually went to high school with Dr. Shafer,” Brown said. “He graduated the year after me.”
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