Hayes High School’s new assistant principal, Jake Shafer, stands in the Rowland Center Wednesday, where he previously taught math before leaving the district last year to take a position at Olentangy Liberty.
Glenn Battishill | The Gazette
After one year away from the district, Jake Shafer has returned to Hayes High School to serve as its new assistant principal.
Shafer taught math at the school from 2014 until 2023, when he departed to take a position of assistant principal at Olentangy Liberty High School. In May, the Delaware City Schools Board of Education approved his hiring as the new assistant principal at Hayes to take over for Rex Reeder after Reeder was made the school’s principal.
“It feels great. It feels like coming home,” Shafer said Wednesday. “I’ve had a lot of people phrase it that way and that’s really how it feels. I live in Lewis Center, but Delaware has been home for me for a lot of years.”
Shafer said he had “an amazing year” at Olentangy Liberty, he’s excited to return to Hayes.
“I got to work with amazing people and got to meet amazing families and lifelong friends, and I learned a lot that I’ll be able to apply here,” Shafer said. “It’s been really nice. It feels right to be back.”
Shafer said the month he told Hayes students he leaving was “the hardest month” of his career, and said he hoped that he would return to Hayes someday but didn’t know when.
“It was faster than I anticipated,” Shafer laughed. “That was the hardest month of my career but knowing in my heart that this is where I’d end up at some point again … it really does feel great to have fulfilled that. I know that Olentangy is an amazing place. I truly loved it there, but it’s a testament to how special this place is.”
Shafer said this will be his 10th year with the district, and he’s excited to be able to participate in the school’s “exciting programs” like House and standards-based grading as an administrator.
“I’m excited to come back and be on the cutting edge of that stuff as well,” he said. “I am very excited for the increased responsibility. I loved teaching. I miss that. I truly miss that every day, but I’m excited to get into administration because I felt I had things to offer to these programs as a whole. … Things I wanted to share and ways I could support my colleagues in ways that I couldn’t support them as a teacher. It’s different being an administrator in a building where I didn’t know any of the teachers versus now being an administrator in a building where I’ve cared about these people for a decade.”
More than anything, Shafer said he is looking forward to being part of the Delaware community again.
“I just love this community so much,” Shafer said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to; Delaware as a whole. The community we have among the staff and students here is something I feel like I was a part of for so long. … Being away from it was hard. I’m excited to be back in the community. I’m excited to be home. It was hard for me to not be an active member of this community because I care about it so much. … It’s good to be back.”
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
